"Chalker, Jack L - G.o.d. Inc. 2 - The Shadow Dancers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

hairs and a few wrinkles at about ninety, but you really don't start looking old
until you're about a hundred and sixty, and I know several two-hundred-year-olds
who still swim a few kilometers a day and do mountain climbing for a hobby.
That's true no matter what class you're in."
"Yeah, but what if some commoners think they can run things better than you, or
maybe want to be scientists instead of lab assistants or something like that?
What then?" I asked, gettin' an idea of how even this kind of society could get
rebels.
"That's what I meant by outlets and expansion," Aldrath replied. "If there are
commoners who believe they have superior talents and abilities and can
demonstrate them, there are ways for them to be educated every bit as good as,
say, my own son. We just can't have them here, since that would upset the system
and the balance. They are welcome to go to a colony where they might find a
place, or even found their own. Only the corporate level is closed absolutely,
since there can be only one set of people controlling the Labyrinth and they are
born, raised, and trained to do that and safeguard both us and the other worlds
from one who might use that power for evil. We are not dictators to other worlds
and cultures, Madam Horowitz. We are thieves. We steal things we need, and, most
of all, ideas, art forms, even stories from unique and different cultures. In
exchange, we keep the would-be dictators and oppressors of universes out, and we
try as hard as we can to preserve worlds that have not destroyed themselves from
doing so. Other than that, we do not tip balances."
"But you're much of organized crime on many worlds, including ours," Sam noted.
"That's sure as hell interfering."
"I didn't say we didn't interfere. I said we do not tip balances. Those things
were there before we came and would be there with or without us. We don't even
increase their efficiency, and we leave it in local hands. Think of the
alternative. We could easily take over any government, even all of them, and
thereby safeguard everything, but we do not. We do not actually even take over
the criminal societies, we just use them to help us covertly get what we wish.
The vast bulk of the criminals do not know or even suspect us."
"Yeah, but you still got traitors and rebels," I pointed out. "I mean, we only
got into this thing 'cause some folks from here got ambitious."
"That's true," he admitted, sippin' his drink. "As hard as we try, there are
just some people who'll never understand the system. You see, we're thieves as
well as explorers and preservers. We get a lot out of this. Our medicine, our
power systems, this vehicle-all stolen ideas. To preserve this wilderness, we
import raw materials we need and which we buy at a fair price and never in
quantities that would impoverish a world. There are some who, nonetheless, see
us as inherently superior to everyone else. Our religion teaches that all the
gods of all the universes are real, and that together they form a powerful
overmind, a Supreme Lord. We were selected by the Supreme Lord to master the
Labyrinth and oversee the universes. Some take that a bit too far, and see us as
the natural and Supreme Lord's choice as rulers of all the universes. They
simply never grasp the essence of the system: thieves never steal everything
from the last rich man on Earth. If we came in and took over, destroyed cultures
and replaced them with an autocratic government, they would soon all be like us,
only under us and never able to attain freedom again. Without that freedom,
there is no creativity. If you make them subjects, they will reflect your own
will imperfectly and, as a result, will never produce anything new or unusual or