"Henry Kuttner - The Creature From Beyond Infinity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

home. But of hundreds of planets that we found, none was suitable. None would
sustain human life. This, the third planet of this yellow Sun, is our last
hope. Our fuel is almost gone. it is your duty, Ardath, to see that the
civilization of Kyria does not perish."
"But this is a dead world," the younger man protested.
"It is a young world," Theron corrected.
He paused, and his hand lifted, pointing. Ardath stared at the slow, sullen
tide that rippled drearily toward them. The gloomy wash of water receded. And
there on the rocky slope lay something that made him nod understandingly.
It was not large. A greasy, shining blob of slime, featureless and repulsive,
it was unmistakably alive, undeniably sentient!
The shinmiering globule of protoplasm was drawn back with the next wave. When
Ardath's eyes met Theron's, the dying man smiled triumphantly.
"Life! There's sun here, Ardath, beyond the clouds-a Sun that sends forth
energy, cosmic rays, the rays of evolution. Immeasurable ages will pass before
human beings exist here, but exist they will! Our study of countless other
planets enables us to predict the course of evolution here. From the
unicellular creatures will come sea-beings with vertebrae, then amphibiae, and
true reptiles.
"Then warm-blooded beasts will evolve from the flying reptiles and the
dinosaurs. Finally there will be ape-like men, wh& will yield the planet
to-true men!"
"But it will take millennia!"
"You must remain here," Theron stated. "How many of us survived the voyage
from Kyria? You must wait, Ardath, even a million years if it is necessary.
Our stasis ray kept us in suspended animation while we came across space. Take
the ship beyond the atmosphere. Adjust it to a regular orbit, like a second
satellite around this world. -
"Set the controls so you will awaken eventually, and be able to ~investigate
the evolutionary progress of this planet. You will wait a long time, I admit.
But finally you will find men."
"Men like us?"


Theron shook his head regretfully.
"No. Super-mentality is a matter of eugenically controlled breeding.
Occasionally a mental giant will be born, but not often. On Kymia we bred and
mated these mental giants, till
- eventually their progeny peopled the planet. You must do the same with this
world." -
"I will," Ardath consented. "But how-"
"Go through the ages. Do not stop till you find one of these mental giants. He
will be easily recognized, for, almost from infancy, he will be far in advance
of his contemporaries. He will withdraw from them, turning to the pursuit of
wisdom. He will be responsible for many of the great inventions of his time.
Take this man-or woman, perhaps-and go on into time, until you have found a
mental giant of the opposite sex.
"You could never mate with a female of this world, Ardath. Since you are from
another system, it would be biologically impossible. The union would be
sterile. This is your duty-find a super-mentality, take him from his own time~