"Vance, Jack - Alastor 2 - Trullion-2262" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

there's a rumor to the effect that we're going into action. "Indeed? Against whom?"
"As to this, I can only guess. Have you ever heard of the Tamarchd?" "Yes indeed. I read about
them in a journal: a cult of fanatic warriors on a world whose name now escapes me. Apparently
they destroy for the love of destruction, or something of the sort." "Well then, you know as much
as I, said the commander, "except that the world is Rhamnotis and the Tamarchd have laid waste an
entire district I would guess that we are going down on Rhamnotis."
"It's an explanation, at least," said Glinnes. "What about Rhamnotis? A gloomy desert of a
place?" "On the contrary." The commander swung about, fingered buttons; a screen burst into
colors and a voice spoke: "Alas-tor 965, Rhamnotis. The physical characteristics are-" The
annunciator read off a set of indices denoting mass, dimension, gravity, atmosphere, and climate,
while the screen displayed a Mercator projection of the surface. The commander touched buttons to
bypass historical and anthropological information, and brought in what was known as "informal
briefing": "Rhamnotis is a world where every particular, every aspect, every institution, conduces
to the health and pleasure of its inhabitants. The original settlers, arriving from the world
Triskelion, resolved never to tolerate the ugliness which they had left behind them, and they
pledged a covenant to this effect, which covenant is now the prime document of Rhamnotis, and the
subject of great reverence.
"Today the usual detritus of civilization discord, filth, waste, structural clutter-have been
almost expelled from the consciousness of the population. Rhamnotis is now a world characterized
by excellent management. Optimums have become the norms. Social evils are unknown; poverty is no
more than a curious word. The work-week is ten hours, in which every member of the population
participates; he then to the carnivals and fantasies, which attract tourists from far worlds. The
cuisine is considered equal to the best of the cluster. Beaches, forests, lakes and mountains
provide unsurpassed scope for outdoor recreation. Hussade is a spectator sport, although local
teams have never placed high in Cluster rankings."
The commander touched another button; the annunciator said: "In recent years the cult known as
Tamarch6 has attracted attention. The principles of Tamarchd are unclear, and seem to vary from
individual to individual. In general, the Tamarchists engage in wanton violence, destruction and
defilement. They have burned thousands of acres of primeval forests; they pollute lakes,
reservoirs and fountains with corpses, filth and crude oil; they are known to have poisoned
waterholes in game preserves, and they set poison bait for birds and domestic animals. They fling
excrement bombs into the perfumed carnival crowds and urinate from high towers upon the throngs
below. They worship ugliness and in fact call themselves the Ugly People."
The commander tapped a button to dull the screen. "So there you have it. The Tamarch6 have
seized a tract of land and won't disperse; apparently the Rhamnotes have called in the Whelm.
Still, it's all speculation; we might be going down to Breakneck Island to disperse the
prostitutes. Who knows?"
Standard strategy of the Whelm, validated across ten thousand campaigns, was to mass a

tremendous force so extravagantly overpowering as to intimidate the enemy and impose upon him the
certain conviction of defeat. In most cases the insurgence would evaporate and there would be no
fighting whatever. To subdue Mad King Zag on Gray World, Alastor 1740, the Whelm poised a thousand
Tyrant dreadnoughts over the Black capitol, almost blocking out the daylight. Squadrons of
Vavarangi and Stingers drifted in concentric evolutions under the Tyrants, and at still lower
levels combat-boats darted back and forth like wasps. On the fifth day twenty million heavy troops
dropped down to confront King Zag's stupefied militia, who long before had given up all thought of
resistance.
The same tactics were expected to prevail against the Tamarchists. Four fleets of Tyrants and
Maulers converged from four directions to hover above the Silver Mountains, where the Ugly People
had taken refuge. Intelligence from the surface reported no perceptible reaction from the Tamarchista.