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

 EARTHMEN NO MORE
A Captain Future Novelet
By Edmond HAMILTON

When the Futuremen revived John Carey from his deep freeze,
he wanted to go homeтАФbut where in space was home ?


shrieking of his body against the void as it
was sucked into the devouring brilliance.
CHAPTER I
There was a face between him and the
light, huge and awesome. He cried out but
The Awakening
no sound came and then it was gone, the
light, the face, even himself, swallowed up
in the quiet night.
MemoriesтАФthe aloneness, the
S TILL and cold in its lightless vault of
remembering, the timeless drift. A sound
bone, the brain stirred feebly. Slowly,
like the rustle of far-off surf that boomed
slowly, it began to wake and rememberтАФ
louder and louder and became a voice
timeless memories, flowing across it in a
speaking out of the heavens, saying,
dark inchoate tide from nowhere into
тАЬWake up, John Carey! Wake up!тАЭ
nothingness.
And he thought he answered, тАЬBut I am
He was alone in space. Quite alone,
dead.тАЭ
floating, turning, drifting. He had no
How had he come to die?
destinatio n and he was in no hurry. He had
lost the Sun and the planets. There were
M EMORIES, groping, uncertain,
not even any stars.
coming faster, clearer, clothed in
He did not worry. The dead do not
vivid color. A girl's face, a girl's red mouth
insist on stars. He had forgotten how he
saying, тАЬDon't go. Don't go if you love me.
came to die and he was glad.
You'll never come back.тАЭ
After a long while, far distant in the
Men and a shipтАФa little ship, a frail and
infinite night, he saw a tiny gleam. He
tiny craft, it seemed, for the long way it
regarded it without curiosity or fear and