"James E. Gunn - Breaking Point" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

Bup-bup-bup-bup ...

"Shut that damned thing off!"

Ives looked up at the pilot, startled. He turned the gain down to a whisper. Paresi left the bulkhead and
stood behind Johnny. "What's the matter?" he asked. His voice was feline, tooтАФa sort of purr.

Johnny looked up at him quickly, and grinned. "I can put her down," he said. "That's what I'm here for.
IтАФlike to think maybe I'll get to do it, that's all. I can't think that with the autopilot blasting out an 'on
course'." He punched the veering-jet controls. It served men perfectly. The ship ignored him, homed on
the beam. The ship computed velocity, altitude, gravity, magnetic polarization, windage; used and
balanced and adjusted for them all. It adjusted for interference from the manual controls. It served men
perfectly. It ignored them utterly.

Johnny turned to look out and downward. Paresi's gaze followed. It was a beautiful planet, perhaps a
shade greener than the blue-green of earth. It seemed, indefinably, more park-like than wild. It had an air
of controlled lushness and peace.
The braking jets thundered as Johnny depressed a control. Paresi nodded slightly as he saw the pilot's
hand move, for he knew that the autopilot had done it, and that Johnny's movement was one of trained
reflex. The youngster was intense and alert, hair-trigger schooled, taught to pretend in such detail that the
pretense was reality to him; a precise pretense that would become reality for all of them if the machine
failed.

But of course the machine would not fail.

Fields fled beneath them, looking like a crazy-quilt in pastel. On them, nothing moved. Hoskins moved to
the viewport and watched them mildly. "Very pastoral," he said. "Pretty."

"They haven't gotten very far," said Ives.

"Or they've gotten very far indeed," said Captain Anderson.

Johnny snorted. "No factories. No bridges. Cow-tracks and goat paths."

The Captain chuckled. "Some[Pg 10] cultures go through an agrarian stage to reach a technological
civilization, and some pass through technology to reach the pastoral."

"I don't see it," said Johnny shortly, eyes ahead.

Paresi's hand touched the Captain's arm, and the Captain then said nothing.




Pwing-g-g!

"Stand by for landing," said the Captain.

Ives and Hoskins went aft to the shock-panels in the after bulkhead. Paresi and the Captain stepped into