Sleepers Of Mars
- Автор: Уиндем Джон Паркс Лукас Бейнон Харрис
- Год: 1977
- Язык: английский
- Год: Coronet Books/Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
- ISBN: 0340173262
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Sleepers Of Mars». Краткое содержание книги:
Of course, we are now well used to the idea of Man On The Moon, we have become blasé as to the possibilities of inter-planetary travel. But imagine two expeditions to Mars, one British, the other Russian, both in the process of discovering a mechanical race, invented and produced by the Martians as they believe their specie to be dying.
The other four novellas in this collection give further evidence of John Wyndham’s genius at invention, characterisation and sense of movement.
At the end of six months, I began to feel that my time of exile was nearly up. The M.I. ship would be finished by now, and ready to follow the Nuntia’s lead. I waited almost a month longer, seeing her in my mind’s eye, falling through space towards me; then it was time for my signal. I had arranged the main searchlight so that it would point vertically upwards to stab its beam into the low clouds; and now I began to switch it on every night as soon as darkness came, leaving it glaring until near dawn.
For the first few nights I scarcely slept, so certain was I that the ship must be cruising close by in search of me. I used to lie awake watching the dismal sky for the flash of her rockets, and straining my ears for their thunder. But this stage did not last long. I consoled myself, very reasonably, with the thought that it might take much searching to find me; but all day, too, I was alert, with smoke rockets ready to be fired the moment I should hear her….
After four months, my batteries gave out. It is surprising that they lasted so long. As the voltage dropped, so did my hopes. The jungle seemed to creep closer, making ominous bulges in my barrier of detachment. For a number of nights after the filaments had glowed their last, I sat up through the hours of darkness, firing occasional distress rockets in forlorn faith. It was when they were finished that I saw what had occurred.
Why I did not think of it before, I cannot tell. But the truth came to me in a flash: Metallic Industries had duped me, just as International Chemicals had duped my father. M.I. had not built—had never intended to build—a space-ship. Why should they, once I.C. had lost theirs?
That, I grew convinced, was the decision which had been taken in the Board Room after my withdrawal. They had never intended that I should return–-I could see, now, that they would have found it not only expensive, but dangerous. There would be not only my reward to be paid, but I might blackmail them. In every way, it would be more convenient that I should do my work, and then disappear. And what better method of disappearance could there be than loss upon another planet? The swine!
Those are the methods of Earth; that is the honour of great companies, as you will know to your cost should you have dealings with them. They’ll use you, and then break you….
I must have been nearly crazy for some days after that realisation. My fury with my betrayers, my disgust with my own gullibility, the appalling sense of loneliness and, above all, the eternal drumming of that almost ceaseless rain, combined to drive me into a frenzy, which stopped only on the brink of suicide.
But in the end, the adaptability of my race began to assert itself. I began to hunt, and to live off the land about me. I struggled through two bouts of fever, and successfully sustained a period of semi-starvation when my food was finished and game was scarce. For company I had only a pair of sixlegged, silver-furred creatures which I had trained. I had found them one day, deserted, in a kind of large nest, and crying weakly with hunger. Taking them back with me to the Nuntia, I fed them, and found them friendly little things. As they grew larger, they began to display remarkable intelligence. Later I christened them Mickey and Minnie—after certain classic film stars at home—and they soon got to know their names.
And now I come to the last and most curious episode, which I confess I do not yet understand. It occurred several years after the Nuntia’s landing. A foraging expedition, upon which Mickey and Minnie accompanied me as usual, had taken us into country completely unknown to me. A scarcity of game, and a determination not to return empty-handed, had caused me to push farther than usual.
At last, at the entrance to a valley, Mickey and Minnie stopped. Nothing I could do would induce them to go on. Moreover, they tried to hold me back, clutching at my legs with their forepaws. The valley looked a likely place for game, and I shook them off impatiently. They watched me as I went, making little whining noises of protest, but did not attempt to follow.
For the first quarter of a mile, I saw nothing unusual. Then I had a nasty shock. Some way further on, an enormous head, reared above the trees, was looking directly at me. It was not like anything I had ever seen before, but thoughts of giant reptiles jumped to my mind. Tyrannosaur must have had a
head not unlike that. I was puzzled as well as scared. Venus could not be still in the age of giant reptiles, or if she was, I could not have lived here all this time without seeing something of them….
The head did not move; there was no sound. As my first flood of panic abated, it became clear that the monster had not seen me. I took cover, and started to move cautiously closer. The valley seemed utterly silent, for I had grown so used to the sounds of rain that my ears scarcely registered them. At two hundred yards, I came within sight of the great head again, and decided to risk a shot. I aimed at the right eye and fired.
Nothing happened. The echoes thundered from side to side; nothing else moved. It was uncanny, unnerving. I snatched my glasses. Yes! I had scored a bull, right in the creature’s eye, but queer. I decided I didn’t like the valley a bit, but I made myself go on. There was a curious odour in the air, not unpleasant, though a little sickly.
Quite close to the monster, I stopped. He had not budged an inch. Suddenly, behind me, I caught a glimpse of another reptile; smaller, more lizard-like, but with teeth and claws which made me sweat. I dropped on one knee and raised the rifle. I had begun to feel an odd swimming sensation inside my head. The world seemed to be tilting about me. My rifle-barrel wavered…. I could not see properly. I felt myself begin to fall—I seemed to be falling a long, long way–-
When I awoke, it was to see the bars of a cage—
Dagul stopped reading. He knew the rest.
‘How long ago, do you think?’ he asked. Goin shrugged his shoulders.
‘Heaven knows. A very long time; that’s all we can be sure of. The continual clouds…. And did you see he claims to have tamed two of our primitive ancestors? Millions of years–-’
‘And he warns us against Earth.’ Dagul smiled. ‘It will be a shock for the poor devil. The last of his race—though not, to judge by his own account, a very worthy race. When are you going to tell him?’
‘He’s bound to find out soon, so I thought I’d do it this evening. I’ve got permission to take him up to the observatory.’
‘I’d like to come, too, if you don’t mind.’
‘Of course not.’
Gratz was stumbling among unfamiliar syllables as the three climbed the hill to the Observatory of Takon, doing his best to drive home his warnings of the perfidy of Earth and the ways of great companies. He was relieved when both the Takonians assured him that no negotiations between the two worlds were likely to take place.
‘Why have we come here?’ he asked, when they were in the building, and an assistant, in obedience to Goin s orders, was adjusting the large telescope.
‘We want to show you your planet,’ said Dagul.
There was some preliminary difficulty due to differences between the Takonian and the human eye, but before long he was studying a huge, shining disc. A moment later, he turned back to the others with a slight smile.
‘There’s some mistake. This is the Moon.’
‘No. It is the Earth,’ Goin assured him.
Gratz looked back at the scarred, pitted surface of the planet. For a long time he gazed in silence. It was like the Moon, and yet…. Despite the craters, despite the desolation, there was a familiar quality. A suggestion of the linked Americas stretching from pole to pole…. A bulge which might have been the