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

the cover of the rocks and dunes, his feathers gleaming with a dusty
rainbow sheen, his large head bobbing with the motion of his advance like
any fowlтАЩs. His manner was part laughably ludicrous, part scared, and part
determined.
And then, peering from behind a large boulder, he saw what he had
come to see. It was a bulging, slightly flattened sphere, perhaps a yard
across. From it projected flat, oval things of a gray-green color, like the
leaves of a cactus. And from these, in turn, grew clublike protuberances of
a hard, horny textureтАФspore-pods. One of them was blasted open,
doubtless by the pressure of gas accumulated within it. These spore-pods
were probably not as complexly or powerfully designed as those used by
the parent growths on Mars, for they were intended for a simpler purpose.
The entire plant bristled with sharp spines, and was furred with slender
hairs, gleaming like little silver wires.
Around the growth, thousands of ant bodies lay dead, and from its
vicinity other thousands of living were retreating. Kaw eyed these
evidences critically, guessing with wits as keen as those of a man of old
their sinister significance. He knew, too, that presently other spore-pods
would burst with loud, disturbing noises.
Kaw felt a twinge of dread. Evolution, working through a process of
natural selectionтАФand, in these times of hardship and pitiless
competition, putting a premium on intelligenceтАФhad given to his kind a
brain power far transcending that of his ancestors. He could observe, and
could interpret his observations with the same practical comprehension
which a primitive human being might display. But, like those primitives,
he had developed, too, a capacity to feel superstitious awe.
That gray-green thing of mystery had a fantastic cast which failed to
identify it withтАФwellтАФwith naturalness. Kaw was no botanist, certainly;
still he could recognize the object as a plant of some kind. But those little,
bright, eye-lenses suggested an unimaginable scrutiny. And those spines,
silvery in sheen, suggested ghoulish animation, the existence of which Kaw
could sense as a nameless and menacing unease.



He could guess, then, or imagineтАФor even know, perhapsтАФthat here
was an intruder who might well make itself felt with far-reaching
consequences in the future. Kaw was aware of the simple fact that most of
the vegetation he was acquainted with grew from seeds or the equivalent.
And he was capable of concluding that this flattened spheroid reproduced
itself in a manner not markedly unfamiliar. That is, if one was to accept
the evidence of the spore-pods. Billions of spores, scattering with the
wind! What would be the result?
Kaw would not have been so troubled, were it not for those crumpled
thousands of ant bodies, and the enigma of their death. It was clear that
the ants had come to feed on the invaderтАФbut they had perished. How? By
some virulent plant poison, perhaps? The conclusions which intelligence
provides can produce fear where fear would otherwise be impossible.
KawтАЩs impulse was to seek safety in instant departure, but horror and
curiosity fascinated him. Another deeper, more reasoned urge