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

his implant. He'd been giving it a lot of practice lately.
Earth, his Conscience said. I want you to think about what happened
to Earth.
Then it seemed to Tam he smelled ozone and sulfur, and everything he
had ever learned about Earth came flooding back to him. Earth, the
birthplace of humanity, with its endless sprawl of buildings tied together
with roads and tubes and rails, its red tides, and rivers that ran slick and
hot with waste from the power generators and factories. He remembered
studying the diagrams of the water processors and the earth processors
and the people in their protected habitats, and all the vast machinery that
was needed to ensure the continuance of human life on a world where
the only green left was the miles and miles of corn and soybean fields
that fed all those people.
He remembered the video composites of the people in their boxlike
homes, taking their medicines and monitoring their blood chemistry and
receiving news reports about the latest longevity discoveries and
treatments and the progress that was being made in reseeding the oceans
with fresh kelp to help create more oxygen for them to breathe during
their long, propped-up lives, which had destroyed the world they did not
understand. Around them, that same world struggled not to die, while its
oblivious children lived on in shells of stone, bacteria, and artificial
gardens.
"But is it true?" murmured Tam to the memories and his Conscience as
he took a deep, steadying breath. It was hard to ask the question, but he
had to. Without it, he would just accept, which was the one thing he
could not do. If he did, it would mean everything his parents had tried to
do for him and for Pandora was over. It would make him worse than his
birth sister Dionte, with her scheming and her excesses. "Or is it just
what you and I are supposed to believe?"
It is true, answered his Conscience. You know it is true.
"Yes," Tam breathed with a sigh. It was the approved answer. It would
shut his Conscience up and give him time to think for himself.
Satisfied, the implant lapsed into silence, and Tam started walking again,
hands folded behind himself, trying to be content with the sight of fish
on the one side and drooping ferns on the other.
Once, the Conscience implants had just been communication devices
connected to personal data displays. They accepted subvocalized
commands, monitored physical health, and assisted with data reduction
and sorting. They followed the orders of the ones who carried them. But
that was long ago, and now they were also personal guardians, making
sure all members of the family remembered who they were and what they
owed to their family, and to Pandora.
With room in his head to think his own thoughts again, Tam turned back
to his conversation with Basante. It was very clear that Basante wanted
this immigrant woman in the experiment wing. He probably wanted her in
the involuntary wing, where he wouldn't have to bother explaining things
to her.
Tam wondered abruptly if Dionte knew about this woman. Probably.
Basante was wedged very tightly into her plans and saw very much
through her eyes.