"Alan Dean Foster - Humanx 2 - Cachalot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

"Is that all you can think of to say, girl? We're not
even down yet and already you can't wait to leave?"

"Mother ... please!" It was a warning.

"All right." Cora made calming gestures with man-
nequin hands, the long fingers fluttering restrainingly.
"I'm not asking for commitment until we've been
down there for a while. You're only my special assist-
ant on this assignment, just as it says in the directive.
The fact that you're also my daughter is incidental."

"Fine. Suits me fine."

"Just try to keep an open mind, that's all."

"I'll try. Mother. I've said that for six years now.
Another few months seems fair."

"Good. That's all I ask." Cora turned her attention

8 CACHALOT

back to the port, the view drawing her insistently,
soothing her, massaging away the concern she felt for

her daughter's future. And the guilt.

She had been pushing, cajoling, Rachael for three
years of advanced work in extramarine biology. The
girl's reports were good, her work was good—dammit,
she was good! She has all the tools, Cora thought.
More than I do, and without bragging, that's saying
something. She lacks only one thing, a single ingredi-
ent that keeps her from embarking on a brilliant career

in the same field as mine: enthusiasm.

Cora had gotten that from Silvio. Ah, Silvio . . .
"Keep an open mind, Cora," he had always told her.
And she had kept an open mind. She had kept it so
open that she lost him to another woman. To a string
of other women. And then be had died, his enthusi-
asm for life and loving having proved incapable of fi-
nally saving him.

No, she told herself firmly. He lost me. Not the

other way around. She still missed him, from tune to
time. Brilliant he had not been. Nor had he been es-