Звездный десант
Chapter 2
Theirmouthscan’tshape‘b,’‘m,’‘p,’or‘v’andyouhavetogetusedtotheirequivalents—somethinglikethehandicapofasplitpalatebutwithdifferentletters.Nomatter,theirspeechisasclearasanyhumanspeech.
Butaneodogisnotatalkingdog;heisnotadogatall,heisanartificiallymutatedsymbiotederivedfromdogstock.Aneo,atrainedCaleb,isaboutsixtimesasbrightasadog,sayaboutasintelligentasahumanmoron—exceptthatthecomparisonisnotfairtotheneo;amoronisadefective,whereasaneoisastablegeniusinhisownlineofwork."
Mr.Weissscowled."Provided,thatis,thathehashissymbiote.That’stherub.Mmm...you’retooyoungevertohavebeenmarriedbutyou’veseenmarriage,yourownparentsatleast.CanyouimaginebeingmarriedtoaCaleb?"
"Huh?No.No,Ican’t."
"Theemotionalrelationshipbetweenthedog-manandtheman-doginaK-9teamisagreatdealcloserandmuchmoreimportantthanistheemotionalrelationshipinmostmarriages.Ifthemasteriskilled,wekilltheneodog—atonce!Itisallthatwecandoforthepoorthing.Amercykilling.Iftheneodogiskilled...well,wecan’tkillthemaneventhoughitwouldbethesimplestsolution.Insteadwerestrainhimandhospitalizehimandslowlyputhimbacktogether."Hepickedupapen,madeamark."Idon’tthinkwecanriskassigningaboytoK-9whodidn’toutwithismothertohavehisdogsleepwithhim.Solet’sconsidersomethingelse."
