"Edmond Hamilton - Children of the Sun" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

artificial eyes that watched him now had
toward the most strange and soul-shaking
watched his first stumbling attempts to
experience of all. . .
walk, the microphonic ears had heard his
Curt Newton was oppressed, not by
infant wails.
premonitions but by a self-accusing regret.
тАЬSimonтАФdo you think Carlin is dead ?тАЭ
The deep worry that he felt showed in the
тАЬSpeculation is quite useless, Curtis.
tautness of his face, in the set of his lean
We can only try to find him.тАЭ
body. His red head was bent forward, his
тАЬWe've got to find him,тАЭ Newton said,
gray eyes anxiously searching the
with somber determination. тАЬHe helped us
sunbeaten reaches of space ahead.
when we needed help. And he was our
The little ship was inside the orbit of
friend.тАЭ
Mercury. The whole sky ahead was
Friend. He had had so few close human
dominated by the monster bulk of the Sun.
friends, this man whom the System called
It glared like a universe of flame, crowned
Captain Future. Always he had stood in the
by the awful radiance of its corona,
shadow of a loneliness that was the
reaching out blind mighty tentacles of fire.


1
inescapable heritage of his strange A man but no kin to the sons of Adam.
childhood. An android, the perfect creation of
Orphaned almost at birth he had grown scientific craft and wisdomтАФhumanity
to manhood on the lonely Moon, knowing carried to its highest power, and yet not
no living creature but the three unhuman human. He carried his difference with an
Futuremen. They had been his playmates, air but Curt Newton was aware that Otho
his teachers, his inseparable companions. was burdened with a loneliness far more
Inevitably by that upbringing he was keen than any he could know himself.
forever set apart from his own kind. The android said quietly, тАЬTake it easy,
Few people had ever penetrated that Curt. The unitтАЩs already functioning.тАЭ
barrier of reserve. Philip Carlin had been He glanced through the window at the
one of them. And now Carlin was gone glaring vista of space and shivered. тАЬI get
into mystery. edgy myself, playing around the Sun this
тАЬIf I had been here,тАЭ Newton brooded, close.тАЭ
тАЬI'd never have let him go.тАЭ Newton nodded. Otho was right. It was
one thing to come and go between the
A planets, even between the stars. It was a