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

A silence fell over the room as the Coordinator pondered
Garnna's story for awhile. Finally he said, "You're right. That was
a very distressing situation for you to walk into, as it were. I
think you should make a report on the incident and distribute it
to all the other Explorers. It will serve as a good object lesson to
keep people from violating that 'no individual' rule in the future.
Was there anything else you wished to discuss?"

"I'd like to know what we're going to do about the incident."

"As I just said, you will write a report…"

"I don't mean here. I mean back on that planet." Rettin
iff-Laziel squinted to indicate puzzlement. "I don't understand
you. Why should you want to do anything back on that planet?"

Garnna had thought that his motives would be self-evident,
but perhaps he hadn't described his feelings well enough. He
sputtered profusely as he tried to explain to the Coordinator
what he thought was obvious. "Well, that killer must be a pervert
of some kind. No society could survive if it allowed individuals to
flaunt the good of the Herd that way. The killer should be caught
and punished for its actions."

"Granted. But what business is that of ours?"

"Why… why I saw everything that happened. This creature is
trying to fool its fellows. Maybe it'll succeed. I should try to
communicate with someone on that planet, to make sure that its
scheme doesn't work and that the killer is punished…"

Rettin gave a loud snort that cut off the Explorer in
mid-thought. "You're talking nonsense," he proclaimed flatly.
"You've been on eleven full Explorations, as well as having
undergone extensive training in the theory of mind projection.
You know it's impossible to communicate with the beings on this
other world."

"But that's only theory. No one's ever tried to…"

"No, of course they haven't. Nor should they. What happens to
aliens is none of our affair."

"But we must have some responsibility to see that justice is
done."

"Don't ever forget, our primary responsibility is to the Herd.
All else is secondary. And in this case, the Project Council
decided from the very beginning that keeping ourselves secret