"Anderson, Poul - Question and Answer (Planet of no Return)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Poul)

"In that case-" A small exultance rose in Lorenzen. "In that case, we have nothing to fear."
"But those bastards have plenty to fear from me!" The Turk's hand dropped to his gun.
Another day went by. The blue-green sun rose, mists swirled and dew flashed and then the grasses lay with a metallic sheen. Six hours later the red sun followed, and full day blazed. Clouds were tinted red or green, the double shadows had their color, the vegetation shimmered in shifting hues as wind ruffled it. The first sunset was not so spectacular, with Lagrange II still high in the sky, but the late afternoon had an eerie quality when the only light was its fiery glow. Paradox: it grew cool, even a little chilly, when only the smaller sun was up, but the unearthly red radiance suggested a furnace. The second sunset was usually a gorgeous bursting of crimson and orange and gold. Then it was night, with a glittering glory of stars. Sister came up, red on one limb and blue-green on the other, the center a dimness of shadow vaguely lit by reflection from Junior. On the horizon, she looked enormous, seeming to fill half the sky when well up, she was still so big that men used to Luna could not get rid of an uneasy notion that shi was falling on them. Her light was a weird white rush of argence, glimmering off dew and hoarfrost. The night was big and still and strange to man. It caught at Lorenzen. He walked alone in the chill quiet, thinking his own thoughts, and felt the challenge of the sky and the world about him.
Maybe he would want to come here after all. A new planet would be wide open for any man; he could have his own observatory on a space station, try out his own ideas, look at his own land and realize it was his and his children's.
But the natives-His spirits sagged again.
Another day and another.
Lorenzen was sitting under his usual tree with his usual book when he heard his name called. He looked up, and the camp's loudspeaker rolled and boomed with Hamilton's voice: "-report to the captain's office." He got up, wondering, and made his way back inside the circle of guns.
Hamilton sat at a desk in one of the huts. Avery stood beside him, looking nervous. Thornton, Fernandez, Gummus-lugil, and von Osten were already there, waiting.
"All here," said the captain quietly. "You may pass on your report, Mr. Avery."
The psychman cleared his throat. "I've made a little headway with the Rorvan language," he said. He spoke so low that it was hard to hear him. "Not much-I still don't understand the grammar or whatever it is they have, and any ideas above an elementary level just don't get across. But we can talk about very simple things. Today they said they want to go home. I couldn't follow their reason, though I imagine they want to report their findings."
"All of them going?" asked Thornton.
"Yes. I offered to have them flown home, but they refused. Why, I don't know. They couldn't have misunderstood me, I think. I took them to the aircar and made gestures. But maybe they don't trust us that much. They insist on going on foot."
"Where is their home?" inquired Lorenzen.
"Somewhere to the west, in the mountains. That's all I was able to gather. About a four-week hike, I'd say."
"Vell?" snapped von Osten. "Vot iss vit' us to do?"
"The Rorvan," said Avery slowly, "were quite unhappy at the thought of our following them by air. I don't know why-it could be a taboo of some sort, or more probably they just don't trust us not to throw bombs down on their home. We're as much an unknown quantity to them as they to us, remember. If we tried to follow, I rather imagine they'd just disappear in the mountains and we might never re-establish contact. However-" he leaned forward-"there didn't seem to be any objection to some of us accompanying them on foot. In fact, they seemed anxious that we do so."
"Valking right into a trap? Ich danke!" Von Osten shook his head till the blond beard swirled.
"Don't be more of an ass than you can help," said Gummus-lugil. "They'd know the rest of our party could take revenge."
"Could dey now?" Von Osten flushed and held himself in check with an effort. "How vould de oders know vere ve vere?"
"Radio, of course," said Hamilton impatiently.
"You'd take a portable transceiver along-"
"But do de aliens know ve haff radio?"
"That's a good point," admitted the captain. "The chances are they've never heard of the phenomenon; And I don't think they should be told about it either-not till we can trust them more."
He made a bridge of his fingers. "Mr. Avery wants to go along with them, and I agree that we should send some men. It may well be our only chance to get in touch with the native government, or whatever it is they have. To say nothing of getting a closer look at their technology and all the rest of it. After all, they may not object to humans coming here to settle. We just don't know yet, and it's our job to find out.
"You gentlemen here aren't needed for the studies we're making, your essential work has been done and you seem logical choices for the contact party. You'll keep in touch with the camp by radio and, of course, make observations as you go along. I won't hide the possible dangers from you. There may be diseases, poisonous snakes, or anything else you can imagine. The Rorvan, not knowing that I'll know exactly where you are, may indeed murder you. But all in all, I think it's fairly safe for you to go. It's strictly volunteer, of course, and no shame to the man who doesn't wish to stick his neck out-but are you willing?"
Lorenzen wasn't sure. He admitted to himself he was frightened, just a little, and would rather stay in camp. But what the hell-everybody else was agreeing. "Sure," he said.
Afterward it occurred to him that the fear of being the only hold-back might have prompted all the others too. Man was a funny animal.

CHAPTER IX
The first three or four days were pure anguish. Then muscles got used to it, and they were logging off some forty kilometers a day without undue strain. It got monotonous, just walking over a prairie that always receded into far distances. Rain didn't stop them, the humans slipped on their waterproof coveralls and the Rorvan didn't seem to mind. There were broad rivers, but all of them shallow enough to ford, and canteens could be filled there. The long-range terrestrial rifles knocked down the plentiful game at distances of a kilometer or two, and on days when no animals appeared there was always plenty of wild vegetation, stems and leaves and beans which were nourishing if tough. Gummus-lugil, who carried the transceiver, signalled back to camp every evening-a dot-dash system, to keep the Rorvan from suspecting what the radio was. Hamilton had established three triangulation robostations which kept him informed of the party's whereabouts. His own reports held nothing exciting, merely further details on what they already knew. The Rorvan used compasses and maps to guide them, the latter in a symbology easy enough to translate once you knew what the various features were; they were hand-drawn, though that didn't mean the aliens didn't know about printing, and had a delicate touch-almost Chinese. The Mercator projection with its grid of lines and what was probably the prime meridian going straight through the south magnetic pole, suggested that they knew the true shape of the planet.
Lorenzen grew aware of the personality differences between them. Alasvu was quick-moving, impetuous, given to chattering away; Silish was the slow and stodgy tupe; Yanvusarran gave an impression of short temper; Djagaz seemed the most intellectual, and worked hardest with Avery. Lorenzen tried to follow the language lessons, without much success; they had progressed beyond the elementary level where he could have caught on, though Avery said communication was still a baffling problem.
"You should teach me what you already know, Ed," urged the astronomer. "Suppose something happened to you-where'd the rest of us be?"
"At worst, you could signal the aircar to come pick you up," said Avery.
"But dammit, I'm interested!"
"Okay, okay, I'll make up a vocabulary of the words I'm fairly certain of-but it won't help you much."
It didn't. All right, so you knew the names for grass, tree, star, run, walk, shoot. Where did you go from there? Avery used to sit by the campfire at night, talking and talking with Djagaz; the ruddy light burned off his face and gleamed in the inhuman eyes of the alien, their voices rose and fell in a purr and a rumble and a whistle, their hands moved in gestures-none of it made sense to Lorenzen.
Fernandez had brought his guitar along-inevitably, groaned Gummus-lugil-and liked to play and sing in the evenings. Alasvu produced a small four-stringed harp with a resonating board that gave its notes a shivery effect, and joined him. It was comical to hear them together, Alasvu butchering La Cucaracha or Fernandez trying to chord on the Rorvan scale. Gummus-lugil had a chessboard, and before long Silish had caught on and was giving him some competition. It was a peaceful, friendly sort of trip.
But the dark sense of its futility dogged Lorenzen. Sometimes he wished he had never come with the Hudson, wished he were back on Luna puttering with his instruments and photographic plates-all right, here was a new race, a different civilization, but what did it mean to man?
"We don't need more xenological data," he said to Thornton. "We need a planet."
The Martian raised his eyebrows. "Do you really think emigration will solve the population problem?" he asked. "You can't get rid of more than a few million people that way. Say a hundred million in the course of fifty years of continuous shuttle service-which somebody will have to finance, remember. New births will fill up the vacuum faster that that."
"I know," said Lorenzen. "I've been through all the arguments before. It's something more-something psychological. Just the knowledge that there is a frontier, that a man with his back to the wall can still go make a fresh start, that any commoner has the chance to become his own boss-that'll make an enormous difference to Sol, too. It'll relieve a lot of unhealthy social pressures-change the whole attitude of man, turn it outward."
"I wonder. Don't forget, some of the most ferocious wars in history were fought while the Americas were being opened and again when the planets were being settled."
"Then isn't now. Mankind is sick of war. But he needs to find something new, something bigger than himself."
"He needs to find God," said Thornton with a certain stiffness. "The last two centuries show how the Lord chastises a people who forget him. They won't escape by going to the stars."
Lorenzen's face felt warm.
"I don't see why your kind is always embarrassed when I speak of religion," said Thornton. "I'm perfectly willing to discuss it on a reasonable basis, like any other subject."
"We'd never agree," mumbled Lorenzen. "Waste of time."
"You mean you would never listen. Well-" Thornton shrugged."I've no great faith in all these colonization schemes, but it will be interesting to see what happens."
"I suppose ... I suppose whatever comes, y-y-your Martian homes will be spared!" blurted Lorenzen.
"No. Not necessarily. The Lord may see fit to punish us too. But we'll live. We're a survivor type."