"Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars 3 - Green Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

“Hiroko tweaked their genes, I swear.”

“She says not.”

“They’re already almost as tall as I am.”

“That’s just the gravity. I mean look at Peter and the rest of the nisei. They’re natural-born, and they’re
mostly tall. But the left-handedness, that’s got to be genetic.”

“Once she told me there was a simple transgenic insertion that would increase the size of the corpus
callosum. Maybe she fooled with that and got the left-handedness as a side effect.”

“I thought left-handedness was caused by brain damage.”

“No one knows. I think even Hiroko is mystified by it.”

“I can’t believe she would mess with the chromosomes for brain development.”

“Ectogenes, remember—better access.”

“Their bone density is poor, I hear.”

“That’s right. They’d be in trouble on Earth. They’re on supplements to help.”

“That’s the g again. It’s trouble for all of us, really.”

“Tell me about it. I broke my forearm swinging a tennis racket.”



“Left-handed giant bird-people, that’s what we’re growing down here. It’s bizarre, if you ask me. You
see them running across the dunes and expect them to just take off and fly.”

That night Nirgal had the usual trouble sleeping. Ectogenes, transgenic ... it made him feel odd. White
and green in their double helix... . For hours he tossed, wondering what the uneasiness twisting through
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him meant, wondering what he should feel.

Finally, exhausted, he fell asleep. And in his sleep he had a dream. All his dreams before that night had
been about Zygote, but now he dreamed that he flew in the air, over the surface of Mars. Vast red
canyons cut the land, and volcanoes reared nearly to his unimaginable height. But something was after
him, something much bigger and faster than him, with wings that flapped loudly as the creature dropped
out of the sun, with huge talons that extended toward him. He pointed at this flying creature and bolts of
lightning shot out of his fingertips, causing it to bank away. It was soaring up for another attack when he
struggled awake, his fingers pulsing and his heart thumping like the wave machine, ka-thunk, ka-thunfe,