"James Patrick Kelly - Dividing the Sustain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kelly James Patrick)

“No,” said Zola. “You’re also a tongue.”

“And clever fingers.” Nelly sounded wistful.

“I do more than just pop into bed whenever you two call,” said Been. “Who
asks all the questions? Suggests shows to watch, books to read? Who tells the most
entertaining lies?”

He saw Sandor and Zola exchange glances. They would probably be re-lieved
not to be fooled by any more of Been’s entertaining lies.

Nelly just sighed. “It isn’t as if you’re about to go stale or anything. What are
you, eighty-two? Eighty-three? You’ve got decades before you have to recast
yourself.”

Of course, Been had lied about his age, not merely for entertainment value, but
in order to be accepted as a Consensualist. He slumped against the wall, closed his
eyes, and tried not to smile. He already knew he’d be leav-ing the pod. He just
needed to make sure that, when his podmates reached consensus, they were the
ones to ask him to go. That way Zola would feel obligated to help him find a new
place to stay until the Nine Ball reached Little Chin. Been knew that no other pod
would take him at this late date. There were two gay pods on the Nine Ball, but one
was notoriously over-crowded, and for the last few weeks Been had been busy
annoying a key member of the other. Been’s plan required that he move in with
Zola’s friend Ilona Quellan, the captain’s ex-wife. Been thought he might be in love
with Ilona, even though they had never even been introduced, but becoming a
homosexual would solve that problem nicely. “So what do we do now?” he said.

****

“Homosexual?” said Zelmet Emsley’s talking head. “Sure, it’s just a straight-forward
recompilation.” He settled onto a chair behind the intake counter in BioCore
Receiving. The lightboard on top of the counter shimmered to consciousness and
began to sing as he waggled his hand over it.
 “As I remember, most of it is at chromosome seven, region 7q36.” Emsley
tapped through a series of files. “Right, and chromosome eight, region 8pl2. Hmm.
I’ll need to tweak chromosome ten at 10q26.” He wiped the light-board with a
dismissive wave. “Outpatient procedure, check in tomorrow after lunch and you can
eat dinner first shift. Should take the sprites five or six days to spread to all your
cells and that’s it, since you don’t need to grow anything you don’t already have.”
Emsley’s talking head fixed Been with an officious stare. “But why do it at all?” His
eyes bulged, suddenly as big as plums. “Hmm?” Even his thinking head blinked
itself awake and squinted in Been’s general direction. “Trouble back in the pod?”

Strictly speaking, Been’s reasons for wanting to switch his sexual ori-entation
were none of Emsley’s business. Zelmet Emsley wasn’t a colonist. He was crew,
the Nine Ball’s, First Bioengineer; it was his job to look after the health of the
colonists. This included performing reembodiments if re-quested, assuming that they
posed no harm to anyone and did not make unreasonable demands on the resources
of the BioCore. But Been was de-termined to be diplomatic with Emsley. In his