"Lafferty, R A - Nine Hundred Grandmothers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

first generation of them."

"It passes belief that you can be so simpleminded," Manbreaker
moaned. "They say that one has finally mellowed when he can suffer
fools gracefully. By God, I hope I never come to that."

But two days later, it was Manbreaker who sought out Ceran
Swicegood on nearly the same subject. Manbreaker had been doing a
little thinking and discovering of his own.

"You are Special Aspects Man, Ceran," he said, "and you have been
running off after the wrong aspect."

"What is that?"

"It don't make a damn how it began. What is important is that it may
not have to end."

"It is the beginning that I intend to discover," said Ceran.

"You fool, can't you understand anything? What do the Proavitoi
possess so uniquely that we don't know whether they have it by science
or by their nature or by fool luck?"

"Ah, their chemistry, I suppose."

"Sure. Organic chemistry has come of age here. The Proavitoi have
every kind of nexus and inhibitor and stimulant. They can grow and
shrink and telescope and prolong what they will. These creatures seem
stupid to me; it is as if they had these things by instinct. But they have
them, that is what is important. With these things, we can become the
patent medicine kings of the universes, for the Proavitoi do not travel or
make many outside contacts. These things can do anything or undo
anything. I suspect that the Proavitoi can shrink cells, and I suspect that
they can do something else."

"No, they couldn't shrink cells. It is you who talk nonsense now,
Manbreaker."

"Never mind. Their things already make nonsense of conventional
chemistry. With the pharmacopoeia that one coulc pick up here, a man
never need die. That's the stick horse you've been riding, isn't it? But
you've been riding it backward with you head to the tail. The Proavitoi
say that they never die."

"They seem pretty sure that they don't. If they did, they would be the
first to know it, as Nokoma says."

"What? Have these creatures humor?"