"Philip Jose Farmer - Jesus on Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

'Your ear will become tuned.'
The session ended, leaving Orme sweating and tired. His only consolation
was that Bronski also looked peaked.
Their tutors left them before supper, but an hour after the two had eaten
they reappeared. Orme shut off the TV, which was showing a play of some kind.
It looked to him as if it were the Martian version of a soap opera, but he couldn't
be sure. However, during its course, he had recognised four phrases he'd
learned earlier. But his attempts to reproduce them aloud had failed.
'Tell them I've had enough Berlitz lessons,' he said.
But they were in for another kind of gruelling session. This was conducted
entirely in Greek except when Bronski interpreted for Orme. One question after
another was fired at them about the history of Earth since about 50 AD.
Occasionally Bronski's Greek failed him; he didn't know a word or a phrase. So
many artefacts and social and psychological concepts had come into being since
that time. Sometimes he would be able to explain by drawing a picture or a
diagram on the electronic screen which Sha'ul had brought in.
Frequently, Hfathon would interrupt him. 'Let's drop that particular matter
until later. It's too complicated and will only make us confused. Just give us the
main movements in Earth's history.'
But when Bronski tried to do this, he had to go into details.
'So far you've taken us up to what you call the eleventh century AD. That
corresponds, if I understand you correctly, to 4961 by the Hebrew reckoning.
We'll try to get to the present by the end of tomorrow's session. Then we'll have
to backtrack, start from the beginning again, so you can enlighten us on those
things which require detail to be comprehended perfectly.'
After hearing the Frenchman's translation of this, Orme said, 'Tell him
we're dying of curiosity about them. Ask him if we can't be told how and why they
came to Mars. If not, why not?'
Hfathon said, 'We have our reasons for this method of procedure. You
must bear with us. After all, you came here uninvited, so you can't expect to be
treated as honoured guests. Still, we're enjoined to love the alien in our land as
ourselves, because we were once aliens in Egypt. But to relieve your minds, you
may know that we have no sinister intentions. Everything that is being done is
done for the best. Shalom, my guests.'
Bronski said, 'But I've told you that our shipmates cannot stay in orbit for
much more than three weeks. Then they'll have to return to Earth. This
imprisonment is insufferable from our viewpoint, anyway. Can't...?'
He stopped. The six had walked out, and the transparent wall was sliding
down behind them.
Orme poured out the last of the wine in a bottle which Sha'ul had given
him. 'Damn it! I'm so frustrated I could bite nails! Or a Martian! What do you think
they're up to, Avram?'
Bronski shrugged his shoulders. His lean aquiline face was set with doubt.
'I don't know. There's nothing we can do except go along with them at their own
pace.'
'I'll tell you one thing. I think that all these questions about history are a
bunch of bull. They pretend to know nothing of us since 50 AD. But they haven't
been keeping their heads in their shells. At least, they shouldn't have. Look at
how technologically advanced they are. What's kept them from building another
spaceship and going to Earth? Or, if for some reason they haven't done that,