"Timothy Zahn - Manta's Gift" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

"Not bad," Faraday said. "You remember all the essentials, anyway. Now, let's try a real test. Do you
remember the name of the man who finally cracked the Qanskan language code? Or the name of the
two women who compiled the first English/Qanska tonal dictionary?"

Raimey made a face. "You must be joking. Of course not."

"Which is exactly my point," Faraday said. "No one remembers them, at least no one in the general
public. But they were obviously highly important to history."

He smiled again, self-deprecatingly this time. "Far more important than Scotto and I were, to be
perfectly honest. Just as the men who translated the First Immigrants' languages were more
important to the history of the Americas than Christopher Columbus was. But everyone remembers
Columbus and not them. Why? Because he was the first."

"Fine," Raimey said. "I agree; first is good. Now tell me the rest of it."

Faraday pursed his lips. "The Qanska have made us an offer," he said. "We believe it would be
possible for a human to... well, to put it bluntly, to become a Qanska."

Raimey played the words over again in his mind, just to see if he'd actually heard them right. "And
how exactly would this miracle of rebirth happen?" he asked.

"Actually, in exactly that way," Faraday said. "The human volunteer would be inserted into the

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Manta's%20Gift.htm (20 of 298) [10/18/2004 3:39:27 PM]
Manta's Gift

womb of a pregnant female Qanska, where he would be partially absorbed into the fetus and then
'born' into a Qanskan body."

"What about physiology conflicts?" Raimey asked, the very outrageousness of the idea somehow
allowing him to discuss it calmly. Surely Faraday wasn't serious about this. "Qanskan biochemistry
can't possibly be compatible with ours."

"It's not," Faraday conceded. "The volunteer would start out as something of a hybrid: a human brain
and mostly artificial spinal cord melded into a Qanskan body. There would also be a custom-made
system of bioengineered organs that would synthesize nutrients from the Jovian atmosphere to
support that part. Over time, the human elements would be replaced atom by atom, cell by cell, with
the Qanskan equivalents, much the same way as wood petrification occurs. At that point the nutrient
organs would atrophy, and the volunteer would be a true Qanska, only with his original human
personality and memories."

"And how long exactly do they expect this petrification to take?" Raimey asked with a touch of
sarcasm. "A thousand years? Ten thousand? Most of the bioengineered organs I've ever heard of
have about the shelf life of fresh fruit."

"Oh, they're a bit better than that," Faraday assured him. "Especially state-of-the-art military
versions."

Raimey frowned. "Are you saying this would be a Sol/Guard project?"