"Ian Watson - Cages" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

ThereтАЩs a terrestrial parasite named Varroa, which sucks the blood of
our terrestrial bees. This enfeebles the bees. So they collect less pollen.
So less honey gets made. After a few months, bye-bye hive. The Varroa
and their hoops certainly impair human beings, so the name sticks.

The Varroa could be robots made by aliens (hith-erto unseen), sent
through the hoops to impair us and assess the effects.

Those hypothetical aliens might be:

softening us up for the real invasionтАФhowever, some ethics
committee of alien races disapproves of brutal methods and awards
Brownie points for ingenuity;

making sex difficult so weтАЩll slowly go extinct; the birth rate is scarily
down, vacant planet in another couple of centuries at the present rate (see
invasion scenario, above);

hampering us so that we donтАЩt get above our-selves by suddenly
making some scientific breakthrough such as developing interstellar trav-el
and causing mayhem;

practicing an art form;

fill in your own guess. .

Many countries have sent smart little spy-flyers through hoops, though
here in London we know of none that ever returned or transmitted any data
back. SETI specialistsтАФSearchers for Extraterres-trial IntelligenceтАФtry in
vain to analyze the Varroa noise and communicate. EverythingтАЩs
guesswork. Now hereтАЩs a different tackтАФthe Kore people are going to carry
out an innovative and maybe con-frontational musical experiment. If they
strike gold, wow. LetтАЩs not spoil the spontaneity of the experi-ment.
Sometimes there can be too much consultation. WeтАЩll simply observe it, me
and my Serbian who intrigues meтАФand of course weтАЩll need someone to
video unobtrusively so we have audiovisual for the record. ThisтАЩll be on my
own initiative. Hell, itтАЩs only a music group. Nothing might come of this, then
IтАЩd be wasting resources, right?

Before the hoops came and my left knee was caged, I was mainly
liaising with the French securi-ty service about the Islamic terrorist threat.
ThatтАЩs how I met Miriam Claudel, six years ago now. That ended, and for
the past two years thereтАЩs been no one else. I much prefer relationships to
arise in the natural course of events rather than to go hunting.

****

тАЬTHE STUDIOтАЭ IS the name for a nineteenth-century vicarage in Lambeth,
converted and extended into a nursing home, which subsequently went
bankrupt. With mucho money from American and Euro tours and a zillion