"Henry Kuttner - The Time Axis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

"They had to. They had to make sure we'd answer their appeal to save ourselves."

"Then you're convinced they exist in the future, not the

past?"


file:///F|/rah/Henry%20Kuttner/Kuttner%20-%20The%20Time%20Axis%20UC.txt (11 of 80) [2/4/03 10:17:20 PM]
 file:///F|/rah/Henry%20Kuttner/Kuttner%20-%20The%20Time%20Axis%20UC.txt


"You saw the Face. You were aware, you say, of the waves of civilization rising and falling
between our time and theirs? How can you doubt it, then, Mr. Cortland?"

I was silent, remembering.

"It doesn't matter," De Kalb went on. "That question is purely academic. Past or future is all one
in the time-fabric you will understand better after you've opened the

box again."

"But," I said, "how can we help them? If they can't destroy the menace to their own world,
whatever it is, how could we? It's ridiculous. And anyhow, if time-travel was possible for the
boxтАФwhich I don't for a moment really acceptтАФhow could it be possible for tangible, living men
from our time? And if it were, how could you be sure you weren't dashing off to save a city that
would prove when you found it to be already dead? Overwhelmed a million years ago? How is itтАФ"

"No, no, Mr. Cortland!" De Kalb held up a large hand with an orange balanced on its palm. "You
have so much to learn! Allow me the intelligence to think of those objections myself! Surely you
don't imagine all that hadn't occurred to me already?

"The answer is that the nekron can be destroyedтАФor at least that the problem it poses can be
solved. I believe it can be solved only by this methodтАФthree men and one woman must go into the
future age that holds-the Face of Ea. For that, apparently, was the original plan of the people of
the Face."

"What makes you so certain of that?"

"A number of factors. The Record was sent to 'our civilization, remember?" : I had him
there. "But it was found in Cretan ruins, you

said."

"Certainly. And the ancient Minoans didn't open it. I suspect the Record existed long before the
time of TheseusтАФ but it remained unopened until a neotechnical civilization had developed on this
planet. Only menтАФand womenтАФwho were products of such a culture would have the qualities necessary
to solve the nekronic problem."

"Why didn't they send the Record directly to our era? Why did they miss the right time by
thousands of years?"