"Stephen Goldin - Herds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

Scanned by Highroller.

Proofed by

Made prettier by use of EBook Design Group Stylesheet.



Herds by Stephen
Goldin
PROLOG
The planet Zarti was peaceful at one time. The most advanced
race was a species of gentle, long-necked herbivores who had no
greater ambitions than full bellies. These Zarticku banded
together in herds for protection from predators and eventually
devised simple methods of communication to exchange basic
ideas among themselves.

Without warning, the Offasü came. This space-faring race
arrived en masse at Zarti, hundreds of millions of
them—conceivably the entire Offasü population—in ships that
were each several miles in diameter. They swarmed down like
locusts upon this idyllic planet and irrevocably changed the
course of life there.

First they formed zoos, gathering up specimens of each major
species of animal they could find. These specimens were tested,
probed and prodded in every conceivable manner for reasons too
subtle to comprehend. The Zarticku passed the test, and were
kept, while the others were returned to their natural
environments.

There was a planet-wide round-up. All the Zarticku that could
be captured were placed in special pens; the ones who couldn't
be captured were killed outright. Then the tortures began. Many
Zarticku were killed and dissected. Some others were not so
lucky—they were cut open alive so that their systems could be
observed in action. The screams of those poor creatures were
allowed to filter down into the penned herds, panicking other
animals and causing still more deaths.

No Zarticku were allowed to breed normally. Specially
selected sperm and ova were matched by artificial
in-semination, while the Offasü calmly recorded the results of
these breedings for three generations. When their computers
had enough data, they began altering the DNA structure of the
Zartic gametes. Genes they disliked were removed. New ones
were substituted to see what effects they would have on the new
generation. Some of these new genes also proved to be
undesirable. They were eliminated in subsequent generations.