"Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 26 - Earthmen No More" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

Carey stared at the door. The drops of
sweat ran slowly down his face. "Robot,
human in intelligence, created by scientific
genius..."
There were sounds behind the door.
There were presences not of the flesh.
Carey's mouth was dry with the taste of
fear.
"... android, human in all respects but
created also in the laboratory..."
Carey began to move toward the door.
What dreadful facet of the future had he
been cast into? What uncanny children of
this undreamed-of age were lurking there
behind that panel? He could not bear to
know but somehow not knowing was
worse. Not knowing and wondering and
thinking...
"...the brain of a great scientist, a
human, kept alive for many years in a
special case..."
Robot, android, living brain. A red-
haired man and a date on a calendar. A
ship where there are no ships, a life where
there is no living. A dream, Carey--a
dream you're dreaming, drifting along
A
4
with the endless tides, the dark night tides
beyond the Belt. Open the door, Carey.
What difference in a dream?
A human figure, lithe and graceful,
whose face had the unhappy beauty of a
faun, green-eyed and mocking. And beside
it a shape, a towering gigantic manlike
form built all of gleaming metal. A shape
that bent toward him, reaching out its
dreadful arms, glaring at him with two
round, flashing eyes.
A harsh, toneless voice spoke close
behind Carey, saying, "Catch him, Curtis."
Carey looked for the source of the
strange voice. The cubical box that he had
taken for a communicator had risen from
its shelf, hovering upon tenuous beams.
And he saw that the surface with the twin
lenses and the disc was indeed a face.
"No," said Carey. "Don't touch me.
Don't any of you touch me."
He made his way back into the little