"Cordwainer Smith - A Planet Named Shayol" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Cordwainer)

A PLANET NAMED SHAYOL

by

Cordwainer Smith



I

There was a tremendous difference between the liner and the ferry in MercerТs treatment. On the liner, the attendants made gibes when they brought him his food.
УScream good and loud,Ф said one rat-faced steward, Уand then weТll know itТs you when they broadcast the sounds of punishment on the EmperorТs birthday.Ф
The other fat steward ran the tip of his wet red tongue over his thick purple-red lips one time and said, УStands to reason, man. If you hurt all the time, the whole lot of you would die. Something pretty good must happen, along with the whatchamacallit. Maybe you turn into a woman. Maybe you turn into two people. Listen, cousin, if itТs really crazy fun, let me know ЕФ Mercer said nothing. Mercer had enough troubles of his own not to wonder about the daydreams of nasty men.
At the ferry it was different. The biopharmaceutical staff was deft, impersonal, quick in removing his shackles. They took off all his prison clothes and left them on the liner. When he boarded the ferry, naked, they looked him over as if he were a rare plant or a body on the operating table. They were almost kind in the clinical deftness of their touch. They did not treat him as a criminal, but as a specimen.
Men and women, clad in their medical smocks, they looked at him as though he were already dead.
He tried to speak. A man, older and more authoritative than the others, said firmly and clearly, УDo not worry about talking. I will talk to you myself in a very little time. What we are having now are the preliminaries, to determine your physical condition. Turn around, please.Ф
Mercer turned around. An orderly rubbed his back with a very strong antiseptic.
УThis is going to sting,Ф said one of the technicians, Уbut it is nothing serious or painful. We are determining the toughness of the different layers of your skin.Ф
Mercer, annoyed by this impersonal approach, spoke up just as a sharp little sting burned him above the sixth lumbar vertebra. УDonТt you know who I am?Ф
УOf course we know who you are,Ф said a womanТs voice. УWe have it all in a file in the corner. The chief doctor will talk about your crime later, if you want to talk about it. Keep quiet now. We are making a skin test, and you will feel much better if you do not make us prolong it.Ф
Honesty forced her to add another sentence: УAnd we will get better results as well.Ф
They had lost no time at all in getting to work.
He peered at them sidewise to look at them. There was nothing about them to indicate that they were human devils in the antechambers of hell itself. Nothing was there to indicate that this was the satellite of Shayol, the final and uttermost place of chastisement and shame. They looked like medical people from his life before he committed the crime without a name.
They changed from one routine to another. A woman, wearing a surgical mask, waved her hand at a white table.
УClimb up on that, please.Ф
No one had said УpleaseФ to Mercer since the guards had seized him at the edge of the palace. He started to obey her and then he saw that there were padded handcuffs at the head of the table. He stopped.
УGet along, please,Ф she demanded. Two or three of the others turned around to look at both of them.
The second УpleaseФ shook him. He had to speak. These were people, and he was a person again. He felt his voice rising, almost cracking into shrillness as he asked her, УPlease maТam, is the punishment going to begin?Ф
УThereТs no punishment here,Ф said the woman. УThis is the satellite. Get on the table. WeТre going to give you your first skin-toughening before you talk to the head doctor. Then you can tell him all about your crime ЦФ
УYou know my crime?Ф he said, greeting it almost like a neighbour.
УOf course not,Ф said she, Уbut all the people who come through here are believed to have committed crimes. Somebody thinks so or they wouldnТt be here. Most of them want to talk about their personal crimes. But donТt slow me down. IТm a skin technician, and down on the surface of Shayol youТre going to need the very best work that any of us can do for you. Now get on that table. And when you are ready to talk to the chief youТll have something to talk about besides your crime.Ф
He complied.
Another masked person, probably a girl, took his hands in cool, gentle fingers and fitted them to the padded cuffs in a way he had never sensed before. By now he thought he knew every interrogation machine in the whole empire, but this was nothing like any of them.
The orderly stepped back. УAll clear, sir and doctor.Ф
УWhich do you prefer?Ф said the skin technician. УA great deal of pain or a couple of hoursТ unconsciousness?Ф
УWhy should I want pain?Ф said Mercer.
УSome specimens do,Ф said the technician, Уby the time they arrive here. I suppose it depends on what people have done to them before they got here. I take it you did not get any of the dream-punishments.Ф
УNo,Ф said Mercer. УI missed those.Ф He thought to himself, I didnТt know that I missed anything at all.
He remembered his last trial, himself wired and plugged in to the witness stand. The room had been high and dark. Bright blue light shone on the panel of judges, their judicial caps a fantastic parody of the episcopal mitres of long, long ago. The judges were talking, but he could not hear them. Momentarily the insulation slipped and he heard one of them say, УLook at that white, devilish face. A man like that is guilty of everything. I vote for Pain Terminal.Ф УNot Planet Shayol?Ф said a second voice. УThe dromozoa place,Ф said a third voice. УThat should suit him,Ф said the first voice. One of the judicial engineers must then have noticed that the prisoner was listening illegally. He was cut off. Mercer then thought that he had gone through everything which the cruelty and intelligence of mankind could devise.
But this woman said he had missed the dream-punishments. Could there be people in the universe even worse off than himself? There must be a lot of people down on Shayol. They never came back.
He was going to be one of them; would they boast to him of what they had done, before they were made to come to this place?
УYou asked for it,Ф said the woman technician. УIt is just an ordinary anaesthetic. DonТt panic when you awaken. Your skin is going to be thickened and strengthened chemically and biologically.Ф
УDoes it hurt?Ф
УOf course,Ф said she. УBut get this out of your head. WeТre not punishing you. The pain here is just ordinary medical pain. Anybody might get it if they needed a lot of surgery. The punishment, if thatТs what you want to call it, is down on Shayol. Our only job is to make sure that you are fit to survive after you are landed. In a way, we are saving your life ahead of time. You can be grateful for that if you want to be. Meanwhile, you will save yourself a lot of trouble if you realise that your nerve endings will all respond to the change in the skin. You had better expect to be very uncomfortable when you recover. But then, we can help that, too.Ф She brought down an enormous lever and Mercer blacked out.

When he came to, he was in an ordinary hospital room, but he did not notice it. He seemed bedded in fire. He lifted his hand to see if there were flames on it. It looked the way it always had, except that it was a little red and a little swollen. He tried to turn in the bed. The fire became a scorching blast which stopped him in mid-turn. Uncontrollably, he moaned.
A voice spoke, УYou are ready for some pain-killer.Ф
It was a girl nurse. УHold your head still,Ф she said, Уand I will give you half an amp of pleasure. Your skin wonТt bother you then.Ф
She slipped a soft cap on his head. It looked like metal but it felt like silk.
He had to dig his fingernails into his palms to keep from threshing about on the bed.