Earthmen Bearing Gifts |
Земляне, дары приносящие |
by Fredric Brown |
Фредерик Браун |
Dhar Ry sat alone in his room meditating. From outside the door he caught a thought wave equivalent to a knock, and, glancing at the door, he willed it to slide open. It opened. "Enter, my friend." he said. |
Дар Рай размышлял в одиночестве, когда снаружи донеслась мысль, соответствующая стуку в дверь. Мысленным усилием откатив дверь в сторону, Дар Рай сказал: "Входите, друг мой". |
He could have projected the idea telepathically; but with only two persons present, speech was more polite. |
Он мог, разумеется, передать слова телепатически, но при разговоре один на один звуковая речь более любезна. |
Ejon Khee entered. |
В комнату вошел Эджон Хи. |
"You are up late tonight, my leader," he said. |
- Вы сегодня засиделись, вождь, - сказал он. |
"Yes, Khee. Within an hour the Earth rocket is due to land, and I wish to see it. |
- Да, Хи, ведь сегодня, через час, прибудет ракета с Земли, и я хочу это видеть собственными глазами. |
Yes, I know, it will land a thousand miles away, if their calculations are correct. |
Да, я знаю, что она упадет в тысяче миль отсюда, если расчеты землян верны. |
Beyond the horizon. But if it lands even twice that far the flash of the atomic explosion should be visible. |
Но, даже ошибись они и упади ракета на расстоянии, в два раза большем от нас, вспышка ядерного взрыва все равно будет видна. |
And I have waited long for first contact. |
Я так долго ждал этого дня! |
For even though no Earthman will be on that rocket, it will be the first contact-for them. |
Пусть на борту ракеты нет землян - все равно это первый контакт. Для них, во всяком случае. |
Of course our telepath teams have been reading their thoughts for many centuries, but this will be the first physical contact between Mars and Earth." |
Наши телепаты уже многие столетия читают их мысли, но ведь физический контакт между Землей и Марсом произойдет только сегодня! |
Khee made himself comfortable on one of the low chairs. |
Хи удобно устроился в низком кресле. |
"True," he said. |
- Это верно, - ответил он. |
"I have not followed recent reports too closely, though. Why are they using an atomic warhead? |
- Правда, я не очень внимательно следил за последними сообщениями и не понял, зачем им понадобилось взрывать ядерный заряд. |
I know they suppose our planet is uninhabited, but still-" |
Я знаю, что они считают нашу планету необитаемой, но все же... |
"They will watch the flash through their lunar telescopes and get a-what do they call it?-a spectroscopic analysis. That will tell them more than they know now (or think they know; much of it is erroneous) about the atmosphere of our planet and the composition of its surface. It is-call it a sighting shot, Khee. |
- Они будут наблюдать за взрывом в телескопы своей лунной обсерватории, чтобы составить спектрографический анализ и получить более точные данные об атмосфере и почве Марса. |
They'll be here in person within a few oppositions. And then-" |
А затем еще несколько противостояний, и они прилетят к нам! |
Mars was holding out, waiting for Earth to come. |
* * * Марс ждал прихода людей. |
What was left of Mars, that is; this one small city of about nine hundred beings. |
Вернее, не весь Марс, а то, что осталось от марсианской цивилизации, - маленький городок с населением около девятисот душ. |
The civilization of Mars was older than that of Earth, but it was a dying one. This was what remained of it: one city, nine hundred people. |
Цивилизация Марса была намного старше земной, но она умирала. |
They were waiting for Earth to make contact, for a selfish reason and for an unselfish one. |
И марсиане ждали контакта с Землей, думая и о своем будущем, и о будущем землян. |
Martian civilization had developed in a quite different direction from that of Earth. |
Ведь их цивилизация развивалась совсем не так, как на Голубой планете. |
It had developed no important knowledge of the physical sciences, no technology. |
Марсиане не создали техники, не накопили знаний в области точных наук. |
But it had developed social sciences to the point where there had not been a single crime, let alone a war, on Mars for fifty thousand years. And it had developed fully the parapsychological sciences of the mind, which Earth was just beginning to discover. |
Но они овладели парапсихологическими свойствами мозга, о которых земляне лишь начали смутно догадываться. |
Mars could teach Earth much. How to avoid crime and war to begin with. Beyond those simple things lay telepathy, telekinesis, empathy... |
Марс многому мог научить Землю: телепатии, телекинезу, эмпатии... |
And Earth would, Mars hoped, teach them something even more valuable to Mars: how, by science and technology-which it was too late for Mars to develop now, even if they had the type of minds which would enable them to develop these things-to restore and rehabilitate a dying planet, so that an otherwise dying race might live and multiply again. Each planet would gain greatly, and neither would lose. And tonight was the night when Earth would make its first sighting shot. Its next shot, a rocket containing Earthmen, or at least an Earthman, would be at the next opposition, two Earth years, or roughly four Martian years, hence. The Martians knew this, because their teams of telepaths were able to catch at least some of the thoughts of Earthmen, enough to know their plans. Unfortunately, at that distance, the connexion was one-way. Mars could not ask Earth to hurry its programme. Or tell Earth scientists the facts about Mars' composition and atmosphere which would have made this preliminary shot unnecessary. |