"S. M. Stirling - Draka 03 - The Stone Dogs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stirling S. M)

"Well, partly… yo' heard of Louise Gayner? SD Merarch, 'fore
she retired. Representative from North Angola, now. Has it in fo'
me, personal. Damn it, the headhunters spend half their time
tryin' to steal research from the Yankees; how do they expect us
to apply it, if'n we don't make mo' use of the serfs? We've got to
keep this creakin' anachronism of a social system workin'
somehow. Field hands don't need to know how to read,
factory-serfs can do without it. Even ordinary Janissary infantry
soldiers could, though it's inefficient and we're givin' them all
basic now. Bookkeepers an' secretaries and technicians, we could
get away with rote-learnin', but times are changin'. Computers
and space between them, they're the frontier of power… less than
a hundred million Citizens in the Domination, a billion and a
half serfs, we need millions with real education—"

He stopped, relaxed once more. "Sorry, didn't mean to launch
into a campaign speech." Though it wouldn't hurt to have
friends in the local sections of the Landholders' League and the
Party, he thought. That brought sadness; would there never be a
time again when he could wholly discard his work? Probably not
, he decided.

"Tell me bout' it," Johanna said. "Just got one of those tiny
brains ourselves; wonderful, if we didn't have to have the League
send round a technician every month. Speakin' o' space," she
continued, "how we doin'?" She looked up; was there an edge of
wistfulness there? Eric suspected flying the family plane did not
leave his younger sister completely satisfied…
 "Not bad, not bad at all. The scramjets are workin', and the
Technical Section people say the next lot will even be as safe as
Russian roulette. That giant magnetic catapult dingus on Mt.
Kenia is on schedule. And we're copyin' that Yankee pulse-drive
thing. Sounds insane, throwin' atomic bombs out behind yo' ship
fo' propulsion, but evidently it works."

He yawned, slightly tired, slightly disoriented still from the
long flight up. Always a little bewildering, to go from winter to
summer. It made you conscious that you really did live on the
surface of a globe. Eric glanced up; none of the new moving stars
in Earth's firmament was visible just now, but they were there.
The Alliance and his people had two orbital platforms each now,
and the tiny new stations on the moon. It changes your
perspective, he thought. How I envy those youngsters up there.

Johanna sighed. "Better be gettin' back to bed," she said. She
and her husband rose, and Rahksan moved to towel them down
and hand them their clothes.

"Mistis?" Eric looked up; the Afghan was crouched by her
owner's feet, fastening the sandals. "Mmmm… maybe Mastah