"Philip Jose Farmer - 1952-1964" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

Their ears were too overwhelmed to hear a mere human voice. The throat clearing and the twanging of a
string had been the noises preliminary to the concert itself. Now came the mighty overture; as compelling
as the blast of GabrielтАЩs horn was the topple of Oceanus into space.

Mother

1953

1

LOOK, MOTHER. THE clock is running backwards.тАЬ

Eddie Fetts pointed to the hands on the pilot room dial.

Dr. Paula Fetts said, тАЬThe crash must have reversed it.тАЭ

тАЬHow could it do that?тАЭ

тАЬI canтАЩt tell you. I donтАЩt know everything, son.тАЭ

тАЬOh!тАЭ

тАЬWell, donтАЩt look at me so disappointedly. IтАЩm a pathologist, not an electronician.тАЭ

тАЬDonтАЩt be so cross, mother. I canтАЩt stand it. Not now.тАЭ

He walked out of the pilot room. Anxiously, she followed him. The burial of the crew and her fellow
scientists had been very trying for him. Spilled blood had always made him dizzy and sick; he could
scarcely control his hands enough to help her sack the scattered bones and entrails.
He had wanted to put the corpses in the nuclear furnace, but she had forbidden that. The Geigers
amidships were ticking loudly, warning that there was invisible death in the stern.

The meteor that struck the moment the ship came out of Translation into normal space had probably
wrecked the engine-room. So she had understood from the incoherent highpitched phrases of a colleague
before he fled to the pilot room. She had hurried to find Eddie. She feared his cabin door would still be
locked, as he had been making a tape of the aria тАЬHeavy Hangs the AlbatrossтАЭ from GianelliтАЩs Ancient
Mariner.

Fortunately, the emergency system had automatically thrown out the locking circuits. Entering, she had
called out his name in fear heтАЩd been hurt. He was lying half-unconscious on the floor, but it was not the
accident that had thrown him there. The reason lay in the corner, released from his lax hand; a quart
free-fall thermos, rubber-nippled. From Eddies open mouth charged a breath of rye that not even Nodor
pills had been able to conceal.

Sharply she had commanded him to get up and onto the bed. Her voice, the first he had ever heard,
pierced through the phalanx of Old Red Star. He struggled up, and she, though smaller, had thrown every
ounce of her weight into getting him up and onto the bed.

There she had lain down with him and strapped them both in. She understood that the lifeboat had been
wrecked also, and that it was up to the captain to bring the yacht down safely to the surface of this