"Alan Dean Foster - Interlopers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

the mule he was leading. Braying and bucking, the pack animal was resisting the reins for no apparent
reason. The stream of barnyard Spanish the elderly wrangler spat at the animal had even less effect than
usual. Muttering under his breath, he wrapped leathery, toughened fingers around the fallen piece of
insect-gnawed wood.
He never felt a thing.
A vast, inaudible, imperceivable sigh swept over the mountaintop and rushed down into the deep valleys.
Another had fed. And would continue to feed, for a long and satisfying while. The psychic ripple in the ether
was not felt by any of the humans working at the site; not by the researchers, their superiors, or the locals
who took care of the mundane details of camp life. But four hun-
30
32
dred feet below, a farm dog began howling for no ap-parent reason, and in the cloud forest across the ridge, a
flock of startled blue-headed parrots exploded from the tree in which they had been roosting. Otherwise, all
was silent, normal, unchanged.
Except-the one who had been fortunate enough to feed was greedy. Having entered into and penetrated the
food, Utchatuk should have settled down to a long and comfortable residence, in the manner of any
successful parasite. Instead, she began to feed continuously, upsetting the natural balance of her unknowing
host, undermining its stability. The others of her kind could do nothing with her. They could only remonstrate
as best they were able, but were powerless to affect her directly. She continued to feed without pause,
engorging herself on her host, shivering with delight at the sensations of satiation that coursed through her.
The result, of course, was that in a very short while she succeeded in severely damaging the host. Gravely
unbalanced, it went mad. Only a few days had passed from the time Utchatuk had begun to feed until,
clutching its head and rolling its eyes, the host flung itself screaming over the side of a sheer cliff in spite of
the startled, last-second effort of other food to stop it. The result was tragic. For a little while the food
congregated all in one place, confused and out of reach of any of those who would feed. Worse, in her haste
to gorge herself, Utchatuk had failed to reproduce. She would leave none behind to follow her.
Tragic, yes-but hardly a crisis. There were many of the others, healthy and eager but at the same time
patient and calculating. In the coming weeks, it developed that several more of them were granted the
opportunity to dine. More sensible of their good fortune, they were tolerant of their hosts, and did not overfeed.
Resisting gluttony, they sated their craving gradually, only damaging their chosen, unknowing organisms a
little at a time, preserving them so they would continue to be able to pro-vide unwitting nourishment well in the
future. One of Utchatuk's kind even succeeded in reproducing success-fully, drawing admiring, undetectable
hosannas from the others.
In this one place alone, there were dozens of them. Close at hand, hundreds more. And in the larger world-in
the larger world beyond the green mountains and lush valleys, there were many millions. Their presence
unseen, undetected, unsuspected by the multitude of oblivious, unaware, cattlelike food. It had always been
so, always would be so. Millions of them.
Each one ever hungry, and ready to be fed.
Three
The extensive. thoroughly researched and documented paper that was eventually submitted jointly by
Coschocton Westcott and Kelli Alwydd resulted in both of them receiving their doctorates from disparate but
equally admiring faculties. Moreover, the weeks of stolen early morning hours spent together in the close
confines of the secret Chachapoyan ceremonial chamber (for such they had determined it to be) eventuated
in a joint undertaking of another kind. Before leaving Peru, the two new Doctors of Science became engaged.
Within a month of returning to the States, they were married. Eschewing any professional jealousy at their
success, a proud Martin Harbos presented them with a double-spouted, unbroken Chimu pot is the shape of
a llama.
Subsequent to the publication of their scholarly and influential paper, there followed a certain amount of
spir-ited competition for their academic services. A delighted archaeology department at Arizona State
University in Tempe accepted them jointly as instructors, with promises of tenure, professional approbation,