"Paul J. McAuley - Reef" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

“I communicated my findings to the Star Chamber just this morning,” Opie Kindred
said. “The work has been very difficult. My crew has to work under very tight
restraints, using Class Four containment techniques, as with the old
immunodeficiency plagues.”
“Yah, of course,” Arn said. “We don’t know how the exfoliations might contaminate
the ship.”
“Exactly,” Opie Kindred said. “That is why the reef is dangerous.”
Margaret bridled at this. She said sharply, “Have you tested how long the
exfoliations survive?”
“There is a large amount of data about bacterial spore survival. Many survive
thousands of years in vacuum close to absolute zero. It hardly seems necessary—”
“You didn’t bother,” Margaret said. “My God, you want to destroy the reef and you
have no evidence. You didn’t think.”
It was the worst of insults in the scientific community. Opie Kindred coloured, but
before he could reply Dzu Sho held up a hand, and his employees obediently fell silent.
“The Star Chamber has voted,” Dzu Sho said. “It is clear that we have all we need.
The reef is dangerous, and must be destroyed. Dr Kindred has suggested a course of
action that seems appropriate. We will poison the sulphur-oxidizing cycle and kill the
reef.”
“But we don’t know—”
“We haven’t found—”
Margaret and Arn had spoken at once. Both fell silent when Dzu Sho held up a
hand again. He said, “We have isolated commercially useful strains. Obviously, we
can’t use the organisms we have isolated because they contain the parasite within
every cell. But we can synthesize useful gene sequences and splice them into current
commercial strains of vacuum organism to improve quality.”
“I must object,” Margaret said. “This is a unique construct. The chances of it
evolving again are minimal. We must study it further. We might be able to discover a
cure for the parasite.”
“It is unlikely,” Opie Kindred said. “There is no way to eliminate the parasite from
the host cells by gene therapy because they are hidden within the host chromosome,
shuffled in a different pattern in every cell of the trillions of cells that make up the
reef. However, it is quite easy to produce a poison that will shut down the
sulphur-oxidizing metabolism common to the different kinds of reef organism.”
“Production has been authorized,” Sho said. “It will take, what did you tell me, Dr
Kindred?”
“We require a large quantity, given the large biomass of the reef. Ten days at least.
No more than fifteen.”
“We have not studied it properly,” Arn said. “So we cannot yet say what and what is
not possible.”
Margaret agreed, but before she could add her objection, her earpiece trilled, and
Srin Kerenyi’s voice said apologetically, “Trouble, boss. You better come at once.”
****
The survey suite was in chaos, and there was worse chaos in the Rift. Margaret had
to switch proxies three times before she found one she could operate. All around her,
proxies were fluttering and jinking, as if caught in strong currents instead of floating
in vacuum in virtual free fall.
This was at the four-thousand-metre level,where the nitrogen ice walls of the Rift
were sparsely patched with yellow and pink marblings that followed veins of sulphur
and organic contaminants. The taste of the vacuum smog here was strong, like burnt