"Charles L. Harness-Child by Chronos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harness Charles L)

"Yes. After you built it in 1977, you'll focus it back to 1957, so that you could jump through, now,
into 1977, that is. Only, I'm not going to let you. When mother made her last prediction she couldn't have
known to what lengths I'd go to stop you."
He passed his hand plaintively over his face. "But... but... even assuming that you're from 1977, and
even assuming I'll build a magnetronic generator in 1977, I can't just jump into 1977 and build it. I
certainly can't move forward in time to 1977 through a magnetronic field that won't be generated and
beamed backwards to 1957 until I arrive in 1977 and generate it. That's as silly as saying that the
Pilgrims built the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock. And anyway, I'm a husband who'll soon be a father. I
haven't the faintest intention of running out on my responsibilities."
"And yet," I said, "if the sequence proceeds normally, you will leave me... for her. Tonight you're my
lawful husband, the father of our child to be. Then-- bing! You're suddenly in 1977-- wife-deserter,
philanderer, and mother's lover. I won't let this happen. After all I've been through, I won't let her get
you. My blood goes into a slow boil just thinking about her, smiling way up there in 1977, thinking how
she got rid of me so she could eventually have you all to herself. And me in my condition." My voice
broke in an artistic tremolo.
"I could age normally," he said. "I could simply wait until 1977 and then build the generator."
"You didn't though-- that is, I mean you won't. When I last saw you in 1977 you looked even younger
than you do now. Maybe it was the patch."
He shrugged his shoulders. "If your presence here is a direct consequence of my presence there, then
there's nothing either of us can do to change the sequence. I don't want to go through. And what could
happen to force me through I can't even guess. But we've got to proceed on the assumption that I'll go,
and you'll be left stranded. We've got to make plans. You'll need money. You'll probably have to sell
Skyridge. Get a job, after the baby comes. How's you shorthand?"
"They'll use vodeographs in 1977," I muttered. "But you don't have to worry, you cheap two-timer.
Even if you succeeded in running off to my mother, the baby and I'll get along. As a starter, I'm going to
put the rest of your bank account on Counterpoint to win the Preakness next Saturday. After that-- "
"But he had already switched to something else. "When you knew me in 1977, were we-- ah--
intimate?"
I snorted. "Depends on who 'we' includes."
"What? You mean... I... and your mother really...?"He coughed and ran his finger around his collar.
"There must be some simple explanation."
I just sneered at him.
He giggled. "Your mother-- ah-- in 1977-- a good-looking woman, I gather?"
"A wrinkled, painted harridan," I said coldly. "Forty, if she's a day."
"Hmph! I'm forty, you know. Contrary to the adolescent view, it's the best time of life. You'll feel the
same way about it in another twenty years."
"I suppose so," I said. "They'll be letting me out of the penitentiary about then."
"He snapped his fingers suddenly. "I've got it! Fantastic!" He turned away and looked out over the
balcony, like Cortez on his peak. "Fantastic, but it hangs together. Completely logical. Me. Your mother.
You. The child. The magnetrons. The eternal cycle."
"This isn't making it easier for me," I said reproachfully. "The least you could do would be to remain
sane until the end."
He whirled on me. "Do you know where she is-- now-- tonight?"
"No, and I spent two-thirds of our joint bank account trying to locate her. It's just as though she never
existed."
His eyes got bigger and bigger. "No wonder you couldn't find her. You couldn't know."
"Know what?"
"What your mother is."
I wanted to scream at him. "Oh," I said.
But he was off on another tangent. "But it's not entirely without precedent. When a cell divides, which