"G. David Nordley - The Forest Between the Worlds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nordley G. David)

There’s water if you know where to look and some edible fruit. We can do without the nutritional
supplements for a few days."

Akil nodded.

Jones frowned. "But, Mateo, we haven’t been here long enough to think that everything isn’t dangerous.
Sharada’s given up thinking."

"You think she’s in over her head?"

"You better believe it. A lot of people do. She claims she’s gained acceptance by mimicking all this
touching, stroking, and screwing, and she thinks she’s picking up something at least on some level; she
likens the process to averted vision–she says she now gets feelings about things after she does it, as if the
Forest People are picking up on her chemical language and manipulating her feelings. But when you ask
her what she understands, she can’t translate."

Akil looked her in the eyes. "It sounds like there were all sorts of warning signals that something like this
was going to happen."

She shrugged. "Mateo, a warning has to be exceptional. Alarms that are on all the time are just noise.
Uma Weiss is getting ready to recall her, but I think that’s more because of the time Uma’s daughter,
Olympia, has been spending with her."

"Olympia’s what, twelve? You’re not suggesting . . ."

Jones shook her head. "That would be going too far, even for Sharada. Besides, Olympia would never
go anywhere without her com. But Uma’s getting worried."

Feeling he was getting in over his head, Akil wanted to change the subject and gestured to some long
pointed wood poles leaned against one of the walls in Sharada’s dome. "Those look a lot like spears to
me."

Jones shook her head. "No reports of them ever using them that way. I see them sticking out of vines
here and there, with Forest People using them as perches, to avoid contact with the vine. If you come in
contact with a vine, it starts to envelop you with sap and digest you; that’s how the forest stays clean."

"So the Forest People sit on the sticks and don’t get enveloped; that sounds intelligent to me."

Jones shrugged. "Look, ‘intelligence’ is a catch-all for a lot of different talents, and these things might
even be able to do biosynthesis faster and better than we can, but for a race that’s supposed to be on the
verge of intelligence, the Forest People don’t seem to interact with us as much as parrots or chimpanzees
back home. Of course, I’m more of a biologist than an anthropologist."

Akil shook his head. "I wish we had plausible similicrons."

"In a month or two, we will. We need enough data on behavior and chemistry to fool beings that perceive
right down to the chemical level."

"Like dogs?"