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

measure the presence of chemicals indicating anxiety, or guilt, and ask
probing questions. Tam took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on
the world inside, on his home and family. This time he was not
successful. His Conscience tasted the continuing guilt in his mind and
knew its guess was right.
We'd be no better than the ones who tear their worlds apart and try to
turn them into farms. Pandora must be protected.
Tam shook his head. "Yes, yes, I know," he murmured to his
Conscience. "I'm not going to break out. Really."
It was dark enough outside that Tam could see his own reflection in the
window glass. It showed him a spare man, whose black trousers, white
shirt, and white-on-white patterned vest hung on him as if he'd lost a lot
of weight recently. His medium brown skin was still clear, but his thick
black hair swept back from a high forehead that showed the lines of age
and worry. His dark eyes set above his Roman nose sagged tiredly at the
corners.
It had been ten years since the meeting in which the Authority had bullied
Pandora into seeking answers to the Diversity Crisis, the death that
stalked across the Called. But after ten years of experiments, analysis,
and gathering more data than could ever be used, their theory of how to
produce a universal cure was still just theory.
The Authority was getting restless. The failure of the second delegation
to Earth had only made that restlessness worse. The Authority might say
they were no government, that they were just merchants and
go-betweens, but they knew their future was bound completely up in the
future of the Called, and they were not going to let that future go. A new
reflection moved in the glass. Tam focused on the translucent image and
saw that a thin young man had come to stand behind him. The man's
pale skin, white tunic, and white-striped trousers stood out sharply
against the background of ferns and drooping tropical greens in the big
bubble terrarium that dominated the center of the lobby. "Basante.
You're all I need right now," Tam whispered aloud, almost without
realising he was doing it. That is one of the problems with Consciences,
he thought to himself. You end up talking to yourself a lot.
Basante is part of your family, TamтАЩs Conscience reminded him.
Maybe heтАЩll go away. Tam looked past their reflections to what he
could still see of the marsh. The thumb-sized luminescent flies their
ancestors had nicknamed will-oтАЩ-the-wisps danced over the waters and
dotted the reeds, as if the stars had come down to play.
A fanciful image. Tam smiled softly to himself.
Tam focused on the reflections again. Basante was still here. In fact, he
looked ready to wait all night.
Nothing else for it, then. Tam turned. тАЬGood evening, Experimenter
Basante. I thought you were retiring for some private time.тАЭ They both
had spent all afternoon and most of the evening hearing the report of the
latest delegation to the Called. Their conclusions were expected. Trying
to find a cure for the Diversity Crisis one planet at a time would involve
making massive changes to each planetтАЩs biosphere for the sake of its
inhabitants, which was completely unacceptable. Father Mihran had told
them all so before they left.