"Raymond Z. Gallun - Dawn of the Demigods Or, People Minus X" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gallun Raymond Z)

of strain that was not new. The stubby forefinger and thumb of his right hand
rubbed their calloused whorls together. Surprise on his square face gave way
to a cool watchfulness that, in the last ten years of guarded living, had been
grimed into his nature. Ed Dukas was now twenty-two. This era was hurtling and
troubled. Since his childhood, Ed had become acquainted with wonder, beauty,
bate, opportunity and disaster on a cosmic level, luxury, adventure, love.
Sometimes he had even found peace of mind.
He put down his pen, leaving the letter he had been writing suspended
in mid-sentence:
Pardon the preaching, Les. Human nature and everything else seems




Page 1
booby-trapped. They drummed the idea of courage and careful thinking into us
at school. Because so much that is new and changing is a big thing to handle.
Still, we'll have to stick to a course of action.
Now Ed sat with his elbows on his table, that other, no quite blank,
sheet of paper held lightly in his hand. He sat there, a stocky young man, his
hair cut ,like a hedge, the clues of his existence around him: banners on the
walls; a stereoptic picture of his team -- in color of course; ditto for his
astrophysics, his bookcase; his tiny sensipsych set; and the delicate
instruments that any guy who hoped to reach the next human goal, the nearer
stars, had to learn about.
His girl's picture, part of any youth's pattern of life for the last
three centuries, smiled from beside him on the table. Dark. Strong, as girls
were apt to be, these days. Beautiful in a rough-hewn way. But even with all
that strength to rely on, he was worried about her more than ever now. Times
were strange. He glanced at her likeness once. Then his gaze bounced back to
the paper in his hands.
His nerves tingled at the eerie thing that was happening there. He
didn't know whether to feel afraid of it or not. Man was stumbling toward
ultimate mastery of own flesh and the forces of the universe. But the distance
remained enormous, though technical science was forward, perhaps too swiftly,
on all fronts. Part of Ed's fear before the unknown was like the stage fright
of an inexperienced actor. You never quite knew what was ahead or how to judge
anything strange that you saw.
"Nippe -- "
At the end of the line which made the "e" there was a tiny speck of
blue ink. Almost imperceptibly, like the minute hand of a clock, it crept on,
curving and looping to form another letter.
"Nipper" the word was now.
This could be, somebody's funny gag, Ed thought. Somebody with a
gadget. The world is full of gadgets these days. Maybe too full.
It occurred to him that a pal might be playing a joke with some simple
device bought in a novelty store. But probability leaned toward something
deeper and more costly. Who knew? Someone might have invented a way to make a
man invisible. You didn't deny that anything could be, any more.
"Speak up!" he ordered softly.