The Seeds of Time
- Автор: Уиндем Джон Паркс Лукас Бейнон Харрис
- Язык: английский
- Год: Michael Joseph
- ISBN: 0-7181-0362-9
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Seeds of Time». Краткое содержание книги:
‘I shouldn’t think so. Not like the old kind, anyway-they used to come with a sort of double-bang as a rule,’ she said. She crossed to the window and pulled back the curtain. Outside there was complete darkness and a sprinkle of rain on the panes.
‘Could have been an experimental one gone astray?’ she suggested.
Footsteps sounded in the hall. The door opened, and her father’s head looked in.
‘Did you hear that?’ he asked, unnecessarily. ‘A small meteor, I fancy. I thought I saw a dim flash in the field beyond the orchard.’ He withdrew. Sally made after him. Graham, following more leisurely, found her firmly grasping her father’s arm.
‘No!’ she was saying, decisively. ‘I’m not going to have my dinner kept waiting and spoiled. Whatever it is, it will keep.’
Mr Fontain looked at her, and then at Graham.
‘Bossy; much too bossy. Always was. Can’t think what you want to marry her for,’ he said.
After dinner they went out to search with electric lamps. There was not much trouble in locating the scene of the impact. A small crater, some eight feet across, had appeared almost in the middle of the field. They regarded it without learning much, while Sally’s terrier, Mitty, sniffed over the newly turned earth. Whatever had caused it had presumably buried itself in the middle.
‘A small meteorite, without a doubt,’ said Mr Fontain. ‘We’ll set a gang on digging it out tomorrow.’
Extract from Otins’ Journaclass="underline"
As an introduction to the notes which I intend to keep, I can scarcely do better than give the gist of the address given to us on the day preceding our departure from Forta* by His Excellency Cottafts. In contrast to our public farewell, this meeting was deliberately made as informal as a gathering of several thousands can be.
His Excellency emphasized almost in his opening words that though we had leaders for the purposes of administration, there was, otherwise, no least amongst us.
‘There is not one of you men and women**, who is not a volunteer,’ looking slowly round his huge audience. ‘Since you are individuals, the proportions of the emotions which led you to volunteer may differ quite widely, but, however personal, or however altruistic your impulses may have been, there is a common denominator for all-and that is the determination that our race shall survive.
* Onns gives no clues to Forta’s position, nor as to whether it is a planet, a moon, or an asteriod.
** The terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ are not used biologically, but in the sense of the dominant species referring to its own members.
Tomorrow the Globes will go out.
‘Tomorrow, God willing, the skill and science of Forta will break through the threats of Nature.
‘Civilization is, from its beginning, the ability to coordinate and direct natural forces-and once that direction has been started, it must be constantly maintained. There have been other dominant species on Forta before ours: they were not civilized, they did not direct nature: they dwindled and died as conditions changed. But we, so far, have been able to meet conditions as they have changed, and we flourish.
‘We flourish, moreover, in such numbers as undirected Nature could never have sustained. In the past we have surmounted problem after problem to make this possible, but now we find ourselves faced with the greatest problem yet. Forta, our world, is becoming senile, but we are not. We are like spirits that are still young, trapped in a failing body…
‘For centuries we have kept going, adapted, substituted, patched, but now the trap is closing faster, and there is little left to prop it open with. So it is now, while we are still healthy and strong, that we must escape and find ourselves a new home.
‘I do not doubt that great-grandchildren of the present generation’s great-grandchildren will be born on Forta, but life will be harder for them: they will have to spend much more labour simply to keep alive. That is why the Globes must go now, while we have strength and wealth to spare.
‘And for you who go in them-what? Even guesses are vain. The Globes will set out for the four corners of the heavens, and where they land they may find anything-or nothing. All our arts and skills will set you on your courses. But, once you have left, we can do no more than pray that you, our seed, will find fruitful soil.’
He paused, lengthily. Then he went on:
‘Your charge you know, or you would not have offered yourselves. Nevertheless, it is one which you will not be able to learn too well, nor teach too often. In the hands of each and every one of you lies a civilization. Every man and woman of you is at once the receptacle and the potential fountain of all that Forta signifies. You have the history, the culture, the civilization of a planet. Use it. Use it well. Give it to others where it will help. Be willing to learn from others, and improve it if you can. Do not try to preserve it intact; a culture must grow to live. For those who cling too fondly to the past there is likely to be no future. Remember that it is possible that there is no intelligence elsewhere in the universe, which means that some of you will hold a trust not only for our race, but for all conscious life that may evolve.
‘Go forth, then. Go in wisdom, kindliness, peace, and truth.
‘And our prayers will go out with you into the mysteries of space
… I have looked again through the telescope at our new home. Our group is, I think, lucky. It is a planet which is neither too young nor too old. Conditions were better than before, with less cloud over its surface. It shines like a blue pearl. Much of the part I saw was covered with water-more than two-thirds of it, they tell me, is under water. It will be good to be in a place where irrigation and water supply are not one of the main problems of life. Nevertheless, one hopes that we shall be fortunate enough to make our landing on dry ground or there may be very great difficulties …
I looked, too, at some of the places to which other Globes are bound, some small, some large, some new, with clouded surfaces that are a mystery. One at least is old, and in not much better case than our own poor Forta-though the astronomers say that it has the ability to support life for several millions of years. But I am glad that our group is going to the blue, shining world: it seems to beckon us, and I am filled with a hope which helps to quieten my fears of the journey.
Not that fears trouble me so much now; I have learnt some fatalism in the past year. I shall go into the Globe, and the anaesthetic gas will lull me to sleep without my being aware of it. When I wake again it will be on our shimmering new world If I do not wake, something will have gone wrong, but I shall never know that….
Very simple, really-if one has faith….
This evening I went down to look at the Globes; to see them objectively for the last time. Tomorrow, in all the bustle and preparation there will be no time for reflection-and it will be better so.
What a staggering, amazing-one had almost said impossible-work they are! The building of them has entailed labour beyond computation. They look more likely to crush the ground and sink into Forta herself than to fly off into space. The most massive things ever built! I find it almost impossible to believe that we can have built thirty of these metal mountains, yet there they stand, ready for tomorrow….
And some of them will be lost
Oh, God, if ours may survive, let us never forget. Let us show ourselves worthy of this supreme effort It can well be that these are the last words I shall ever write. If not, it will be in a new world and under a strange sky that I continue….
‘You shouldn’t have touched it,’ said the Police Inspector, shaking his head. ‘It ought to have been left where it was until the proper authorities had inspected it.’
‘And who,’ enquired Mr Fontain, coldly, ‘are the proper authorities for the inspection of meteors?’