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

but above that of other individuals as well.

Garnna could no longer remain neutral and unconcerned.
This creature must be a deviant. Even allowing for differences in
customs, no viable society could last long if these standards were
the norm. It would fall apart under mutual hatred and distrust.

The creature had left the cabin now, and was walking slowly
into the trees. Garnna followed it. The creature was carrying the
clothes it had worn inside the room, as well as a tool it had taken
from the cabin. When the creature had gone a mile from the
building, it put down the clothes and started using the tool to dig
a hole. When the hole was deep enough, the alien buried the old
clothes in it and filled it up again, brushing the dirt around
carefully so that the ground looked undisturbed.

Garnna caught flashes from the creature's mind. There was
satisfaction at having done something successfully. There was an
easing of fear now, since steps had been taken to avoid the
punishment. And there was the feeling of triumph, of having
somehow defeated or outwitted the Herd. The latter gave Garnna
a mental shudder. What kind of creature was this, that could
actually revel in causing harm to the rest of its Herd? This was
wrong by any standards, it had to be. Something would have to
be done to see that this deviant was discovered despite its
deception. But…

The second alarm sounded within his mind. No! he thought. I
don't'want to go back. I must stay and do something about this
situation.

But there was no choice. It was not known how long a mind
could remain outside its body without dire consequences to one
or the other. If he were to stay away too long his body might die,
and it was problematical whether his mind could outlive it. It
would accomplish no good at all if his mind were to be destroyed
through carelessness.

Reluctantly, then, Garnna iff-Almanic's mind pulled itself
away from the scene of the tragedy on the blue-white third
planet of the yellow star and raced back to its body more than a
hundred parsecs away.
***

As he walked back to the cabin Stoneham felt a certain
satisfaction at having coped successfully with a bad situation.
Even if the police didn't blame the hippies, there was no real
evidence left with which to blame him, he thought. No motives,
no evidence, no witnesses.