"Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars 4 - The Martians" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

to hide the real meaning of this dream from himself.'
It was a perfect image for the power of their methodology.
Mary Dunkel sat beside him at lunch one day. Her leg pressed against
his. This was not an accident. Michel was surprised; it was a tremendous risk
on her part, after all. His leg responded with a matching pressure, before he
had a chance to think things over. Mary was beautiful. He loved Mary for her
dark hair and brown eyes and the turn of her hips as she went through doorways
ahead of him, and now for her boldness. Elena he loved for the kindness in her
beautiful pale eyes, and for her rangy shoulders, wide as any man's. Tatiana
he loved for being so gorgeous and self--contained.
But it was Mary pressed against him. What did she mean by it? Did she
mean to influence his recommendation for or against her? But surely she would
know this kind of behaviour might very possibly be counted against her. She
had to know that. So knowing that and doing this anyway meant that she must be
doing it for other reasons, more important to her than going to Mars. Meant it
personally, in other words.
How easy he was. A woman only had to look at him right and


he was hers forever. She could knock him down with the brush of a fingertip.
Now his body began to fall over yet again, reflexively, like the jerk of
the lower leg when the knee is properly tapped. But part of his mind's slow
train of thought, trailing behind reality by a matter of some minutes
(sometimes it was hours, or days), began to worry. He could not be sure what
she meant. She could be a woman willing to risk all on a single throw of the
dice. Try sidling up to a man to get on his good side. It often worked like a
charm.
He realized that to have power over another's destiny was intolerable.
It corrupted everything. He wanted to slip away to the nearest bed with Mary,
hers or his, to fall onto it and make love. But making love could by
definition only occur between two free human beings. And as he was warden,
judge and jury to this group ...
He moaned at the thought, a little 'uhnn' in his throat as the problem
struck him in the solar plexus and forced air upward through his vocal cords.
Mary gave him a glance, smiled. Across the table Maya picked this up and
looked at them. Maya had perhaps heard him groan. Maya saw everything; and if
she saw him wanting silly reckless Mary, when really he wanted Maya with all
his heart, then it would be a double disaster. Michel loved Maya for her
hawklike vision, her fierce sharp intelligence, now watching him casually but
completely.
He got up and went to the counter for a piece of cheesecake, feeling his
knees weakly buckling. He dared not look back at either of them.
Though it was possible the leg contact and all their looks had been in
his mind only.
It was getting strange.
Two Russians, Sergei and Natasha, had started a relationship soon after
their arrival at Lake Vanda. They did not try to hide it, like some other
couples Michel knew about or suspected. If anything they were a bit too
demonstrative, given the situation; it made some people uncomfortable how
affectionate they were with each other. Ordinarily one could ignore strangers