"Blish, James - Mission To The Heart Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)
'What's the difference?' Jack said. 'Things don't seem very different now than they were in the twentieth century. We have just about the same situation they had back then, only more so.'
'Jack, the differences are radical. We now have a society where there is so much energy available for the taking -mostly electrical energy, but that's only because that's the most convenient form - that it's very difficult to put a price on it at all, any more than you'd charge people for breathing. We have a society where three quarters of the work and perhaps as much as half of the thinking are routinely done by machines and with almost no supervision. And yet at the same time, we have a society where nobody needs to be poor, even the unemployed, because our resources are such that production could vastly outstrip consumption - if we were foolish enough to let it. And we have done all this without infringing any freedoms except the size of the family, and the right of the franchise. Any high-energy society is forced to do both, but we stopped there.
'We solved that one in one package, by restricting the right to vote, and the right to multiply, to those who are employed. In a highly complex technological society, this almost ensures an intelligent electorate, though not necessarily an informed one. That remains the responsibility of the individual. And in addition, it preserves the gene pool by limiting the multiplication of the incompetent. Cruel, but necessary, and not so cruel as it appears on the surface, because people don't really mourn children they have never had - they only wish they could. And, of course, we have the cadet system, as represented here by you gentlemen, by which we try to make sure that we keep the talent pipelines filled and anticipate future needs for the talent to cope with problems that now are still in their infancy, or perhaps are not more than even marginally apparent.
'This all seems perfectly natural to you, of course, but I assure you that a twentieth-century man suddenly imported into our century could only conclude that the most drastic kind of revolution had taken place since his death - and what's more, he'd be right! These are some of the consequences and characteristics of the stage of culture I've called "post-civilization", and the Heart Stars, despite their enormous age, haven't yet reached that stage. I don't think they ever will. They're civilization addicts, and there's no power in our galaxy that could bring them to take the cure - except the Angels, who not only don't care but probably can't even begin to understand the problem.'
'I don't see why the Heart Stars, would object to - uh -post-civilization, though, sir,' Sandbag said, 'if it turns out -to be stable - and it looks like it's going to be. After all, stability is their number one test for membership. We've known that all along.'
'No, it isn't stable, Jerry. There's a big difference between stability and equilibrium. The one is static, the other, dynamic. What the Heart Stars have is stability - or, to use the exact word for it, stasis - which, even at the very best, results in a going downhill. The entropy gradient applies to societies as well as to energy relationships and communications. You cannot hold anything firmly in place; it will leak somewhere.
'But on the Earth, we have what chemists would call a dynamic equilibrium, constantly changing, yet constantly in balance. To be sure, we don't know where we're going, but we're at least in motion, whereas it's clear that this isn't true of the Hegemony of Malis. Nor can the Hegemony tolerate it. What we have preserved throughout our experiment in world control of people's lives is the freedom to be dissident in one's own mind, which is precisely the greatest talent we can contribute to such a multi-racial complex as the Heart Stars - and is exactly the one that they would be unable to accept. Obviously, wherever the hand of the Hegemony has rested, this has disappeared; and we have nothing else to give. And they do not and cannot want it,'
There was a long, long silence.
At last, Jack said, 'We've got to get out.'
'Yes,' Dr Langer said, as matter-of-factly as though the idea was a possible one. 'But to what purpose? What should we do then?'
There seemed to be no answer to this. But at last Jack spoke tentatively.
'Well, we're back again to where we started. We were under orders to try to make this alliance with the Heart Stars and now we're all agreed that it shouldn't ever happen. So even if we do get away, we shall be disobeying our own orders.'
'That's the least of my worries now,' Sandbag said gloomingly. 'I kind of like disobeying orders now and then. But we're stuck.'
'No, wait, Jerry,' Dr Langer said, a flicker of interest passing over his bland, deceptively youthful face. 'Go ahead, Jack. Have you got something?'
'I doubt it, sir, but perhaps we ought to try it on for size. The Sol system is a long, long way from the Heart Stars, and I think it'll take even the Hegemony a little time to mount the kind of attack that it's decided to make on us. If we could get back home first and tell the Earth our story, that would deprive the Earth of all hope of joining the Heart Stars for ever.'
'A good start. What then?'
'Well, then, we're so far away from the centre of the galaxy that we might set out to build a separate set of alliances out towards the rim, and maybe we'd be able to build our federation to a model nearer to this ideal of individual freedom we've been talking about. And still we could keep separate the things that freedom is supposed to keep separate: languages, traditions, myths - all those things that people cherish and can't do without. We've done it on the Earth. We could do it between planets. I don't know what you'd call it, but I think I see what it'd be like. A sort of - of federal feudalism, if that makes any sense at all.'
'It makes a lot of sense. But don't mistake the term for the idea. Defend it.'
'All right. While I was listening to you, it seemed more and more to me that this idea is the thing which the whole of our history - up to now, anyhow - seems to be shooting toward. And we'll never make it if we become a part of the Hegemony of Malis.'
Sandbag snorted. 'Who are we going to ally ourselves with?' he demanded scornfully. 'The Aaa? They've got no use for us, and besides, they don't even have paws good enough for building huts! Or the dolphins? How many armoured divisions do they have, and how'd they get out of the water to help us?'
The dolphins could help us think,' Jack said. 'It wouldn't be the first time they've given us a new angle on a major problem - not by a long shot! As for the Aaa, of course, I don't have any hope of getting any help from them. They're far too independent even to co-operate with each other. I didn't mean to say that this was going to be easy, even if we do get out of this jail. But all the same, it seems to me that this is the only thing worth trying. The Earth is in a galactic backwater. The Heart Stars might not hear that a sort of rival federation was in the making for - well, how long? I can't guess. Centuries? I don't know. And maybe it's a bad idea. But I think it just might work out.'
Sandbag looked at Dr Langer, but the older man simply shook his head slightly. He was only listening.
'I think you're still depending on the Angels,' Sandbag said to Jack. 'And I don't think they'll help us.'
'Neither do I,' Jack said. 'That's been one of the worst dangers from the beginning - that this whole mission we're on would be labelled by the Angels a violation of our treaty with them. I'm not depending on them at all. But we've got to start somewhere.'
'I've been thinking about it,' Jack said slowly. 'I think they're important, too, somewhere. But I don't quite see where.'
'I've had an idea there,' Sandbag said. 'Remember the all-water world, where those coral-reef things, the squids, were running the place to suit themselves? I've been wondering what would happen if we were to go back there in a decade or so and drop a couple of hundred of our dolphins - of both sexes, naturally - into that ocean. In about ten years, there wouldn't be a reef-builder left!'
'Ingenious,' Dr Langer said. 'We just might do that as a sort of opening gun. But after all, that's only one planet. It's the whole Hegemony we have to worry about.'
That's true,' Jack said, 'but all the same I think it's a great idea. With no killer whales to have to dodge, the dolphins would find that planet a paradise, and they'd have it running like a watch in no time. Those glorified squids wouldn't have a chance.'
'All my ideas are great ones,' Sandbag said modestly. 'But in the meantime, the main question is: how do we get out of here?'
'Surprisingly enough,' Dr Langer said thoughtfully, 'we do have several factors on our side. For instance, we're not guarded. Secondly, we can visit the Argo as often as we like; the Malans expect and understand that we will occasionally need things from it that they can't supply or won't want to take the trouble to supply. They know that we couldn't reach the Earth from here with any of our communications systems - they could but we can't - so that aspect of it doesn't worry them. Third, they also know that even their ordinary light cruisers could catch the Argo in a stern chase with no trouble at all, even on the Standing Wave, and they know that we know it. So they won't be expecting us to do anything so silly as to try. That will give us a little head start. Fourth, we won't have to be gentle about the manner of our leaving. We can go directly out of orbit into Haertel drive, without any preliminary edging away from Malis.'
'But what about the shock wave?' Jack said. 'It'll shake the whole planet. Won't they take that in itself as an act of war?'
'No, Jack, I don't think so. Because here the ancient Malans have put their modern descendants into our hands without either party being aware of it. Of course, if we go directly on to the Standing Wave from orbit, there'll be a planet-wide minor earthquake. But you've seen the way these people build. Do you think a minor earthquake is likely to do anything more to this planet than smash some crockery and shake up a lot of dust? Besides, I'm hoping for some minor damage to delicate equipment. That might delay their chasing us a little longer. And I am certainly counting on a good deal of confusion when the whole planet rattles at once.'
'Great!' Sandbag crowed. 'Let's go!' Dr Langer held up a cautionary hand. 'I'm all for trying,' he said. 'But even with the advantages I've listed, even with all of them working in exactly the way I hope they will -which isn't very likely - we are still probably not going to get away with it. With that firmly in mind, are you gentlemen still game?'
Neither of the cadets spoke for a moment, but apparently what Dr Langer saw in their faces was enough.
'Very good,' he said. 'Then there's no point in our standing around. The time to start is now.'
CHAPTER TEN
Stowaway
It wasn't that easy, however, as Dr Langer had to explain before the cadets had taken more than three eager strides towards the invitingly open, unwatched door. Actually, they had to wait for more than a month, carefully hoarding all of the non-perishable food that they were given and making trips to the Argo only frequently enough to keep the hoard from becoming obvious. Their captors unwittingly helped. Dr Langer complained that while he was doing nicely on the diet provided, his cadets were growing youngsters who needed more, and the Malans obligingly doubled the young men's rations. Dr Langer warned them to leave some scraps behind thereafter - which they did not find too difficult to do, although, because of the actual halving of their meals for hoarding purposes, they were always a little hungry.
'Shortly you'll be hungrier,' Dr Langer prophesied grimly.
But they never reached their target day. On what was to have been the next-to-last ferrying trip to the Argo, they were confronted at the spaceport by an unusually huge Malan in uniform, planted squarely between them and the airlock of the gig.
'Good afternoon,' Dr Langer said in his assumed falsetto. 'Is there some problem, officer?'
'Your movements are at the limit of the probable,' the Malan said in a voice like the grinding of millstones. 'The machines report that there would be no explanation for any trip to your orbiting vessel after this one. Therefore, we will now inspect your spacecraft for such an explanation.'
Jack's heart sank, but Dr Langer only nodded respectfully. 'Of course, sir. When is this inspection to take place?'
'Now.'
That did seem to surprise the troubleshooter a little. He said, 'We can't possibly carry an inspection crew in our gig. You'll need another vessel.'
'There is no need for a crew,' the Malan grated. 'I am the inspector assigned. Admit me to your ferry.'
'Certainly.'
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