"Joseph Green - Conscience Interplanetary" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Joseph)

“Do you like what you see, Conscience Odegaard?” Phyllis asked, and
though she was smiling there was an edge in her voice. He realized he had
been staring.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “And please call me Allan.” He paused, not
wanting to explain that “Conscience” was a popular term rather than an
actual title, and he had already grown tired of hearing it. A doctorate in
philosophy was the highest academic achievement on his record, but to
qualify as a Practical Philosopher, master’s degrees were required in
political science, alien psychology, sociology, and biology. The
Conservationist Party, with tremendous fanfare, had established the Corps
of Practical Philosophers to fulfill a campaign promise, after taking power
in the election of 2060. The new agency was manned by civilians, but
every operator automatically became an officer in the Space Service
Reserve. The public had swiftly christened the P. P.s the “Consciences of
Mankind,” and the name had stuck.
The mission of the P. P. Corps was to identify and save from
exploitation those worlds containing intelligent species. It had been
well-proven on Earth that when unequal cultures met, the higher
inevitably eroded and eventually destroyed the lower. Guns, antibiotics,
and powertools were far more easily absorbed than mechanized
agriculture, birth control, and a nine-to-three job. The resulting strains on
the delicate fabric of social organization always pulled a culture apart.
In the twenty-first century Mankind badly needed a professional
conscience. Thousands of worlds in the Hyades group containing Earth,
and the neighboring clusters of Ursa Major and Scorpio-Centaurus, had
already been explored. More were being discovered every day. Nowhere
was there a sign of another space-traveling species. But millions of new
lifeforms had been found, many of them in the early stages of intelligence.
Despite the customary short lifespan, hardship and misery endured by the
members of a species just entering the new world of the mind, they were
better off developing at their own pace than being force-fed from a higher-
culture. With the possible exception of small scientific research stations,
like this one on Sister, the World Council had decreed that planets
containing such species were to remain uncolonized. If the situation
justified it a Conscience could request a deviation from the World Council,
but their primary mission was to nurture intelligence by arranging for it
to flower in planetary isolation.
The exhaustive academic requirements facing a P. P. trainee deterred
all but the most hardy, and only a dozen people had made it through that
initial class with Allan. All had been commissioned colonels in the Space
Service Reserve. Others would follow, but for the moment there were more
cases awaiting decisions than the first small band could possibly handle.
Phyllis smiled, and this time it seemed more sincere. “Allan it is; and
the guys call me ‘Miss Roen’ only during seal attacks. Now if you’ll come
with me I’ll take you on the penny tour, and after dinner we’ll have a look
at the dead seal.”
-2-
The Decision-Maker’s body had relaxed into the state of’ lazy
somnolence which was the nearest his kind approached sleep, but his
group mind was still active. As he moved automatically toward the dark