"Sarah Zettel - Kingdom of Cages" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zettel Sarah)

тАЬItтАЩs bad enough that we will be enabling the colonists to continue to
destroy the natural and native life of their worlds. We will not turn our
own hands to that destruction, any more than we would begin to destroy
Pandora.тАЭ
Which meant only one thing. If the worlds could not be changed, the
humans will have to be.
тАЬI had hoped to get to bed early.тАЭ Basante stepped forward. тАЬBut this is
urgent.тАЭ
Without warning to be invited, he pressed his palm over the back of
TamтАЩs hand. Tam glared at him. He also, however, looked at the back of
his hand to see what data had been transferred to the display.
The miniature screen shone with the colored lines that made up a gene
scan. TamтАЩs practiced eye read it as clearly as if it had been the
alphabet, and he felt his eyebrows rise.
Tam looked up from the scan. тАЬIs this one of ours?тАЭ
тАЬNot yet,тАЭ said Basante. He had a grin on his face, as if he had
produced the gene alleles by himself from a dish in his lab. тАЬSheтАЩs being
processed for immigration right now.тАЭ
Tam felt his mouth tighten into a frown. Basante's enthusiasms were
reason for caution. As of this afternoon, his project, the Eden Project,
had suddenly become the chosen means of curing the Diversity Crisis.
However, Basante, like the other experimenters, was too apt to see the
subjects of his experiments as spare parts and forget that they were as
human as the family. "Have we asked her to volunteer for the project
yet?"
"Do you want to take the chance she'll say no?" Basante actually looked
surprised.
Tam's frown deepened and his gaze turned sour. Recognizing that a
negative answer was on the way, Basante held up his hand. "Normally
I'd agree with you." Basante had sat with Tam in history lessons. He
knew that even villagers could be pushed too far, and this woman was a
stationer. "But this one is too important," Basante barreled on, gesturing
to the gene scan. "She's within three or four points of perfection. We've
been having the Authority sweep the Called for this configuration, and
here she is, practically delivered to us."
Tam ran a thumb over the back of his hand, wiping the scan from his
display. "We will ask her to enter voluntarily. We can make a good
offer. But we will let her immigrate no matter what she says."
"And if she does say no?" Basante folded his hands behind his back.
"Then at least she's down here with us, and about to have all the usual
problems station people have in the villages. We will make our offer
again." Tam turned away, then he turned back again. "If I find out you
or anyone else has forced her into the project, I'll have you standing up
to explain yourself before the family, including Senior Committee."
Tam walked away from the windows and through the connector hallway,
with its aquarium walls. Sunfish and koi looked briefly out at him
between green clouds of algae and then went about their own business.
He hoped he had been clear enough. With Basante, one never knew.
Outside, I wouldn't have to worry about any of this, he thought, before
he could stop himself. The guilt rose, and must have tasted familiar to