"Bradbury, Ray - Mars Is Heaven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bradbury Ray)

MARS IS HEAVEN!

by Ray Bradbury


The ship came down from space. It came from the stars and the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent gulfs of space. It was a new ship; it had fire in its body and men in its metal cells, and it moved with a clean silence, fiery and warm. In it were seventeen men, including a captain. The crowd at the Ohio field had shouted and waved their hands up into the sunlight, and the rocket bad bloomed out great flowers of beat and cobs and run away into space on the third voyage to Mars!
Now it was decelerating with metal efficiency in the upper Martian atmospheres. It was still a thing of beauty and strength. It had moved in the midnight waters of space like a pale sea leviathan; it had passed the ancient moon and thrown itself onward into one nothingness following another. The men within it had been battered,, thrown about, sickened, made well again, each in his turn. One man had died, but now the remainii~g sixteen, with their eyes clear in their heads and their faces pressed to the thick glass ports, watched Mars swing up under them.
УMars! Mars! Good old Mars, here we are!Ф cried Navigator Lustig.
УGood old Mars!Ф said Samuel Hinkston, archaeologist.
УWell,Ф said Captain John Black.
The ship landed softly. on a lawn of green grass. Outside, upon the lawn, stood an iron deer. Further up the lawn, a tall brown Victorian house sat in the quiet sunlight, all covered with scrolls and rococo, its windows
made of blue and pink and yellow and green colored glass. Upon the porch were hairy geraniums and an old swing which was hooked into the porch ceiling and which now swung back and forth, back and forth, in a little breeze. At the top of the house was a cupola with diamond, leaded-glass windows, and a dunce-cap roof! Through the front window you could see an ancient piano with yellow keys and a piece of music titled Beautiful Ohio sitting on the music rest.
Around the rocket in four directions spread the little town, green and motionless in the Martian spring, There were white houses and red brick ones, and tall elm trees blowing in the wind, and tall maples and horse chestnuts. And church steeples with golden bells silent in them.
The men in the rocket looked out and saw this. Then they looked at one another and then they looked out again. They held on~ to each otherТs elbows, suddenly unable to breathe, it seemed. Their faces grew pale and they blinked constantly, running from glass port to glass port of the ship.
УIТll be damned,Ф whispered Lustig, rubbing his face with his numb fingers, his eyes wet. УIll be thinned, damned, damned.Т~
УIt can~t be, it just canТt be,Ф said Samuel Hinkston.
УLord,Ф said Captain John Black.
There was a call from the chemist. УSir, the atmosphere is fine for breathing, sir.Ф -
Black turned slowly. УAre you sure?Т
УNo doubt of it, sir.Ф
УThen weТll go. out,Ф said Lustig.
УLord, yes,Ф said Samuel Hinkston.
УHold on,Ф said Captain John Black. УJust a moment, Nobody gave any orders.Ф
УBut, sir-.-Ф
УSir, nothing. How do we know what this is?Ф
УWe know what it is, sir,Ф said the chemist. УItТs a small town withgood air in it, sir.Ф
УAnd itТs a small town the like of Earth towns,Ф said Samuel Hinkston, the archaeologist. УIncredible. j~ canТt be, but it is.Ф
Captain John Black looked at him, idly. УDo you think
that the civilizations of two planets can progress at the same rate and evolve in the same way, Hinkston?Ф
УI wouldnТt have thought so, sir.Ф
Captain Black stood by the port. УLook out there. The
geraniums. A specialized plant. That specific variety has only been known on Earth for fifty years. Think of the thousands of years of time it takes to evolve plants. Then tell me if it is logical that the Martians should have:
one, leaded glass windows; two, cupolas; three, porch swings; four, an instrument that looks like, a . piano and probably is a piano; and, five, if you look closely, . if a Martian composer would have published a piece of music titled, strangely enough, Beautiful Ohio. All of which means that we have an Ohio River here on MarstФ
УIt is quite strange, sir.Ф
УStrange, hell, itТs absolutely impossible, and I suspect the whole bloody shooting setup. SomethingТs wrong here, and IТm not leaving the ship until I know what it is.Ф
УOh, sir,Ф said Lustig.
УDam it,Ф said Samuel Hinkston. УSir, I want to investigate this at first hand. It may be that there are similar patterns of thought, movement, civilization on every planet in our system. We may be on the threshold of the great psychological and metaphysical discovery In our time, sir, donТt you think?Ф
УIТm willing to wait a moment,Ф said Captain. John
Black. -
УIt may be, sir, that we are looking upon a phenomenon that, for the first time, would absolutely prOve the existence of a God, sir.Ф
УThere are many people who are of good faith without such proof, Mr. Hinkston.Ф
УIТm one myself, sir. But certainly a thing like this, out there,Ф said Hinkston, Уcould not occur without divine intervention, sir. It fills me with such terror and elation IТ donТt know whether to laugh or cry, sir.Ф
УDo neither,. then, until we know what weТre up against.Ф
УUp against, sir?Ф inquired Lustig. УI see that weТre up against nothing. ItТs a good quiet, green town, much like the one I was born in, and I like the looks of It.Ф
УWhen were you born, Lustig?Ф -
- УIn- 1910, sfr.Ф
УThat makes you fifty years old, now, doesnТt it?Ф
УThis being 1960, yes, sir.Ф
- УAnd you, Hinkston?Ф
У1920, sir. In Illinois. And this looks swell to me, sir.Ф