"Harry Harrison - 50 in 50 - Fifty Stories in Fifty Years" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

will help them face the realities of the greater universe they never even knew existed before. But don't
confuse them with your hatreds and pain, guilt, sin, and punishment. Who knows the harmтАФ"
"You are being insulting, sir!" the priest said, jumping to his feet. The top of his grey head barely
came to the massive spaceman's chin, yet he showed no fear in defending what he believed. Garth,
standing now himself, was no longer the penitent. They faced each other in anger, as men have always
stood, unbending in the defense of that which they think right.
"Yours is the insult," Garth shouted. "The incredible egotism to feel that your derivative little
mythology, differing only slightly from the thousands of others that still burden men, can do anything but
confuse their still fresh minds. Don't you realize that they believe in truthтАФand have never heard of such a
thing as a lie? They have not been trained yet to understand that other kinds of minds can think differently
from theirs. Will you spare them this . . . ?"
"I will do my duty which is His will, Mr. Garth. These are God's creatures here, and they have souls.
I cannot shirk my duty, which is to bring them His word so that they may be saved and enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven."
When the priest opened the door the wind caught it and blew it wide. He vanished into the
storm-swept darkness and the door swung back and forth and a splatter of raindrops blew in. Garth's
boots left muddy footprints when he closed the door, shutting out the sight of Itin sitting patiently and
uncomplaining in the storm, hoping only that Garth might stop for a moment and leave with him some of
the wonderful knowledge of which he had so much.
By unspoken consent that first night was never mentioned again. After a few days of loneliness, made
worse because each knew of the other's proximity, they found themselves talking on carefully neutral
grounds. Garth slowly packed and stowed away his stock and never admitted that his work was finished
and he could leave at any time. He had a fair amount of interesting drugs and botanicals that would fetch
a good price. And the Wesker artifacts were sure to create a sensation in the sophisticated galactic
market. Crafts on the planet here had been limited before his arrival, mostly pieces of carving painfully
chipped into the hard wood with fragments of stone. He had supplied tools and a stock of raw metal
from his own supplies, nothing more than that. In a few months the Weskers had not only learned to
work with the new materials, but had translated their own designs and forms into the most alienтАФbut
most beautifulтАФartifacts that he had ever seen. All he had to do was release these on the market to
create a primary demand, then return for a new supply. The Weskers wanted only books and tools and
knowledge in return, and through their own efforts he knew they would pull themselves into the galactic
union.
This is what Garth had hoped. But a wind of change was blowing through the settlement that had
grown up around his ship. No longer was he the center of attention and focal point of the village life. He
had to grin when he thought of his fall from power,- yet there was very little humor in the smile. Serious
and attentive Weskers still took turns of duty as Knowledge Collectors, but their recording of dry facts
was in sharp contrast to the intellectual hurricane that surrounded the priest.
Where Garth had made them work for each book and machine, the priest gave freely. Garth had
tried to be progressive in his supply of knowledge, treating them as bright but unlettered children. He had
wanted them to walk before they could run, to master one step before going on to the next.
Father Mark simply brought them the benefits of Christianity. The only physical work he required
was the construction of a church, a place of worship and learning. More Weskers had appeared out of
the limitless planetary swamps and within days the roof was up, supported on a framework of poles.
Each morning the congregation worked a little while on the walls, then hurried inside to learn the
all-promising, all-encompassing, all-important facts about the universe.
Garth never told the Weskers what he thought about their new interest, and this was mainly because
they had never asked him. Pride or honor stood in the way of his grabbing a willing listener and pouring
out his grievances. Perhaps it would have been different if Itin was on Collecting duty, he was the
brightest of the lot, but Itin had been rotated the day after the priest had arrived and Garth had not talked
to him since.