"E. E. Doc Smith - The Galaxy Primes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

anything she read. Wherefore, when Garlock and his joyous companion reached the great space-ship тАФ
'How come you picked up that little man-eating shark?' she sent, venemously, on a tight band.
'It wasn't a case of picking her up. I haven't been able to find any urbane way of scraping her off. First Contact, you
know.'
'She wants altogether too much Contact for a First - 111 scrap her off even if she is Right the Honorable Grand Lady
Claire Vere de Vere Cabot-Lodge ...' Belle changed her tactics even before Garlock began his reprimand. 'I shouldn't
have stid that, Clee, of course." A light mental laugh came. 'It was just the shock; there wasn't anything in any of my
First Contact tapes covering what to do about beautiful and enticing girls who try to seduce our men. She doesn't
know, though, of course, that she's supposed to be a bug-eyed monster and not human at all. Won't Xenology be in
for a rough ride when we check in? Wow!' And for the rest of the day Belle played flawlessly the role of perfect
hostess.
It was full dark before the Hodellians could be persuaded to leave the Pleiades and the locks were closed.
'I've refused one hundred seventy-eight invitations,' Lola reported then. 'All of us, individually and collectively, have
been invited to eat everything, everywhere in town. To see shows in a dozen different theaters and eighteen night
spots. To dance all night in twenty-one different places, ranging from dives to strictly soup-and-fish. I was nice about
it, of course -just begged off because we were dead from our belts both ways from our long, hard trip. My thought, of
course, is that we'd better eat our own food and take it slowly at first. Check, Clee?'
'On the beam, dead center. And you weren't lying much, either. I feel as though I'd done a day's work. After supper
there's a thing I've got to discuss with all three of you.'
24
Supper was soon over. Then:
'We've got to make a mighty important decision,' Garlock began abruptly. 'Grand Lady Neldine - that title isn't exact,
but close - wondered why I didn't respond at all, either way. However, she didn't make a point of it, and I let her
wonder; but we'll have to decide by tomorrow morning what to do, and it'll have to be airtight. The Hodellians expect
Jim and me to impregnate as many as possible of their highest-rated women before we leave. By then- Code it's
mandatory, since we can't hide the fact that we rate much higher than they do - their highest rating is only Grade Two
by our standards - and all the planets hereabouts upgrade themselves with the highest-grade new blood they can find.
Ordinarily, they'd expect you two girls to become pregnant by your choices of the top men of the planet; but they
know you wouldn't breed down and don't expect you to. But how in all hell can Jim and I refuse to breed them up
without dealing out the deadliest insult they know?'
There was a minute of silence. 'We can't,' James said then. A grin began to spread over his face. 'It might not be too
bad an idea, at that, come to think of it. That ball of fire they picked out for you would be a blue-ribbon dish in
anybody's cookbook. And Grand Lady Lemphi - wow!'
'Is that nice, you back-alley tomcat?' Belle asked plaintively. Then she paused in thought and went on slowly. 'I won't
pretend to like it, but I won't do any public screaming about it'
'Any anthropologist would say you'll have to,' Lola declared without hesitation. 'I don't like it, either. I think it's
horrible; but it's excellent genetics and we cannot and must not violate systems-wide mores.'
'You're all missing the point! Garlock snapped. He got up. jammed his hands into his pockets, and began to pace the
floor. 'I didn't think any one of you was that stupid! If that was all there were to it we'd do it as a matter of course.
But think, damn it! There's nothing higher than Gunther Two in the humanity of this planet. Telepathy is the only
ESP they have. High Gunther uses hitherto unused portions of the brain. It's transmitted through genes, which are
dominant, cumulative, and self-multiplying by interaction. Jim and I carry more, stronger, and higher Gunther genes
than any other two
25
men known to live. Can we take the chance of planting such genes where none have ever been known before?'
'My God .''said Belle.
Then there were two full minutes of silence.
That one has really got a bone in it,' James said, unhelpfully.
Three minutes more of silence.
'It's up to you, Lola,' Garlock said then. 'It's your field.'