Читать книгу The Science Fiction Anthology онлайн

233 страница из 776

“It’s an affliction sent by the gods.”

“The gods would never do anything like that!” she declared confidently.

How primitive she is, he thought, and, then, angrily, how provincial I am! He had never stopped to think about it, but he knew of no married couple who had not at least one offspring; he and Embelsira were the only ones. It hadn’t occurred to the X-T specialists that a species whose biological assets were roughly the same might have different handicaps. Apparently there was no such thing as sterility on Damorlan.

“Are you really an Earthman, then, Balt?” she asked timidly.

She had spread the news around, ruined him, ruined the work Earth had been doing, perhaps ruined even more than that—and she hadn’t even been sure to begin with. But it was too late for recriminations. He had to salvage what little he could—time, maybe; that was all.

“Are you going to tell?” he asked.

She hesitated. “Do you swear you don’t mean my people any harm?”

“I swear,” he said.

“Then I swear not to tell,” she said.