"Heinlein, Robert A - By His Bootstraps" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

By His Bootstraps

Time travel is one of the most popular of science fictionТs basic themes because it allows the author the freedom to speculate on both the past and the future from the perspective of the present It can also provide the author and reader with the opportunity to have some intellectual fun playing with the many time-paradoxes involvedЧfor example, if you went back in time and killed your mother before you were born, would you continue to exist?
No one in science fiction has ever engaged these issues with as much throughness as Robert A. Heinlein did in this (paradoxically) rarely reprinted story that is widely considered a classic in the field.


Bob Wilson did not see the circle grow.
Nor, for that matter, did he see the stranger who stepped out of the circle and stood staring at the back of WilsonТs neckЧstared, and breathed heavily, as if laboring under strong and unusual emotion.
Wilson had no reason to suspect that anyone else was in his room; he had every reason to expect the contrary. He had locked himself in his room for the purpose of completing his thesis in one sustained drive. He had toЧtomorrow was the last day for submission, yesterday the thesis had been no more than a title: УAn Investigation Into Certain Mathematical Aspects of a Rigor of Metaphysics.Ф
Fifty-two cigarettes, four pots of coffee and thirteen hours of continuous work had added seven thousand words to the title. As to the validity of his thesis he was far too groggy to give a damn. Get it done, was his only thought, get it done, turn it in, take three stiff drinks and sleep for a week.
He glanced up and let his eyes rest on his wardrobe door, behind which he had cached a gin bottle, nearly full. No, he admonished himself, one more drink and youТll never finish it, Bob, old son.
The stranger behind him said nothing.
Wilson resumed typing. УЧnor is it valid to assume that a conceivable proposition is necessarily a possible proposition, even when it is possible to formulate mathematics which describes the proposition with exactness.
A case in point is the concept Сtime travel.Т Time travel may be imagined and its necessities may be formulated under any and all theories of time, formulae which resolve the paradoxes of each theory. Nevertheless, we know certain things about the empirical nature of time which preclude the possibility of the conceivable proposition. Duration is an attribute of consciousness and not of the plenum. It has no Ding an Sich. ThereforeЧФ
A key of the typewriter stuck, three more jammed up on top of it. Wilson swore dully and reached forward to straighten out the cantankerous machinery. УDonТt bother with it,Ф he heard a voice say. УItТs a lot of utter hogwash anyhow.Ф
Wilson sat up with a jerk, then turned his head slowly around. He fervently hoped that there was someone behind him. OtherwiseЧ He perceived the stranger with relief. УThank God,Ф he said to himself.
УFor a moment I thought I had come unstuck.Ф His relief turned to extreme annoyance. У\Vhat the devil are you doing in my room?Ф he demanded. He shoved back his chair, got up and strode over to the one door. It was still locked, and bolted on the inside.
The windows were no help; they were adjacent to his desk and three stories above a busy street. УHow did you get in?Ф he added.
УThrough that,Ф answered the stranger, hooking a thumb toward the circle. Wilson noticed it for the first time, blinked his eyes and looked again. There it hung between them and the wall, a great disk of nothing, of the color one sees when the eyes are shut tight.
Wilson shook his head vigorously. The circle remained. УGosh,Ф he thought, УI was right the first time. I wonder when I slipped my trolley?Ф He advanced toward the disk, put out a hand to touch it.
УDonТt!Ф snapped the stranger.
УWhy not?Ф said Wilson edgily. Nevertheless he paused.
УIТll explain. But letТs have a drink first.Ф He walked directly to the wardrobe, opened it, reached in and took out the bottle of gin without looking.

УHey!Ф yelled Wilson. УWhat are you doing there? ThatТs my liquor.Ф
УYour liquorЧФ The stranger paused for a moment. УSorry. You donТt mind if I have a drink, do you?Ф
УI suppose not,Ф Bob Wilson conceded in a surly tone. УPour me one while youТre about it.Ф
УOkay,Ф agreed the stranger, Уthen IТll explain.Ф
УIt had better be good,Ф Wilson said ominously. Nevertheless he drank his drink and looked the stranger over.
He saw a chap about the same size as himself and much the same age
Чperhaps a little older, though a three-clay growth of beard may have accounted for that impression. The stranger had a black eye and a freshly cut and badly swollen upper lip. Wilson decided he did not like the chapsТ face. Still, there was something familiar about the face; he felt that he should have recognized it, that he had seen it many.times before under different circumstances.
УWho are you?Ф he asked suddenly.
УMe?Ф said his guest. УDonТt you recognize me?Ф
УIТm not sure,Ф admitted Wilson. УHave I ever seen you before?Ф
УWellЧnot exactly,Ф the other temporized. УSkip itЧyou wouldnТt know about it.Ф
УWhatТs your name?Ф
УMy name? Uh . . . just call me Joe.Ф
Wilson set down his glass. УOkay, Joe Whatever-your-name-is, trot out that explanation and make it snappy.Ф
УIТll do that,Ф agreed Joe. УThat dingus I came throughФЧhe pointed to the circleЧФthatТs a Time Gate.Ф
УA what?Ф
УA Time Gate. Time flows along side by side on each side of the Gate, but some thousands of years apartЧjust how many thousands I donТt know. But for the next couple of hours that Gate is open. You can walk into the future just by stepping through that circle.Ф The stranger paused.
Bob drummed on the desk. УGo ahead. IТm listening. ItТs a nice story.Ф
УYou donТt believe me, do you? IТll show you.Ф Joe got up, went again to the wardrobe and obtained BobТs hat, his prized and only hat, which he had mistreated into its present battered grandeur through six years of undergraduate and graduate life. Joe chucked it toward the impalpable disk.
It struck the surface, went on through with no apparent resistance, disappeared from sight.
Wilson got up, walked carefully around the circle and examined the bare floor. УA neat trick,Ф he conceded. УNow IТll thank you to return to me my hat.Ф
The stranger shook his head. УYou can get it for yourself when you pass throughФ
УThatТs right. ListenЧФ Briefly the stranger repeated his explanation about the Time Gate. Wilson, he insisted, had an opportunity that comes once in a millenniumЧif he would only hurry up and climb through that circle. Furthermore, though Joe could not explain in detail at the moment, it was very important that Wilson go through.