"Raymond Z. Gallun - Seeds of Dusk" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gallun Raymond Z)

known to men on earth.



The era of utter death would come to Mars, when nothing would move
on its surface except the shadows shifting across dusty deserts, and the
molecules of sand and rock vibrating with a little warmth from the hot,
though shrunken Sun. DeathтАФcomplete death! But the growths which
were the last civilized beings of Mars had not originated there. Once they
had been on the satellites of Jupiter, too. And before thatтАФwell, perhaps
even the race memory of their kind had lost the record of those dim,
distant ages, Always they had waited their chance, and when the time
cameтАФwhen a world was physically suited for their developmentтАФthey
had acted.
A single spore was enough to supply the desired foothold on a planet.
Almost inevitablyтАФsince chance is, in fundamentals, a mathematical
element depending on time and numbers and repetitionтАФthat single spore
reached the upper atmosphere of Earth.
For months, it bobbed erratically in tenuous, electrified gases. It might
have been shot into space again. Upward and downward it wandered; but
with gravity to tug at its significant mass, probability favored its ultimate
descent to the harsh surface.
It found a resting place, at last, in a frozen desert gully. Around the gully
were fantastic, sugar-loaf mounds. Nearby was one thin, ruined spire of
blue porcelainтАФan empty reminder of a gentler era, long gone. The
location thus given to it seemed hardly favorable in its aspect. For this was
the northern hemisphere, locked now in the grip of a deadly winter. The
air, depleted through the ages, as was the planetтАЩs water supply, arid and
thin. The temperature, though not as rigorous and deadening as that of
interplanetary space, ranged far below zero. Mars in this age was near
dead; Earth was a dying world.
But perhaps this condition, in itself, was almost favorable. The spore
belonged to a kind of life developed to meet the challenge of a generally
much less friendly environment than that of even this later-day Earth.
There was snow in that desert gullyтАФmaybe a quarter-inch depth of it.
The rays of the SunтАФwhite and dwarfed after so many eons of converting
its substance into energy тАФdid not melt any of that snow even at noon. But
this did not matter. The life principle within the spore detected favorable
conditions for its germination, just as, in spring, the vital principle of
Earthly seeds had done for almost incalculable ages.
By a process parallel to that of simple fermentation, a tiny amount of
heat was generated within the spore. A few crystals of snow around it
turned to moisture, a minute quantity of which the alien speck of life
absorbed. Roots finer than spiderweb grew, groping into the snow. At
night they were frozen solid, but during the day they resumed their brave
activity.
The spore expanded, but did not burst. For its shell was a protecting
armor which must be made to increase in size gradually without rupture.
Within it, intricate chemical processes were taking place. Chlorophyl there
was absorbing sunshine and carbon dioxide and water. Starch and