"Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars 3 - Green Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

had remained behind every time. Children had a better chance of recovery than adults, as the leukemia
entry made clear. But with the aging treatments and the marrow transfusions he was sure to get well. It
was just a matter of time and of giving. The treatments cured everything in the end.

тАЬWe need a bioreactor,тАЭ Ursula said to Vlad. They were working on converting one of the ectogene
tanks into one, packing it with spongy animal collagen and inoculating it with cells from NirgalтАЩs marrow,
hoping to generate an array of lymphocytes, macrophages, and granulocytes. But they didnтАЩt have the
circulatory system working right, or perhaps it was the matrix, they werenтАЩt sure. Nirgal remained their
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living bioreactor.

Sax was teaching them soil chemistry during the mornings when he was teacher, and he even took them
out of the schoolroom occasionally to work in the soil labs, introducing biomass to the sand and then
wheelbarrowing it to the greenhouses or the beach. It was fun work, but it tended to pass through Nirgal
as if he were asleep. He would catch sight of Simon outside, stubbornly taking a walk, and he would
forget whatever they were doing.

Despite the treatments SimonтАЩs steps were slow and stiff. He walked bowlegged, in fact, his legs
swinging forward with very little bend to them. Once Nirgal caught up to him and stood beside him on the
last dune before the beach. Sandpipers were charging up and down the wet strand, chased by white
tapestries of foaming water. Simon pointed at the herd of black sheep, cropping grass between dunes.
His arm rose like a bamboo crossbar. The sheepтАЩs frosted breath poured onto the grass.

Simon said something that Nirgal didnтАЩt catch; his lips were stiff now, and some words he was finding
hard to pronounce. Perhaps it was this that was making him quieter than ever. Now he tried again, and
then again, but no matter how hard he tried, Nirgal couldnтАЩt guess what he was saying. Finally Simon
gave up trying and shrugged, and they were left looking at each other, mute and helpless.



When Nirgal played with the other kids, they both took him in and kept their distance, so that he moved
in a kind of circle. Sax admonished him mildly for his absentmindedness in class. тАЬConcentrate on the
moment,тАЭ he would say, forcing Nirgal to recite the loops of the nitrogen cycle, or to shove his hands
deep into the wet black soil they were working on, instructing him to knead it, to break up the long
strings of diatom blooms, and the fungi and lichen and algae and all the invisible microbacteria they had
grown, to distribute them through the rusty clods of grit. тАЬGet it distributed as regularly as possible. Pay
attention, thatтАЩs it. Nothing but this. Thisness is a very important quality. Look at the structures on the
microscope screen. That clear one like a rice grain is a chemolith-otroph, Thiobacillus denitrificans. And
thereтАЩs a chunk of sulphides. Now what will result when the former eats the latter?тАЭ

тАЬIt oxidizes the sulphur.тАЭ

тАЬAnd?тАЭ

тАЬAnd denitrifies.тАЭ