"Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land - Original Ve" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

sick."
"Give the captain a chance to explain, Pierre," the peace minister
advised. "Well, Captain?"
"Smith isn't sick, sir," Captain van Tromp said to the peace minister,
"but he isn't well, either. He has never before been in a one-gravity field. He
now weighs more than two and one half times what he is used to and his muscles
aren't up to it. He's not used to Earth-normal air pressure. He's not used to
anything and the strain is likely to be too much for him. Hell's bells,
gentlemen, I'm dog tired myself just from being at one-gee again-and I was born
on this planet."
The science minister looked contemptuous. "If acceleration fatigue is all
that is worrying you, let me assure you, my dear Captain, that we had
anticipated that. His respiration and heart action will be watched carefully. We
are not entirely without imagination and forethought. After all, I've been out
myself. I know how it feels. This man Smith must-"
Captain van Tromp decided that it was time to throw a tantrum. He could
excuse it by his own fatigue-very real fatigue, he felt as if he had just landed
on Jupiter-and he was smugly aware that even a high councilor could not afford
to take too stiff a line with the commander of the first successful Martian
expedition.
So he interrupted with a snort of disgust. "link! 'This man Smith-' This
'man!' Can't you see that that is just what he is not?"
"Eh?"
"Smith ... is . . . not . . . a . . . man."
"Huh? Explain yourself, Captain."
"Smith is not a man. He is an intelligent creature with the genes and
ancestry of a man, but he is not a man. He's more a Martian than a man. Until we
came along he had never laid eyes on a human being. He thinks like a Martian, he
feels like a Martian. He's been brought up by a race which has nothing in common
with us. Why, they don't even have sex. Smith has never laid eyes on a woman-
still hasn't if my orders have been carried out. He's a man by ancestry, a
Martian by environment. Now, if you want to drive him crazy and waste that
'treasure trove of scientific information,' call in your fat-headed professors
and let them badger him. Don't give him a chance to get well and strong and used
to this madhouse planet. Just go ahead and squeeze him like an orange. It's no
skin off me; I've done my job!"
The ensuing silence was broken smoothly by Secretary General Douglas
himself. "And a good job, too, Captain. Your advice will be weighed, and be
assured that we will not do anything hastily. If this man, or manMartian, Smith,
needs a few days to get adjusted, I'm sure that science can wait-so take it
easy, Pete. Let's table this part of the discussion, gentlemen, and get on to
other matters. Captain van Tromp is tired."
"One thing won't wait," said the Minister for Public Information.
"Eh, Jock?"
"If we don't show the Man from Mars in the stereo tanks pretty shortly,
you'll have riots on your hands, Mr. Secretary."
"Hmm- You exaggerate, Jock. Mars stuff in the news, of course. Me
decorating the captain and his brave crew-tomorrow, that had better be. Captain
van Tromp telling of his experiences-after a night's rest of course, Captain."
The minister shook his head.