"Blish, James - Watershed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

common reservoir of brotherhood and purpose. You and I
are very fortunate to be on the scene to see it."
"Very interesting," Gorbel said coldly. "But all those things
happened a long time ago, and we know very little about this
part of the galaxy these days. Under the circumstances
which you'll find clearly written out in the log, together with
the appropriate regulationsI'm forced to place the ship on
emergency alert beginning tomorrow, and continuing until
your team disembarks. I'm afraid that means that henceforth
all passengers will be required to stay in quarters."
Hoqqueah turned and arose. His' eyes were still warm and
liquid, but there was no longer any trace of merriment in
them.
"I know very well what it means," he said. "And to some
extent I understand the needthough I had been hoping to
see 'the planet of our birth first from space. But I don't think
you quite understood me. Captain. The moral watershed of
which I spoke is not in the past. It is now. It began the day
that the Earth itself became no longer habitable for the so-
called basic human type. The flowing of the streams toward
the common reservoir will become bigger and bigger as word
spreads through the galaxy that Earth itself has been seeded
with Adapted Men. With that news will go a shock of recog-
nitionthe shock of realizing that the 'basic' types are now,
and have been for a long time, a very small minority, de-
spite their pretensions."
Was Hoqqueah being absurd enough to threatenan un-
armed, comical seal-man shaking a fist at the captain of the
indefeasible? Or
"Before I go, let me ask you this one question, Captain.
Down there is your home planet, and my team and I will be
going out on its surface before long. Do you dare to follow us
out of the ship?"
"And why should I?" Gorbel said.
"Why, to show the superiority of the basic type. Captain,"
Hoqqueah said softly. "Surely you cannot admit that a pack
of seal-men are your betters, on your own ancestral ground!"
He bowed and went to the door. Just before he reached it,
be turned and looked speculatively at Gorbel and at Lt.
Averdor, who was staring at him with an expression of rigid
fury.
"Or can you?" he said. "It will be interesting to see how
you manage to comport yourselves as a minority. I think you
lack practice."
He went out. Both Gorbel and Averdor turned jerkily to
the screen, and Gorbel turned it on. The image grew, steadied,
settled down.
When the next trick came on duty, both men were still
staring at the vast and tumbled desert of the Earth.