"Dafydd ab Hugh, Brad Linaweawer DOOM: Endgame (english)" - читать интересную книгу автораThe Newbie sat rigidly still on the operating table,
arms hanging limply at its sides, almost as if they were barely usable. Probably the result of being dead and imperfectly revivified, I guessed. "Do you attempt to fix all races that don't, um, grow to meet the circum- stances?" "We have never encountered other races before. Until we grew, we did not realize we were a planet; we thought we were the world." "Why did the Newbies leave you behind?" "We are the Newbies. We don't understand the question. We require further growth or fixing." "Why are you, you personally, still here on Fred- world? Why aren't you with the Newbies?" "Your syntax is confusing us. We are here and we are there." Oh criminey! Another freaking hive culture. The Klave were bad enough, being able only to see pairs and powers of two (pairs of pairs of pairs)... now these Newbies didn't even understand the concept of an individual member of a species. "We must withdraw to consider your information," I said. "Newbies, please wait on this table and else- where." "Newbies will wait." The Newbie closed its eyes their steady thuds with every beat of each heart (threeЧone in the groin area, one in the stomach, and a smaller one circulating blood through the head) fell silent, and a rasping buzz sounded as respiration and body temperature plunged. I stared. Had something inside the Newbie's stom- ach moved? I leaned close, staring, then I thought about that grotesque movie from the late 1900s and the thing popping out of the chest, so I stepped back warily. But something inside the Newbie was defi- nitely on the move; it rippled across the alien's belly from east to west, slithering around. "Sears and Roebuck," I called, "did you pick up any large parasites or symbiotes that might be using the Newbie as a host?" Sears and Roebuck looked at each other, hands on heads in agitation. "No," they said, "definitely noth- ing there was that produces such a motion could produce." "Jesus, Fly, what's happening to it? It looks like it's being eaten alive! Is it dying?" Arlene and I split, stepping to either side of the Newbie, weapons at the ready. The snake or worm or whatever it was pressed up against the Newbie's stomach, bulging out the |
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