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

indication. His place was at the head of the long, low conference table
and his wrinkled, oak-colored hands rested lightly on its polished
surface. The fatherтАЩs entire manner spoke of cool resolution, and Tam
wished he could copy it. HeтАЩd embarrass everyone if they caught him
shifting his weight like he wanted to.
тАЬIf the rest of the colonized worlds cannot take care of their planets or
their people, thenтАжтАЭ Father Mihran dropped his gaze and waved one
graceful hand.
тАЬThen they deserve whatever happens to them?тАЭ asked Commander
Poulos, her voice as suddenly full of poison as her gaze. тАЬIs that what
you were going to say?тАЭ
тАЬNo.тАЭ Father Mihran sighed. тАЬI was going to say IтАЩm sorry for them.тАЭ
тАЬBut not sorry enough to help?тАЭ The commanderтАЩs light tone was
completely at odds with her thunderous expression. тАЬWe cannot help
them.тАЭ
Commander Poulos pressed her mouth into a straight line and raised her
hand. She had a blue gem embedded in her thumbnail, and Tam
wondered what its significance was. He should check. They would be
quizzed on such details later.
She touched one of the rings on her right hand. The Authority
representatives had brought their own video rig and now its screen lit up.
Tam wanted to groan and look away. Jace actually did. Tam stepped on
his foot and when the younger boy gave him a dirty look, Tam jerked his
chin at the screen. They had to watch. They had to know. How would
they ever be able to make decisions that could affect the entire family
and all the villages if they couldnтАЩt stand to know what was going on?
Tam repeated that idea to himself as the images Commander Poulos had
brought with her played across the holograph screen yet again. There
was the wrinkled woman, whose right arm ended in nothing but a stump,
weeping as she stared across a field where the grain on the stalks
swelled with pulpy gray tumors. There was the filthy clinic full of
children with too-small bodies and too big heads with the one doctor
explaining they had no way to perform genetic analysis to find out what
was causing the defects. All that equipment had been washed away
twenty years ago in a spring flood. There were the funeral pyres with the
thick black smoke hanging over them, making TamтАЩs nose twitch as he
imagined the heavy stench. The remaining population leaned against each
other, watching what was left of their friends and relatives burn.
So many worlds, so many disasters, and one name for all of them. The
Diversity Crisis. All the Called, short for тАЬcolonized,тАЭ worlds were
struggling to survive in the face of depleted biological resources,
decimated populations, and vestigial infrastructures.
The disaster had even reached back to Old Earth. Commander Poulos
had opened her presentation explaining how, eight years ago, Authority
ships had carried a delegation from the Called to Earth. Drone ships
could have been sent, of course, but it was decided that the magnitude
of the tragedy truly needed a human voice to describe it, so it was
human beings who brought news of the catastrophe reaching out across
the colonies. Gene stocks thought to be adequate for the establishment
and growth of civilizations were failing. The fertility rates were dropping,