"Jody Lynn Nye - Medecine Show" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nye Jody Lynn)

parts of the galaxy, the lack of an answerback signal was grounds for a shoot-to-kill order. This ship
wouldn't care that the Sibyl knew about the bypass, because it didn't intend that she should get away to
tell anyone about it.
Shona glanced at Lani, whose eyes were saucer-wide. She tightened her arms around Chirwl and
plumped him on her lap as if he were Alexander.
"Well, they can't get us this easily," she said cheerfully. "I don't believe luck has run out yet for the
Taylor Traveling Medicine Show and Trading Company."
"No," Lani agreed nervously. She stared up at the screen. The other ship was wheeling, attempting to get
below them. Gershom was following their every move, tilting the Sibyl's axis to fall alongside their
attacker. The lights in the lab dimmed slightly, and Shona braced herself. On the screen one of the
enemy's hull plates shifted by itself, and the ship veered away from the point of impact. Gershom must
be using the sonic probe as a cannon, hoping to dislodge something vital in the other ship's defenses.
"Our business name has a little joke to it. Do you know what a medicine show is?" Shona asked,
drawing the girl's attention back to her with a little nudge at the shoulder. Lani shook her head.
"Well," Shona said, using her best storytelling voice, "back in the pre-electronic age on Earth, salesmen
who traveled between primitive, isolated towns offered potions with miracu-lous properties for sale.
They promised these potions would wipe out pneumonia, make you taller and sexier, fix your
rheumatism, fill dental cavities, and grow back hair!" Lani giggled. Alexander, hearing someone laugh,
put in a stentorian burst of merriment. Shona smiled. "Sometimes they'd have entertainers traveling with
them, who put on a performance to attract the attention of the folks living around there. There might be
other useful goods for sale. Then, once the pretend doctor—they were called quacks—had the audience's
atten-tion, he'd start his sales pitch. 'Step right up, folks,'" Shona said, waving one arm in the air. " 'Try


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 Jody Lynn Nye - Medicine Show


our am-aaaaz-ing tonic, guaranteed to cure what ails you—and only one credit—I mean, one dollar—a
bottle!' In those days, a dollar was a lot of money, but such a fantastic elixir was worth it."
Lani listened seriously, not cracking a smile.
"What happened? Have the formulas been lost since then?"
"No, they were fraudulent," Shona said, her eyes twinkling. Lani's face fell. "The most genuine thing
about the potions were the corks in the tops of the bottles. Sometimes the bot-tles themselves contained
nothing more than water. The quacks hoped to be well out of town before the townsfolk caught on to the
charade. It was the presentation that was the important thing, the illusion that their particular preparation
could cure all ills. Once away from the town, the fake doctors were safe from all retribution by those
people who thought they were going to grow hair or get younger by drinking the phony medicine."
Lani's eyes went wide. "But no town told the others?"
"They couldn't. In those days people could only travel from place to place with great difficulty," Shona
explained. "Dis-tances between towns were very short by our way of thinking, but people had to go on
foot or use horses or ride in oxen-powered carriages. They had no energy tracers, no computers, no mass
communication nets they could use to spread the word—only simple linear systems from one specific
place to another."
Lani sneaked a glance at the screen. "Wish there weren't any nets now. They know."
"Oh, honey, this won't go on forever," Shona said, forcing optimism into her voice.
"These mechanical nets are too efficient, as well you realize," Chirwl said, following Lani's thoughts.
"How is it our assassin-payer is not supposed to be communicating and he is, always? To tell him no
communication he makes, yet to stop him talking not to those who still may use those services— Urk!"
he croaked, as Shona squeezed him.