"Rajnar Vajra - Passing the Arboli Test" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vajra Rajnar)

 She waited, hand on the doorknob. "Why? What is it?"
"Five people have lost their minds here already. What do you think
happened to them?"
She frowned. "I don't know. I guess they ... failed the Test."
"Hardly. The so-called Test was too damn easy. I bet every one of them
passed, but failed the _real_ test. What do you think would happen to someone
with total recall who suddenly absorbs the _entire_ knowledge of an advanced
species?"
Tina was gazing at me with a facial expression I didn't understand:
radiant approval.
"I'm afraid these Tree-people," I said a bit uncertainly, "are a race
of real bastards. Water-Holder, old chap, we'll take the brown mushrooms and
the five hundred bucks."
The Arboli raised four or five branches excitedly. "Fertile soil! You
have justified much hard work!"
Now, I felt completely off balance. "You're not disappointed we didn't
go the way of your other victims?" A nasty thought occurred to me: these
aliens might have other means of getting rid of humans who passed the Arboli
Test....
"There were no other victims, Dr. Carter."
"What? What about the five geniuses who are brain-dead, or just plain
dead because of your little game?"
"A useful fiction agreed to by your government. Symbols made manifest.
Drink twice, friend! Why would we seek to test anyone with a lower Profile
than yours? Only beings such as you could tell us what we need to know."
Implications were pouring down like rain. "So Tina has a high Profile?"
"Tina is also a useful fiction, a manifested symbol. As are your knife
wounds." I turned my eyes toward my female ally and watched in shock as she
faded out, smiling.
"Jesus Christ! What the hell?"
"You have truly passed our Test."
"Wait. Wait! You must have based Tina on someone real. You couldn't
have just ... made up somebody that believable."
"It was you who created her with small assistance from this self and
others. Don't you recognize her? Even an Arboli could see she was a small,
female version of you. Your buried root."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Perhaps your sun will shine on a day when you drink this. For now, be
content. You are the human we have used to judge your species, and you have
grown well."
I was furious. "For God's sake! You blew it when you chose me! As a
human being, I'm a crappy specimen. For the past three years, I've done
nothing but lie and cheat. If I 'passed' your quiz, it was an accident. You
had no right to use me as a -- "
"What do you think the Profile told us? Your tracks on our paper
carpet, the food-fragments on your plate, and the red sap on the water-room
floor all wrote an identical message."
"Hold on! How the hell could you take a picture of blood from imaginary
wounds?"
"Not imaginary. _Illusory_. The illusion of your sap had fallen where