"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 12 - Eloise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

"Be seated." Nequal stepped towards them, his thin hand
extended in greeting. Two were old, two diseased, their bodies
bloated in grotesque proportions; the other twitched with an
uncontrollable affliction of the nerves. Nequal studied him for a
moment, but the eyes were clear and the man would never have
been passed by the physicians had his mind been affected. "You,
all of you, are welcome."

They bowed where they sat, brief inclinations of their heads,
then straightened as they looked at the tall figure of their master.
He was old, for men do not achieve great power without waiting,
and lean, for a thin body was more efficient than one soft with
killing tissue. His face was set in a mask of impassivity; the head
hairless, skull like. the contours relieved only by the glowing
intelligence of his deep-set eyes. On his breast, as on the breasts
of them all, the great seal of the Cyclan glowed with reflected
light. Like them all, he had long ago accepted the truth of the
creed which dominated their lives.

The body was nothing but a receptacle for intelligence.
Emotion was to be decried, eliminated by training and surgery;
the severance of certain nerves leading to the thalamus when
young, the operation which left every cyber the living equivalent
of a machine, able to find pleasure only in mental achievement.
But none counted it as a loss. Only the mind counted, the
sharpening of the intelligence, the cultivation of the pure light of
reason and inexorable logic.

Traits which made every cyber able to take a handful of facts
and build from them the most probable sequence of events. To
extrapolate the result of every action and course of conduct. To
make predictions so accurate that, at times, it seemed they could
actually read the future. A service for which rulers and worlds
were willing to pay far more than they guessed.

"You have worked well," said Nequal in his trained
modulation. A voice carefully devoid of all irritating factors.
"Your dedication, skill and application have earned you the
highest reward it is possible for any of us to know. I shall not
keep you from it." He gestured at the attendants. "Go now.
Almost I envy you."

But there was no need for envy, even if he could have felt the
emotion. He, all of them, every cyber who reached old age or
imminent death, all who had proved themselves; all would take
the same path as the attendants now prepared for the five.

First they would be shown the great halls, the endless
passages and vaulted chambers gouged from the living rock far