"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Alliances" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

any longer.
“Did the Dulacs speak English when they told you of this great find?”
“No,” Galland started, but she didn’t let him finish.
“Did the Hacrim? How about the Crativ’n?”
“No.”
“Did they use one of these devices to communicate with you?”
“No,” Galland said.
“So you had to speak to them through translators.”
“Yes, but-”
“Human translators, trained at some university and hired by the Patrol, right?”
“Yes, but-”
“Don’t you find that somewhat suspicious?”
“No,” Galland said.
She couldn’t believe he had just said that. “No?”
Galland nodded. “No.”
She stood up. Now she was confused. “Why not?” And then she mentally kicked
herself for asking the question.
“Because,” he said, “they claim these creatures don’t want the translator in anyone
else’s hands.”
“So,” she said, “on the off chance that this universal translator does exist, what am I
supposed to do? Steal the technology?”
“That’s your suggestion, Captain.”
She let out a surprised laugh. “I was being sarcastic, Admiral.”
“Really?” he said, “Somehow, I hadn’t noticed.”
She stared at him, shocked. “You can’t be serious.”
He grinned. “It was your suggestion.”
She shook her head. How she hated the meetings with him. The thing was she knew
she had little recourse. The
Alliance let a lot of things slide, particularly if the end result benefited Alliance
members.
And to think she had been idealistic when she joined up, believing that “for the good
of all races” crap that had been in the recruiting ads. To think that she once believed
she and her crew would fly all over the galaxy doing good.
How naive was that?
Probably as naive as letting Admiral Galland help her avoid reassignment.
“Admiral,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “we couldn’t invent a universal
translator for human languages. Human beings-the same species-don’t base our
language on the same structure and concepts. How can there be a universal translator
for humans and aliens? It’s not possible and you know it. You want me to risk my
life and my crew’s for someone’s con.”
“It’s not a con,” he said. “Three different kinds of aliens-”
“Yeah. They couldn’t all have been bought off.” She put up her hands as if to ward
off his next remark. “That was sarcasm too, in case you didn’t catch it.”
“Look, Captain. You and I have both seen a lot of strange things in our careers.
That’s part of what space is about.” Galland was being serious now. Somehow that
disconcerted her even more. “What if this translator works for some alien races? If it
works forty percent of the time, then it’s better than anything we have.”
“And if, in the remaining sixty percent, it mistranslates and we don’t know it, aren’t
we setting ourselves up for something completely terrible?” she asked.
“Let’s find out if it exists first, Roz. Then we’ll worry about it.”