"Harrison, Harry - Deathworld 1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"Kerk in here?" Jason asked.
"Sure," the boy told him. "He's in charge."
'Pine. Now you get a nice cold drink or your lunch or something, and meet me back here in a couple of hours. I imagine Kerk can do as good a job of looking after me as you can."
The boy stood doubtfully for a few seconds, then turned away. Jason wiped off some more sweat and pushed through the door.
There were a handful of people in the office beyond. None of them looked up at Jason or asked his business. Everything has a purpose on Pyrrus. If he came there, he must have had a good reason. No one would ever think to ask him what he wanted. Jason, used to the petty officialdom of a thousand worlds, waited for a few moments before he understood. There was only one other door to the room, in the far wall. He shuffled over and opened it.
Kerk looked up from a desk strewed with papers and ledgers. "I was wondering when you would show up," he said.
"A lot sooner if you hadn't prevented it," Jason tol&him as he dropped wearily into a chair. "It finally dawned on me that I could spend the
rest of my life in your bloodthirsty nursery school if I didn't do something about it. So here I am."
"Ready to return to the 'civilized' worlds, now that you've seen enough of Pyrrus?"
"I am not," Jason said. "And I'm getting very tired of everyone telling me to leave. I'm beginning to think that you and the rest of the Pyrrans are trying to hide something."
Kerk smiled at the thought. "What could we have to hide? I doubt if any planet has as simple and one-directional an existence as ours."
"If that's true, then you certainly wouldn't mind answering a few direct questions about Pyrrus, would you?"
Kerk started to protest, then laughed. 'Well done. I should know better by now than to argue with you. What do you want to know?"
Jason tried to find a comfortable position on the hard chair, then gave up. "What's the population of your planet?" he asked.
For a second Kerk hesitated, then said, "Roughly thirty thousand. That's not very much for a planet that has been settled this long, but the reason for that is obvious."
"All right, population thirty thousand," Jason said. "Now how about surface control of your planet? I was surprised to find out that this city within its protective wall-the perimeter-is the only one on the planet. Let's not consider the mining camps, since they are obviously just extensions of the city. Would you say then that you people control more or less of the planet's surface than you did in the past?"
Kerk picked up a length of steel pipe from the desk that he used as a paperweight and toyed with it as he thought. The thick steel bent like rubber at his touch as he concentrated on his answer.
"That's hard to say offhand. There must be records of that sort of thing, though I wouldn't know where to find them. It depends on so many factors. . . ."
"Let's forget that for now then," Jason said. "I have another question that's really more relevant. Wouldn't you say that the population of Pyrrus is declining steadily, year after year?"
There was a sharp clang as the pipe struck the wall. Then Kerk was standing over Jason, his hands extended toward the smaller man, his face flushed and angry.
"Don't ever say that!" he roared. "Don't let me ever hear you say that again!"
Jason sat as quietly as he could, talking slowly and picking out each word with care. His life hung in the balance.
"Don't get angry, Kerk. I meant no harm. I'm on your side, remember? I can talk to you, because you've seen much more of the universe than the Pyrrans who have never left the planet. You are used to discussing things. You know that words are just symbols. We can talk and know you don't have to lose your temper over mere words. . . ."
Kerk slowly lowered his arms and stepped away. Then he turned and poured himself a glass of water from a bottle on the desk. He kept his back turned to Jason while he drank.
Very little of the sweat that Jason wiped from his sopping face was caused by the heat in the room.
"I'm-sorry I lost my temper," Kerk said, dropping heavily into his chair. "Doesn't usually happen. Been working hard lately, must have got my temper on edge." He made no mention of what Jason had said. "Happens to all of us," Jason told him. "I won't begin to describe the condition my nerves were in when I hit this planet. I'm finally forced to admit that everything you said about Pyrrus is true. It is the most deadly spot in the system. And only native-born Pyrrans could possibly survive here. I can manage to fumble along a bit after my training, but I know I would never stand a chance on my own. You probably know I have an eight-year-old as a bodyguard. Gives a good idea of my real status here."
Anger suppressed, Kerk was back in control of himself now. His eyes narrowed in thought. "Surprises me to hear you say that. Never thought I would hear you admit that anyone could be better than you at anything. Isn't that why you came here? To prove that you were as good as any native-born Pyrran?"
"Score one for your side," Jason admitted. "I didn't think it showed that much. And I'm glad to see your mind isn't as musciebound as your body. Yes, I'll admit that was probably my main reason for coming, that and curiosity."
Kerk was following his own train of thought and puzzled where it was leading him. "You came here to prove that you were as good as any native-born Pyrran. Yet now you admit that any eight-year-old can outdraw you. That just doesn't stack up with what I know about you. If you give with one hand, you must be taking back with the other. In what way do you still feel your natural superiority?" He asked it lightly, yet there was weight of tension behind his words.
Jason thought a long time before answering.
"I'll tell you," he finally said. "But don't snap my neck for it. I'm
gambling that your civilized mind can control your reflexes. Because I have totalk about things that are strictly taboo on Pyrrus.
"In your people's eyes I'm a weakling because I cone from off-world. Realize, though, that this is also my strength. I can see things that are hidden from you by long association. You know, the old business of not being able to see the forest for the trees in the way."
Kerk nodded agreement and Jason went on. "To continue the analogy further, I landed from an airship, and at first all I could see was the forest. To me certain facts are obvious. I think that you people know them too, only you keep your thoughts carefully repressed. They are hidden thoughts that are completely taboo. I'm going to tell you the biggest one of these secret thoughts and hope you can control yourself well enough not to kill me."
Kerk's great hands tightened on the arms of the chair, the only sign he had heard. Jason spoke quietly, but his words penetrated as smoothly and easily as a lancet probing into a brain.
"I think human beings are losing the war on Pyrrus. After hundreds of years of occupation this is the only city on the planet-and it is half in ruins. As if it once had a larger population. That stunt we pulled off to get the shipload of war materials was a stunt. It might not have worked. And if it hadn't, what would have happened to the city? You people are walking on the crumbling rim of a volcano and you won't admit it."
Every muscle in Kerk's body was rigid as he sat stiffly in the chair, his face dotted with tiny beads of sweat. The slightest push too far and he would explode. Jason searched for a way to lessen some of the tension.
"I don't enjoy telling you these things. I'm doing it because I'm sure you know them already. You can't face these facts because you would then have to admit that all this fighting and killing is for absolutely no purpose. If your population is dropping steadily, then your fight is nothing but a particularly bloody form of racial suicide. You could leave this planet, but that would be admitting defeat. And I'm sure Pyrrans prefer death to defeat."
When Kerk half-rose from his chair Jason stood too, shouting his words through the other man's fog of anger.
"I'm trying to help you-do you understand that? Wipe the hypocrisy out of your mind, it's destroying you. Piight now you would rather kill me than admit consciously that you are fighting an already lost battle. This isn't a real war, just a disastrous treating of symptoms. Like cutting off cancerous fingers one by one. The only result must be ultimate
defeat. You won't allow yourself to realize that. That's why you would rather kill me than hear me speak the unspeakable."
Kerk was out of his seat now, hanging over Jason like a tower of death, about to fall. Held up only by the force of Jason's words.
"You must begin to face reality. All you can see is everlasting war. You must begin to realize that you can treat the causes of this war and end it forever!"
The meaning penetrated, the shock of the words draining away Kerk's anger. He dropped back into the chair, an almost ludicrous expression on his face. "What the devil do you mean? You sound like a bloody Grubber!"
Jason didn't ask what a Grubber was, but he filed the name.
"You're talking nonsense," Kerk said. "This is just an 'alien world that must be battled. The causes are self-obvious facts of existence."
"No, they're not," Jason insisted. "Consider for a second. When you are away for any length of time from this planet, you must take a refresher course. To see how things have changed for the worse while you were gone. Well that's a linear progression. If things get worse when you extend into the future, then they have to get better if you extend into the past. It is also good theory-though I don't know if the facts will bear me out-to say that if you extend it far enough into the past you will reach a time when mankind and Pyrrus were not at war with each other."
Kerk was beyond speech now, only capable of sitting and listening while Jason drove home the blows of inescapable logic.
"There is evidence to support this theory. Even you will admit that I, if I am no match for Pyrran life, am surely well versed in it. And all Pyrran flora and fauna I've seen have one thing in common. They're not functional. None of their immense armory of weapons is used against each other. Their toxins don't seem to operate against Pyrran life. They are good only for dispensing death to homo sapiens. And that is a physical impossibility. In the three hundred years that men have been on this planet, the life forms couldn't have naturally adapted in this manner."
"But they have done it!" Kerk bellowed.