"Nancy Kress - Sex and Violence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

The [lab assistant] displayed an image on [his] [not translatable].
[Mghzl] recoiled. The energy of the recoil, traveling in all directions, made a
tiny tear in space-time which immediately underwent a flop transition into a
new orientation within one six-dimensional Calabi-Yau space. “They look
like that?”

“Yes.”

“Have they spread beyond the one planet?”

“Not yet.”

[Mghzl] [sighed]. “Begin an [official investigation] into the spore
release. And send an [exterminator/cleanser/cover-up team]. We can’t have
uncontrolled [vermin-like beings] infesting that part of the galaxy.”

The [lab assistant] hesitated. “I would like...”

“Yes?”

“I would like to ... to study them.”

[Mghzl] [blinked]. “Why?”

“For my [hopelessly untranslatable term]. They ... I know this is
incredible, but currently they’re evolving through mating by direct physical
joining with direct exchange of bodily tissues.”

[Mghzl] [shuddered]. Space-time warped in several dimensions. “No!”

“Yes.”

“How could evolution ... oh, all right. Study them. But only for one [long
unit of time], and only if there’s no spread of the infestation.”

“Agreed.”
 “After that, the [exterminator/cleanser/cover-up team].”

“Yes. Thank you, [honorific involving terms not only untranslatable but
capable of undermining human civilization].”

****

“Thirty-two modules to make a proto-cell,” Emily recited, squinting at
her notes.

“I think it’s ‘molecules,’“ Jim said. God, she had such a body.

“Do you think it’ll be on the test?”