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

УThese,Ф said BТdikkat, pointing to the mutilated children. УOrder a stop on children. Stop it now!Ф He commanded her with the last cry, and she accepted his command. УAnd lady ЦФ He stopped, as if shy.
УYes? Go on.Ф
УLady, I am unable to kill. It is not in my nature. To work, to help, but not to kill. What do I do with these? He gestured at the four motionless children on the floor.
УKeep them,Ф she said. УJust keep them.Ф
УI canТt,Ф he said. УThereТs no way to get off this planet alive. I do not have food for them in the cabin. They will die in a few hours. And governments,Ф he added wisely, Уtake a long, long time to do things.Ф
УCan you give them the medicine?Ф
УNo, it would kill them if I gave them that stuff first before the dromozoa have fortified their bodily processes.Ф
The Lady Johanna Gnade filled the room with tinkling laughter that was very close to weeping. УFools, poor fools, and the more fool I! If super-condamine works only after the dromozoa, what is the purpose of the secret?Ф
BТdikkat rose to his feet, offended. He frowned, but he could not get the words with which to defend himself.
The Lady Da, ex-empress of a fallen empire, addressed the other lady with ceremony and force. УPut them outside, so they will be touched. They will hurt. Have BТdikkat give them the drug as soon as he thinks it safe. I beg your leave, my lady ЕФ
Mercer had to catch her before she fell.
УYouТve all had enough,Ф said the Lady Johanna. УA storm ship with heavily armed troops is on its way to your ferry satellite. They will seize the medical personnel and find out who committed this crime against children.
Mercer dared to speak. УWill you punish the guilty doctor?Ф
УYou speak of punishment,Ф she cried. УYou!Ф
УItТs fair. I was punished for doing wrong. Why shouldnТt he be?Ф
УPunish Ц punish!Ф she said to him. УWe will cure that doctor. And we will cure you too, if we can.Ф
Mercer began to weep. He thought of the oceans of happiness which super-condamine had brought him, forgetting the hideous pain and the deformities on Shayol. Would there be no next needle? He could not guess what life would be like off Shayol. Was there to be no more tender, fatherly BТdikkat coming with his knives?
He lifted his tear-stained face to the Lady Johanna Gnade and choked out the words, УLady, we are all insane in this place. I do not think we want to leave.Ф
She turned her face away, moved by enormous compassion. Her next words were to BТdikkat. УYou are wise and good, even if you are not a human being. Give them all of the drug they can take. The Instrumentality will decide what to do with all of you. I will survey your planet with robot soldiers. Will the robots be safe, cow-man?Ф
BТdikkat did not like the thoughtless name she called him, but he held no offence. УThe robots will be all right, maТam, but the dromozoa will be excited if they cannot feed them and heal them. Send as few as you can. We do not know how the dromozoa live or die.Ф
УAs few as I can,Ф she murmured. She lifted her hand in command to some technician unimaginable distances away. The odourless smoke rose about her and the image was gone.
A shrill cheerful voice spoke up. УI fixed your window,Ф said the customs robot. BТdikkat thanked him absentmindedly. He helped Mercer and the Lady Da into the doorway. When they had gotten outside, they were promptly stung by the dromozoa. It did not matter.
BТdikkat himself, carrying the four children in his two gigantic, tender hands. He lay the slack bodies on the ground near the cabin. He watched as the bodies went into spasm with the onset of the dromozoa. Mercer and the Lady Da saw that his brown cow eyes were rimmed with red and that his huge cheeks were dampened by tears.
Hours or centuries.
Who could tell them apart?
The herd went back to its usual life, except that the intervals between needles were much shorter. The once-commander, Suzdal, refused the needle when he heard the news. Whenever he could walk, he followed the customs robots around as they photographed, took soil samples, and made a count of the bodies. They were particularly interested in the mountain of the Go-Captain Alvarez and professed themselves uncertain as to whether there was organic life there or not. The mountain did appear to react to super-condamine, but they could find no blood, no heartbeat. Moisture, moved by the dromozoa, seemed to have replaced the once-human bodily processes.



V

And then, early one morning, the sky opened.
Ship after ship landed. People emerged, wearing clothes.
The dromozoa ignored the newcomers. Mercer, who was in a state of bliss, confusedly tried to think this through until he realised that the ships were loaded to their skins with communications machines; the СpeopleТ were either robots or images of persons in other places.
The robots swiftly gathered together the herd. Using wheelbarrows, they brought the hundreds of mindless people to the landing area.
Mercer heard a voice he knew. It was the Lady Johanna Gnade. УSet me high,Ф she commanded.
Her form rose until she seemed one-fourth the size of Alvarez. Her voice took on more volume.
УWake them all,Ф she commanded.
Robots moved among them, spraying them with a gas which was both sickening and sweet. Mercer felt his mind go clear. The super-condamine still operated in his nerves and veins, but his cortical area was free of it. He thought clearly.
УI bring you,Ф cried the compassionate feminine voice of the gigantic Lady Johanna, Уthe judgement of the Instrumentality on the planet Shayol.
УItem: the surgical supplies will be maintained and the dromozoa will not be molested. Portions of human bodies will be left here to grow, and the grafts will be collected by robots. Neither man nor homunculus will live here again.
УItem: the underman BТdikkat, of cattle extraction, will be rewarded by an immediate return to Earth. He will be paid twice his expected thousand years of earnings.Ф
The voice of BТdikkat, without amplification, was almost as loud as hers through the amplifier. He shouted his protest, УLady, Lady!Ф
She looked down at him, his enormous body reaching to ankle height on her swirling gown, and said in a very informal tone, УWhat do you want?Ф
УLet me finish my work first,Ф he cried, so that all could hear. УLet me finish taking care of these people.Ф
The specimens who had minds all listened attentively. The brainless ones were trying to dig themselves back into the soft earth of Shayol, using their powerful claws for the purpose. Whenever one began to disappear, a robot seized him by a limb and pulled him out again.
УItem: cephalectomies will be performed on all persons with irrecoverable minds. Their bodies will be left here. Their heads will be taken away and killed as pleasantly as we can manage, probably by an overdosage of super-condamine.Ф
УThe last big jolt,Ф murmured Commander Suzdal, who stood near Mercer. УThatТs fair enough.Ф
УItem: the children have been found to be the last heirs of the Empire. An over-zealous official sent them here to prevent their committing treason when they grew up. The doctor obeyed orders without questioning them. Both the official and the doctor have been cured and their memories of this have been erased, so that they need have no shame or grief for what they have done.Ф
УItТs unfair,Ф cried the half-man. УThey should be punished as we were!Ф