"Brian Plante - Something Meaningful" - читать интересную книгу автора (Plante Brian)

Some things about the human mind were even more alien to Canopians than they
were to us. It was something I could use to my advantage.
 Omornia had two other healers-in-training, true Canopians, not impostors like
me, but neither was as adept as I. Maybe it was because Davril had already been an
experienced healer, and when I inherited his body, I inherited some of his talent. A
mental form of “muscle memory” perhaps. The other students and I would practice
on each other, jumping in and out of one another’s minds. I was clearly better at it
than they were, and hiding my inner thoughts from them was child’s play.

None of them ever knew why I really wanted to be a healer. If a Canopian
healer had once taken my human body, then one day I, too, could take a human
body. Any human body would do.

What I really wanted to do was heal myself.

****

The time is coming to return to our home world, Ecreath thought-spoke.
Another crew is coming to replace us here.

But I have so much more to do as a healer, I replied. I wanted to learn the
healing arts so I could help my people.

Your people are the Canopians, Ecreath thought-spoke. I have sensed that
you are not comfortable with your body. Haven’t you become one of us yet? It is
best for you to come home and experience fully what it means to live as a
Canopian.

What a ridiculous, chauvinistic statement, assuming that anyone would
naturally want to be a Canopian instead of a human. I was careful to keep those
thoughts to myself.

Yes, I trust you are right, I thought-spoke. But I still feel a bond with the
humans, and think I can be of some service here. There is so much death and
disease on Earth. So many people to be helped. Who better than I can help win
the humans’ trust for us, especially now that I have learned some of the healing
arts? I understand human thoughts and fears better than any Canopian.

Yes, that is probably so, Ecreath thought-spoke. But it would be unfair to
make you stay here, so close to your old kind and never know what it is truly like to
live as a Canopian. When the relief crew arrives, you will return home with us.

So, it was decided. Whatever I did, I would have to work quickly.

Ecreath, I trust your judgement, I thought-spoke. But before I leave the
planet of my birth, I would like to exercise the new healing knowledge I have on
some humans just once, so my talent does not go totally to waste. It would be a
fitting farewell, to help someone in need, as I once was helped by Davril.

Ecreath finally agreed, and before the relief crew arrived, I would be allowed