"Stanislaw Lem - Eden" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lem Stanislaw)

"Anyone have a knife?"
"I do. Should I cut the cords?"
"It would be better if someone could crawl out without cutting them. I can't."
"I'll try."
Struggling, heavy breathing, then a pounding, and a grinding of glass.
"I'm at the bottom. On the wall, that is," said the Chemist. "Doctor, throw a little light here, so I
can help you."
"Hurry up. The thing's almost out of fluid." The lighter brightened again. The Chemist went to the
Captain's cocoon but could reach no farther than the legs. At last he managed to open a side zipper, and
the Captain dropped to his feet with a thud. The two of them together could work faster. Soon everyone
was standing on the slanted wall of the control room, which had a semi-elastic covering.
"Where do we begin?" asked the Doctor, applying a band-aid to the cut on the Cyberneticist's
forehead. The Doctor always carried odds and ends in his pockets.
"We see if we can get out," replied the Captain. "First we need light. Doctor, shine it over here --
there may still be current in the panel, or at least in the alarm system."
This time, the lighter produced only a spark. The Doctor thumbed the flint over and over again
above the Captain and the Engineer as they rummaged through fragments of metal on their knees.
"Found anything yet?" asked the Chemist, behind them.
"Nothing yet. Anyone have a match?"
"The last time I saw matches was three years ago. In a museum," the Engineer muttered
indistinctly. He was attempting to strip the end of a wire with his teeth. Suddenly a small blue glow filled
the Captain's cupped hands.
"Here's current," he said. "Now for a bulb."
They found an undamaged bulb in an emergency display above a side panel. A sharp electric light
illuminated the control room, giving it the look of a tunnel with curved walls. High above them was the
door.
"More than twenty feet," said the Chemist gloomily. "How are we going to get up there?"
"I once saw, in a circus, five men standing on top of one another," said the Doctor.
"We're not acrobats. We can climb up the floor," the Captain said. He took the Chemist's knife
and began making cuts in the spongy floor covering.
"Steps?"
"Yes."
"Why is the Cyberneticist so quiet?" asked the Engineer. He was sitting on the shattered
instrument panel, applying a voltmeter to some protruding cables.
"The man feels orphaned," replied the Doctor with a smile. "What's a cyberneticist without his
robots?"
"I'll fix them," said the Cyberneticist. He was looking at the screens. Their yellow glow grew
dimmer.
"The accumulator, too," muttered the Physicist. The Engineer got to his feet.
"So it would appear."
A quarter of an hour later, the six-man expedition was working its way toward the front of the
ship. First they entered the corridor; from there they went to their separate quarters. In the Doctor's
cabin they found an old flashlight. (The Doctor liked to collect things.) They took it with them. There was
devastation everywhere. The furniture, bolted to the floor, had not been damaged, but the instruments,
tools, vehicles, and supplies made a sea of junk through which they waded.
"Now let's try to get out," said the Captain when they were back in the corridor.
"What about suits?"
"They're in the air lock. They should be all right. But we won't need suits. Eden has a breathable
atmosphere."
"Has anyone ever been here before?"