"Ursula K. LeGuin - The New Atlantis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

The stars had never hesitated.

Perhaps the noble certainty of their gait had been a mere effect of distance. Perhaps in fact they
had hurtled wildly, enormous furnace-fragments of a primal bomb thrown through the cosmic
dark; but time and distance soften all agony. If the universe, as seems likely, began with an act of
destruction, the stars we had used to see told no tales of it. They had been implacably serene.
The planets, however тАж We began to remember the planets. They had suffered certain changes
both of appearance and of course. At certain times of the year Mars would reverse its direction
and go backward through the stars. Venus had been brighter and less bright as she went through
her phases of crescent, full, and wane. Mercury had shuddered like a skidding drop of rain on the
sky flushed with daybreak. The light we now watched had that erratic, trembling quality. We saw
it, unmistakably, change direction and go backward. It then grew smaller and fainter; blinkedтАФ
an eclipse?тАФand slowly disappeared.

Slowly, but not slowly enough for a planet.

ThenтАФthe third "then"!тАФarrived, the indubitable and positive Wonder of the World, the Magic
Trick, watch now, watch, you will not believe your eyes, mama, mama, look what I can doтАФ

Seven lights in a row, proceeding fairly rapidly, with a darting movement, from left to right.
Proceeding less rapidly from right to left, two dimmer, greenish lights. Two lights halt, blink,
reverse course, proceed hastily and in a wavering manner from left to right. Seven-lights increase
speed, and catch up. Two-lights flash desperately, flicker, and are gone.

Seven-lights hang still for some while, then merge gradually into one streak, veering away, and
little by little vanish into the immensity of the dark.

But in the dark now are growing other lights, many of them: lamps, dots, rows, scintillationsтАФs
ome near at hand, some far. Like the stars, yes, but not stars. It is not the great Existences we are
seeing, but only the little lives.

***

In the morning Simon told me something about the Camp, but not until after he had had me check the
apartment for bugs. I thought at first he had been given behavior mod and gone paranoid. We never had
been infested. And I'd been living alone for a year and a half; surely they didn't want to hear me talking to
myself? But he said, "They may have been expecting me to come here."

"But they let you go free!"

He just lay there and laughed at me. So I checked everywhere we could think of. I didn't find any bugs,
but it did look as if somebody had gone through the bureau drawers while I was away in the Wilderness.
Simon's papers were all at Max's, so that didn't matter. I made tea on the Primus, and washed and
shaved Simon with the extra hot water in the kettleтАФhe had a thick beard and wanted to get rid of it
because of the lice he had brought from CampтАФand while we were doing that he told me about the
Camp. In fact he told me very little, but not much was necessary.

He had lost about 20 pounds. As he only weighed 140 to start with, this left little to go on with. His
knees and wrist bones stuck out like rocks under the skin. His feet were all swollen and chewed-looking
from the Camp boots; he hadn't dared take the boots off, the last three days of walking, because he was