"Leinster, Murray - Keyhole" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

УAnd,Ф said Worden, carefully detached, Уhe isnТt afraid of me now. He understands that I intend to be friendly. While I was carrying him I talked to him. He felt the vibration of my chest from my voice. УJust before I left him I picked him up and talked to him again. He looked at my mouth as it moved and put his paw on my chest to feel the vibrations. I put his paw at my throat. The vibrations are clearer there. He seemed fascinated. I donТt know how youТd rate his intelligence but itТs above that of a human baby.Ф
Then he said with even greater detachment, УI am disturbed. If you must know, I donТt like the idea of exterminating his kind. They have tools, they have intelligence. I think we should try to communicate with them in some wayЧtry to make friendsЧstop killing them for dissectiop.Ф -
The communicator was silent for the second and a half it took his voice to travel to Earth and the second and a half it took to come back. Then the recording clerkТs voice said bristly, УVery good, Mr. Worden! Your voice was very clear!Ф
Worden shrugged his shoulders. The lunar station in Tycho was a highly official enterprise. The staff on the Moon had to be competentЧand besides, political appointees did not want to risk their precious livesЧbut the Earth end of the business of the Space Exploration Bureau was run by the sort of people who do get on official payrolls; Worden felt sorry for ButchЧand for ButchТs relatives.

In a later lesson session Worden took an empty coffee tin into the nursery. He showed Butch that its bottom vibrated when he spoke into it, just as his throat did. Butch experimented busily. He discovered for himself that it had to be pointed at Worden to catch the vibrations.
Worden was. unhappy. He would have preferred Butch to be a little less rational. But for the next lesson he presented Butch with a really thin metal diaphragm stretched across a hoop. Butch caught the idea at once.
When Worden made his next report to Earth he felt angry.
УButch has no experience of sound as we have, of course,Ф he said curtly. УThereТs no air on the Moon. But sound travels through rocks. HeТs sensitive to vibrations in solid objects just as a deaf person can feel the vibrations of a dance floor if the music is loud enough.
УMaybe ButchТs kind has a language or a code of sounds sent through the rock underfoot. They do communicate somehow! And if theyТve brains and a means of communication they arenТt animals and shouldnТt be exterminated for our convenience!Ф
He stopped. The chief biologist of the Space Exploration Bureau was at the other end of the communication beam then. After the necessary pause for distance his voice came blandly.
УSplendid, Worden! Splendid reasoning! But we have to take the longer view. Exploration of Mars and Venus is a very popular idea with the public. If we are to have fundsЧand the appropriations come up for a vote shortlyЧwe have to make progress toward the nearer planets. The public demands it. Unless we can begin work on a refueling base on the Moon, public interest will cease!Ф
Worden said urgently, УSuppose I send some pictures of Butch? HeТs very human, sir! HeТs extraordinarily appealing! He has personality! A reel or two of Butch at his lessons ought to be popular!Ф
Again that irritating wait while his voice traveled a quarter million miles at the speed of light and the wait for the reply.
УTheЧahЧlunar creatures, Worden,Ф said the chief biologist regretfully, Уhave killed a number of men who have been publicized as martyrs to science. We cannot give favorable publicity to creatures that have killed men!Ф Then he added blandly, УBut you are progressing splendidly, WordenЧsplendidly! Carry on!Ф
His image faded from the video screen. Worden said naughty words as he turned away-. HeТd come to like Butch. Butch trusted him. Butch now slid down from that crazy perch of his and came rushing to his arms every time he entered the nursery.
Butch was ridiculously smallЧno more than eighteen inches high. He was preposterously light and fragile in his nursery, where only Moon gravity obtained. And Butch was such an earnest little creature, so soberly absorbed in everything that Worden showed him!
He was still fascinated by the phenomena of sound. Humming or singingЧeven WordenТs humming and singingЧentranced him. When WordenТs lips moved now Butch struck an attitude and held up the hoop diaphragm with a tiny finger pressed to it to catch the vibrations WordenТs voice made.
Now too when he grasped an idea Worden tried to convey, he tended to swagger. He became more human in his actions with every session of human contact. Once, indeed, Worden looked at the video screens which spied on Butch and saw himЧall aloneЧ solemnly going through every gesture and every movement Worden had made. He was pretending to give a lesson to an imaginary still tinier companion. He was pretending to be Worden, apparently for his own satisfaction!
Worden felt a lump in his throat. He was enormously fond of the little mite. It was painful that he had just left Butch to help in the construction of a vibrator microphone device which would transfer his voice to rock vibrations and simultaneously pick up any other vibrations that might be made in return.
If the members of ButchТs race did communicate by tapping on rocks or the like, men could eavesdrop on themЧcould locate them, could detect ambushes in preparation, and apply mankindТs deadly military countermeasures.
Worden hoped the gadget wouldnТt work. But it did. When he put it on the floor of the nursery and spoke into the microphone, Butch did feel the vibrations underfoot. He recognized their identity with the vibrations heТd learned to detect in air.
He made a skipping exultant hop and jump. It was plainly the uttermost expression of satisfaction. And then his tiny foot pattered and scratched furiously on the floor. It made a peculiar scratchy tapping. noise which the microphone picked up. Butch watched WordenТs face, making the sounds which were like highly elaborated ***footf ails***.
УNo dice, Butch,Ф said Worden unhappily. УI canТt understand it. But it looks as if youТve started your treason already. ThisТll help wipe out some of your folks.Ф

He reported it reluctantly to the head of the station.
Microphones were immediately set into the rocky crater floor outside the station and others were made ready for exploring parties to use for the detection of Moon creatures near them. Oddly enough, the microphones by the station yielded results right away.
It was near sunset. Butch had been captured near the middle of the three-hundred-and-thirty-four-hour lunar day. In all the hours betweenЧa week by Earth timeЧhe had had no nourishment of any sort. Worden had conscientiously offered him every edible and inedible substance in the station. Then at least one sample of every mineral in the station collection. Butch regarded them all with interest but without appetite. WordenЧliking ButchЧexpected him to die of starvation and thought it a good idea. Better than encompassing the death of all his race, anyhow. And it did seem to him that Butch was beginning to show a certain sluggishness, a certain lack of bounce and energy. He thought it was weakness from hunger.
Sunset progressed. Yard by yard, fathom by fathom, half-mile by half-mile, the shadows of the miles-high western walls of Tycho crept across the crater floor. There came a time when only the central hump had sunlight. Then the shadow began to creep up the eastern walls. Presently the last thin jagged line of light would vanish and the colossal cup of the crater would be filled to overflowing with the night.
Worden watched the incandescent sunlight growing even narrower on the cliffs. He would see no other sunlight for two weeksТ Earth time. Then abruptly an alarm bell rang. It clanged stridently, furiously. Doors hissed shut, dividing the station into airtight sections.
Loudspeakers snapped, УNoises in the rock outside! Sounds like Moon creatures talking nearby! They may plan an attack! Everybody into spacesuits and get guts ready!Ф
At just that instant the last thin sliver of sunshine disappeared. Worden thought instantly of Butch. There was no spacesuit to fit him. Then he grimaced a little. Butch didnТt need a spacesuit.
Worden got into the clumsy outfit. The lights dimmed. The harsh airless space outside the station was suddenly bathed in light. The multimillion-lumen beam, made to guide rocket ships to a landing even at night, was turned on to expose any creatures with designs on its owners. It was startling to see how little space was really lighted by the beam and how much of stark blackness spread on beyond.
The loudspeaker snapped again. УTwo Moon creatures! Running away! TheyТre zigzagging! Anybody who wants to take a shotЧФ The voice paused. It didnТt matter. Nobody is a crack shot in a spacesuit. УThey left something behind!Ф said the voice in the loudspeaker. It was sharp and uneasy. -
УIТll take a look at that,Ф said Worden. His own voice startled him but he was depressed. УIТve got a hunch what it is.Ф
Minutes later he went out through the air lock. He moved lightly despite the cumbrous suit he wore. There were two other staff members with him. All three were armed and the searchlight beam stabbed here and there erratically to expose any relative of Butch who might try to approach them in the darkness.
With the light at his back Worden could see that trillions of stars looked down upon Luna. The zenith was filled with infinitesimal specks of light of every conceivable color. The familiar constellations burned ten times as brightly as on Earth. And Earth itself hung nearly overhead. It was three-quarters fullЧa monstrous bluish giant in the sky, four times the MoonТs diameter, its ice caps and continents mistily to be seen. -
Worden went forebodingly to the object left behind by ButchТs kin. He wasnТt much surprised when he saw what it was. It was a rocking stone on its plate with a fine impalpable dust on the plate, as if something had been crushed under the egg-shaped upper stone acting as a mill.
Worden said sourly into his helmet microphone, УItТs a present for Butch. His kinfolk know he was captured alive. They suspect heТs hungry: TheyТve left some grub for him of the kind he wants or needs most.Ф
That was plainly what it was. It did not make Worden feel proud. A babyЧButchЧhad been kidnapped by the enemies of its race. That baby was a prisoner and its captors would have nothing with which to feed it. So someone, greatly daringЧWorden wondered somberly if it was ButchТs father and motherЧhad risked their lives to leave food for him with a rocking stone to tag it for recognition as food.
УItТs a dirty shame,Ф said Worden bitterly. УAll right! LetТs carry it back. Careful not to spill the powdered stuff!Ф
His lack of pride was emphasized when Butch fell upon the unidentified powder with marked enthusiasm. Tiny pinch by tiny pinch Butch consumed it with an air of vast satisfaction. Worden felt ashamed.
УYouТre getting treated pretty rough, Butch,Ф said Worden. УWhat IТve already learned from you will cost a good many hundred of your folksТ lives. And theyТre taking chances to feed you! IТm making you a traitor and myself a scoundrel.Ф -

Butch thoughtfully held up the hoop diaphragm to catch the voice vibrations in the air. He was small and furry and absorbed. He decided that he could pick up sounds better from the rock underfoot. He pressed the communicator microphone on Worden. He waited.
УNo!Ф said Worden roughly. УYour people are too human. DonТt let me find out any more, Butch. Be smart and play dumb!Ф
But Butch didnТt, It wasnТt very long before Worden was teaching him to read. Oddly, though, the rock microphones that had given the alarm at the station didnТt help the tractor parties at all. ButchТs kinfolk seemed to vanish from the neighborhood of the station altogether. Of course if that kept up, the construction of a fuel base could be begun and the actual extermination of the species carried out later. But the reports on Butch were suggesting other possibilities.
УIf your folks stay vanished,Ф Worden told Butch, УitТll be all right for a whileЧand only for a while. IТm being urged to try to get you used to Earth gravity. If I succeed, theyТll want you on Earth in a zoo. And if that worksЧwhy, theyТll be sending other expeditions to get more of your kinfolk to put in other zoos.Ф
Butch watched Worden, motionless. УAnd alsoФЧWordenТs tone was very grimЧФthereТs some miniature mining machinery coming up by the next rocket. I'm supposed to see if you can learn to run it.Ф
Butch made scratching sounds on the floor. It was unintelligible of course, but it was an expression of interest at least. Butch seemed to enjoy the vibrations of WordenТs voice, just as a dog likes to have his master talk to him. Worden grunted.