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

тАЬHavenтАЩt you heard,тАЭ said de Salcedo, тАЬthat the King of Portugal secretly sent out a ship after he turned
down ColumbusтАЩ proposal? How do we know he did not, that the messages are from our predecessor,
that he sailed off the worldтАЩs rim and is now suspended in the air and becomes exposed at night because
it follows the moon around TerraтАФis, in fact, a much smaller and unseen satellite?тАЭ

The monkтАЩs laughter woke many men on the ship. тАЬIтАЩll have to tell the Las Palmas operator your tale. He
can put it in that novel of his. Next youтАЩll be telling me those messages are from one of those fire-shooting
sausages so many credulous laymen have been seeing flying around. No, my dear de Salcedo, letтАЩs not
be ridiculous. Even the ancient Greeks knew the earth was round. Every university in Europe teaches
that. And we Rogerians have measured the circumference. We know for sure that the Indies lie just
across the Atlantic. Just as we know for sure, through mathematics, that heavier-than-air machines are
impossible. Our Friar Ripskulls, our mind doctors, have assured us these flying creations are mass
hallucinations or else the tricks of heretics or Turks who want to panic the populace.

тАЬThat moon radio is no delusion, IтАЩll grant you. What it is, I donтАЩt know. But itтАЩs not a Spanish or
Portuguese ship. What about its different code? Even if it came from Lisbon, that ship would still have a
Rogerian operator. And he would, according to our policy, be of a different nationality from the crew so
he might the easier stay out of political embroilments. He wouldnтАЩt break our laws by using a different
code in order to communicate with Lisbon. We disciples of Saint Roger do not stoop to petty boundary
intrigues. Moreover, that realizer would not be powerful enough to reach Europe, and must, therefore, be
directed at us.тАЭ
тАЬHow can you be sure?тАЭ said de Salcedo. тАЬDistressing though the thought may be to you, a priest could
be subverted. Or a layman could learn your secrets and invent a code. I think that a Portuguese ship is
sending to another, a ship perhaps not too distant from us.тАЭ

De Torres shivered and crossed himself again. тАЬPerhaps the angels are warning us of approaching death?
Perhaps?тАЭ

тАЬPerhaps? Then why donтАЩt they use our code? Angels would know it as well as I. No, there is no
perhaps. The order does not permit perhaps. It experiments and finds out; nor does it pass judgment until
it knows.тАЭ

тАЬI doubt weтАЩll ever know,тАЭ said de Salcedo gloomily. тАЬColumbus has promised the crew that if we come
across no sign of land by evening tomorrow, we shall turn back. OtherwiseтАЭтАФhe drew a finger across his
throatтАФ тАЬkkk! Another day, and weтАЩll be pointed east and getting away from that evil and
bloody-looking moon and its incomprehensible messages.тАЭ

тАЬIt would be a great loss to the order and to the Church,тАЭ sighed the friar. тАЬBut I leave such things in the
hands of God and inspect only what He hands me to look at.тАЭ

With which pious statement Friar Sparks lifted the bottle to ascertain the liquid level. Having determined
in a scientific manner its existence, he next measured its quantity and tested its quality by putting all of it in
that best of all chemistry tubes, his enormous belly.

Afterward, smacking his lips and ignoring the pained and disappointed looks on the faces of the sailors,
he went on to speak enthusiastically of the water screw and the engine which turned it, both of which had
been built recently at the St. Jonas College at Genoa. If Isabellas three ships had been equipped with
those, he declared, they would not have to depend upon the wind. However, so far, the fathers had
forbidden its extended use because it was feared the engines fumes might poison the air and the terrible
speeds it made possible might be fatal to the human body. After which he plunged into a tedious