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

grokking of the fact that he was not as his nestling brothers . . . back to the
nest itself.
None of his thinkings had been in Earth symbols. Simple English he had
freshly learned to speak, but much less easily than a Hindu uses it to trade
with a Turk. Smith used English as one might use a code book, with tedious and
imperfect translation for each symbol. Now his thoughts, pure Martian
abstractions from half a million years of wildly alien culture, traveled so far
from any human experience as to be utterly untranslatable.
In the adjoining room an inteme, Dr. "Tad" Thaddeus, was playing cribbage
with Tom Meechum, Smith's special nurse. Thaddeus had one eye on his dials and
meters and both eyes on his cards; nevertheless he noted every heart beat of his
patient. When a flickering light changed from ninety-two pulsations per minute
to less than twenty, he pushed the cards aside, jumped to his feet, and hurried
into Smith's room with Meechum at his heels.
The patient floated in the flexible skin of the hydraulic bed. He appeared
to be dead. Thaddeus swore briefly and snapped, "Get Doctor Nelson!"
Meechum said, "Yessir!" and added, "How about the shock gear, Doe? He's
far gone."
"Gel Doctor Nelson!"
The nurse rushed out. The interne examined the patient as closely as
possible but refrained from touching him. He was still doing so when an older
doctor came in, walking with the labored awkwardness of a man long in space and
not yet adjusted to high gravity. "Well, Doctor?"
"Patient's respiration, temperature, and pulse dropped suddenly, uh, about
two minutes ago, sir."
"What have you done for him, or to him?"
"Nothing, sir. Your instructions-"
"Good." Nelson looked Smith over briefly, then studied the instruments
back of the bed, twins of those in the watch room. "Let me know if there is any
change." He started to leave.
Thaddeus looked startled. "But, Doctor-" He broke off.
Nelson said grimly, "Go ahead, Doctor. What is your diagnosis?"
"Uh, I don't wish to sound off about your patient, sir."
"Never mind. I asked for your diagnosis."
"Very well, sir. Shock-atypical, perhaps," he hedged, "but shock, leading
to termination."
Nelson nodded. "Reasonable enough. But this isn't a reasonable case.
Relax, son. I've seen this patient in this condition half a dozen times during
the trip back. It doesn't mean a thing. Watch." Nelson lifted the patient's
right arm, let it go. It stayed where he had left it.
"Catalepsy?" asked Thaddeus.
"Call it that if you like. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one. Don't
worry about it, Doctor. There is nothing typical about this case. Just keep him
from being bothered and call me if there is any change." He replaced Smith's
arm.
 When Nelson had left, Thaddeus took one more look at the patient, shook
his head and joined Meechum in the watch room. Meechum picked up his cards and
said, "Crib?"
"No."
Meechuin waited, then added, "Doc, if you ask me, that one in there is a