"Kate Wilhelm - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

console and began to type. Another woman in the room didnтАЩt seem to be aware that anyone had come
in. Hilda. CeliaтАЩs aunt. David glanced at Celia, but she was staring wide-eyed at the tanks, and
in this room the tanks were glass-fronted. Each was filled with a pale liquid, a yellow so faint
that the color seemed almost illusory. Within the tanks, floating in the liquid, were sacs, no
larger than small fists. Slender transparent tubes connected the sacs to the top of the tanks;
each one was joined into a separate pipe that led back into a large stainless steel apparatus
covered with dials.
Celia walked slowly down the aisle between the tanks, stopped once midway, and didnтАЩt move
again for a long time. David took her arm. She was trembling slightly.
тАЬAre you all right?тАЭ
She nodded. тАЬI . . . itтАЩs a shock, seeing them. I . . . maybe I didnтАЩt quite believe it.тАЭ
There was a film of perspiration on her face.
тАЬBetter take off the coat now,тАЭ David said. тАЬWe have to keep it pretty warm in here. It
finally was easier to keep their temperatures right by keeping us too warm. The price we pay,тАЭ he
said, smiling slightly.
тАЬAll the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity?тАЭ
He nodded. тАЬThatтАЩll be our tour tomorrow. Like everything else around here, the generating
system has bugs in it. We can store enough power for no longer than six hours, and we just donтАЩt
let it go out for more than six hours. Period.тАЭ
тАЬSix hours is a lot. If you stop breathing for six minutes, youтАЩre dead.тАЭ With her hands
clasped behind her, she stepped closer to the shiny control system at the end of the room. тАЬThis
isnтАЩt the computer. What is it?тАЭ
тАЬItтАЩs a computer terminal. The computer controls the input of nutrients and oxygen, and the
output of toxins. The animal room is on the other side of that wall. Those tanks are linked to it,
too. Separate set of systems, but the same machinery.тАЭ
They went through the nursery for the animals, and then the nursery for the human babies.
There was the dissection room, several small offices where the scientists could withdraw to work,
the stockrooms. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown, people were
working. тАЬThey never used a Bunsen burner or a test tube before, but they have become scientists
and technicians practically overnight,тАЭ David said. тАЬAnd thank God for that, or it never would
have worked. I donтАЩt know what they think weтАЩre doing now, but they donтАЩt ask questions. They just
do their jobs.тАЭ
Walt assigned Celia to work under Vlasic. Whenever David looked up to see her in the
laboratory, he felt a stab of joy. She increased her workday to six hours. When David fell into
bed exhausted after fourteen or sixteen hours, she was there to hold him and love him.
In August, Avery Handley reported that his shortwave contact in Richmond warned of a band of
marauders who were working their way up the valley. тАЬTheyтАЩre bad,тАЭ he said gravely. тАЬThey took
over the PhillottsтАЩ place, ransacked it, and then burned it to the ground.тАЭ
After that they kept guards posted day and night. And that same week Avery announced that
there was war in the Middle East. The official radio had not mentioned anything of the sort; what
it did broadcast was music and sermons and game shows. Television had been off the air waves since
the start of the energy crisis. тАЬTheyтАЩre using the bomb,тАЭ Avery said. тАЬDonтАЩt know who, but someone
is. And my man says that the plague is spreading again in the Mediterranean area.тАЭ
In September they fought off the first attack. In October they learned the band was grouping
for a second attack, this time with thirty to forty men. тАЬWe canтАЩt keep fighting them off,тАЭ Walt
said. тАЬThey must know we have food here. TheyтАЩll come from all directions this time. They know
weтАЩre watching for them.тАЭ
тАЬWe should blow up the dam,тАЭ Clarence said. тАЬWait until theyтАЩre in the upper valley and
flood them out.тАЭ
The meeting was being held in the cafeteria, with everyone present. CeliaтАЩs hand tightened