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

'I was afraid of that. There's a way. Personally, I like it less even than the other, but it's the only one I've been able to
think up. First, are you absolutely sure that our refusal - Belle's and mine, I mean - to breed down will be valid with
them?'
'Positive.'
Then the whole society from which we come will have to be strictly monogamous, in the narrowest, most literal
sense of the term. No exceptions whatever. Adultery, anything illicit, has always been not only unimaginable, but in
fact impossible. We pair - or marry, or whatever they do here - once only. For life. Desire and potency can exist only
within the pair; never outside it. Like eagles. If a man's wife dies, even, he loses all desire and all potency. That
would make it physically impossible for you two to follow the Hodellian Code. You'd both be completely impotent
with any women whatever except your mates - Belle and me.'
'That will work,' Belle said. 'How it will work!' She paused. Then, suddenly, she laughed - the rich, full-throated
laugh which so few women ever allow themselves. 'But do you know what you've done, Lola?'
'Nothing, except suggest a solution. What so funny about that?'
'You're wonderful, Lola - simply priceless! You've created something brand-new to science - an impotent tomcat!
And the more I think about it тАФ' Belle was rocking back and forth with laughter. She could not possibly talk, but her
thought flowed on: 'An impotent tomcat, and he'll have to stay true to me - oh, this is simply killing me!'
'It does put us on the spot - especially Jim,' came Oarlock's thought.
He, too, began to laugh; and Lola, as soon as she stopped thinking about the thing only as a problem in anthropology,
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joined in. James, however, did not think it was very funny.
'And that's less than half of it!' Belle went on. 'Think of Clee, Lola. Six two - over two hundred - hard as nails - a
perfect hunk of man telling this whole damn cockeyed region of space that he's impotent, too! And with a perfectly
straight face! And it ties in so beautifully with his making no response, yes or no, when she propositioned him. The
poor, innocent, impotent lamb just simply didn't have even the faintest inkling of what she meant!'
'Listen - listen - LISTEN!' James managed finally to break in. 'Not that I want to be promiscuous, but тАФ'
'Oh, don't worry,' Belle soothed him, speaking aloud but with a still-unsteady voice as she held down her mirth. 'Us
Earthgirls will take care of you two, see if we don't. You won't need any nasty little...' Belle could not hold the pose;
she went off again into whoops of laughter.
'Shut up, will you, and listen!' James roared aloud. There ought to be some better way than that.'
'Better? Than sheer perfection?'
'If you can think of one, Jim, the meeting is still open,' said Garlock. 'But it'll have to be a dilly. I'm not exactly
enamored of Lola's idea, either, but as the answer it's one hundred percent to as many decimal places as you want to
take time to write zeroes.'
There was more talk, but no improvement could be made upon Lola's idea.
'Well, we've got until morning,' Garlock said, finally. 'If anybody comes up with anything by then, let me know. If
not, it goes into effect the minute we open the locks. The meeting is adjourned.'
Belle and James left the room; and, a few minutes later, Garlock went out. Lola followed him into his room and
closed the door behind her. She sat down on the edge of a chair, lighted a cigarette, and began to smoke in short,
nervous puffs. She opened her mouth to say something, but shut it without making a sound.
'You're afraid of me, Lola?' he asked, quietly.
'Oh, I don't... Well, that is ...' She wouldn't lie, and she wouldn't admit the truth. 'You see, I've never ... had very
much experience.'
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'You needn't be afraid of me at all. I'm not going to pair with you.'
'You're not?' Her mouth dropped open and the cigarete fell out of it. She took a few seconds to recover it. 'Why not?
Don't you think I could do a good enough job?'
She stood up and stretched, to show her splendid figure to its best advantage.
Garlock laughed. 'Nothing like that, Lola; you have plenty of sex appeal. It's just that I don't like the conditions. I
never have paired. I never had had much to do with women, and that little has been urbane, logical, and strictly en
passant; on the level of mutual physical desire. And I've never taken a virgin. Pairing with one is very definitely not