Hello dear friends!
This picture was made before the story.
Tiger
White room. Almost the same as in which he first opened his eyes. Empty, dead space. A barely perceptible smell of bleach, too weak to disturb the human sense of smell. But David catches it.
Near the wall, right next to the desk, opposite the white leather armchairs is an enclosure, like a glass hood, reinforced with steel grating from the inside. Tiger. A living, real tiger measures steps from one corner of the cage to the other. Ten animal steps before you rest on the bars ... Ten steps are all he is allowed to do.
David stops. He is shocked. Not the power and beauty of a predator, although this unwittingly is postponed in his mind. The fact that before him - alive. The fact that this living thing is locked in an aquarium ten steps long. For what? For the sake of prestige? What an outlandish piece of furniture? Not a hologram, not a statue, not a scarecrow, at the worst ...
The beast freezes for a moment, raises a heavy head, examining the guest. Light-red, shining - they were called golden tigers. But this modification, probably, was created by order of the owner of the house - the tigers do not have such eyes. Grayish-blue, very light, like the Husky. Like ice on the skylight. Tiny dots of pupils. David is fascinated, and yet he forces himself to look away - animals do not like to be looked at straight.
Where in people is this perverted desire to own someone real? Keep in a cage alive? The beast and android - they looked at each other through the bars, each of their own prison. Two expensive toys in a sterile white office.
-David?
Weiland's voice. The Android allowed himself to ignore the hail. Only when he was called again, already more insistently, he turned to the people standing before him.
-David likes a tiger?
Lazy curiosity, and yet the host to whom Weyland came on a business visit, is waiting for an answer. You can not remain silent. As well as telling the truth, even if there is anger and disgust inside.
David smiles politely, a familiar mask.
-Chumanity subordinates nature, do not you? - Indifferently shrugs his shoulders.
As if a compliment, and yet behind words an elusive chill, embarrassing ambiguity. The same thing that many years later Walter will say: "You bothered people." A charge that is not spoken out loud, but hanging in the air.
Both Weiland and his companion are silently embarrassed, and then switch to a business conversation, as if nothing happened. David allows himself a barely perceptible grin, only the tips of his lips. Tiger, tired of a senseless movement from one wall to another, stretches out on the floor, puts his head on his paws.
Tiger, o tiger, lightly burning
In the depths of midnight thickets!
Whose immortal hand
Created a formidable image of yours?
In order to be part of the interior and a symbol of human arrogance?
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