"Arcady And Boris Strugatsky. Prisoners of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора "Well, where should I throw you and your secrets? Out the window?"
"What an idiotic joke, massaraksh!" shouted Guy, waving his arms wildly. "So you don't want to be thrown out the window? Well, then stay here." Mac carried Guy behind the screen and threw him down on Rada's bed. Guy sat up, straightened his pajamas, and muttered: "Some joke." Guy had cooled down too; he might as well save his anger for the degens. They set the table. Rada came in with a pot of soup. Behind her was Unc Kaan with his precious flask. It alone, he assured everyone, protected him from colds and a host of geriatric ailments. They sat down and started on the soup. Unc drained a wine glass, took a deep breath, and began to talk about his enemy. Shapshu, he said, had written an article about the function of certain bones in some ancient lizard, and the entire article was based on idiocy, contained nothing but idiocy, and was written for idiots. As far as Unc Kaan was concerned, everyone was an idiot, including his faculty colleagues and his assistants. And the students? The height of idiocy. So the fate of paleontology was a foregone conclusion. Guy wasn't particularly distressed - what use would it ever be to anyone? But Rada was very fond of Unc and always grieved along with him when he complained about his colleagues or the university's failure to supply funds for an expedition. Today the dinner conversation took a different turn. Rada, who had heard everything from behind the screen, asked Unc how the degens differed from normal people. Guy glowered at Maxim and asked Rada not to ruin their Unc declared that this literature was prepared for downright idiots; that the people in the Department of Education believed everyone to be as ignorant as themselves; that the degen problem was certainly not as simple as the literature deliberately portrayed it. "Either we behave like cultured people or like our brave but ignorant barracks officers." Unc drained another glass of wine and launched into a theory now current in scientific circles: the degens were nothing other than a new biological form that evolved as a result of radiation exposure. "The degens are dangerous - no doubt about that," said Unc, raising his finger, "But they are far more dangerous than you think, Guy. They are fighting for a place in this world, for the survival of their species, and this struggle is not a question of social conditions. It will end only when either the last man or the last de-gen-mutant leaves the arena of biological history victorious. Khonti gold? Nonsense! Diversions against the ABM network? Trivial. Look beyond the Blue Snake River, my friends. Yes, beyond the Blue Snake River! That's where your real danger comes from. The prolific colonies of humanoid monsters will come from down there to trample us, to annihilate us! Guy, you are blind. And your commanders, too. You must fight to save an entire civilization, not just one people, not simply our mothers and children, but allall humanity!" Guy became furious. He was hardly concerned, he said, with the fate of humanity. He didn't believe this theory nonsense. If he was told that it was possible to set the wild degens against Khonti, he would devote his whole life to the task. Unc called him a blind fool. He said that the All-Powerful |
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