"Blish, James - Common Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

through himwhat an electrician might have termed a
"maintenance turnover"in response to the urgings of some
occult survival urge; but these were of so basic a nature as
to reach his consciousness not at all. This was the pseudo-
death.
When the observer actually arrived, however, Garrard
woke. He could make very little sense out of what he saw
or felt even now; but one fact was clear: the overdrive
was offand with it the crazy alterations in time ratesand
there was strong light coming through one of the ports. The
first leg of the trip was over. It had been these two changes
in his environment which had restored him to life.
The thing (or things) which had restored him to con-
sciousness, however, wasit was what? It made no sense.
It was a construction, a rather fragile one, which completely
surrounded his hammock. No, it wasn't a construction, but
evidently something alivea living being, organized hori-
zontally, that had arranged itself in a circle about him. No,
it was a number of beings. Or a combination of all of these
things.
How it had gotten into the ship was a mystery, but there
it was. Or there they were.
"How do you hear?" the creature said abruptly. Its voice,
or their voices, came at equal volume from every point in
the circle, but not fiqm any particular point in it. Garrard
could think of no reason why that should be unusual.
"I" he said. "Or wewe hear with our ears. Here."
His answer, with its unintentionally long chain of open
vowel sounds, rang ridiculously. He wondered why he was
speaking such an odd language.
"We-they wooed to pitch you-yours thiswise," the creature
said. With a thump, a book from the DFC-3's ample library
fell to the deck beside the hammock. "We wooed there and
there and there for a many. You are the being-Garrard. We-
they are the clinesterton beademung, with all of love."
"With all of love," Garrard echoed. The beademung's
use of the language they both were speaking was odd; but
again Garrard could find no logical reason why the beade-
mung's usage should be considered wrong.
"Areare you-they from Alpha Centauri?" he said hesi-
tantly.
"Yes, we hear the twin radioceles, that show there beyond
the gift-orifices. We-they pitched that the being-Garrard with
most adoration these twins and had mind to them, soft and
loud alike. How do you hear?"
This time the being-Garrard understood the question. "I
hear Earth," he said. "But that is very soft, and does not
show."
"Yes," said the beademung. "It is a harmony, not a first,
as ours. The All-Devouring listens to lovers there, not on the