"The Pyramid In The Desert" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maclean Katherine)

УNext stop is the replacement of various soft tissues. If I were not in such a hurry, I would do it in two long slow smple Ghandi-like fasts, with practically no scientific mumbo jumbo. The way a sea squirt does it, I meanЧthough IТd like to see someone starve himself down to a foot high.

УI have to start working now. The record is running out anyhow, so good-by until the next record, whenever that is.

УHaving wonderful time.

УWish you were here.Ф



He took the record off hurriedly and put on the next one. It was recorded on only one face, and dated September 17th, about fifty days later, seven weeks.

Helen started speaking without any introduction, her voice clearer and more distant as if she were speaking a few feet from the microphone.



УIТm rather upset Alec. Something rather astonishing has happened. Have to get you up to date first.

УThe fasting treatment went fine. Of course I had to stay indoors and keep out of sight until I was fit to be seen. IТm almost back to normal now, gaining about a pound a day. The embryo status treatment stimulated my cells to really get to work. They seem to be rebuilding from an adult blueprint and not a fetal one, so I am getting flesh again in proper proportion and not like an overgrown baby.

УIf I am talking disjointedly it is because I am trying hard not to get to the point. The point is too big to be said easily. Of course you know that I started this experimenting just to check my theoretical understanding of cell metabolism. Even the best available theory is sketchy, and my own guesses are doubtful and tentative. I never could be sure whether a patient recovered because of my treatment, in spite of my treatmentЧor just reacted psychosomatically to the size of my consultant fee.

УThe best way to correct faulty theory is to carry it to its logical absurdity, and then to use the silliness as a clue to the initial fault.

УRecipe: to test theories of some process take one neutral subjectЧthatТs meЧand try to induce a specific stage of that process by artificial means dictated by the theories. The point of failure will be the clue to the revision of the theories.

УI expected to spend the second half of my vacation in the hospital, checking over records of the experiment, and happily writing an article on the meaning of its failure.

УTo be ready for the emergency I had hitched one of the electric timer clocks to the dictaphone and telephone. If I didnТt punch it at five-hour intervals, the alarm would knock off the telephone receiver, and the dictaphone would yell for an ambulance.

УPinned to a big sign just inside the door was an explanation and full instructions for the proper emergency treatment. At every step in the experiment I would rewrite the instructions to match. СBe PreparedТ was the motto. СPlan for every contingency.Т No matter when the experiment decided to blow up in my face I would be ready for it.

УThere was only one contingency I did not plan for.

УAlec, I was just looking in the mirror. The only mirror that is any good is the big one in the front bedroom, but I had put off looking into it. For a week I lounged around reading and sleeping on the lab cot and the chair beside the window. I suppose I was still waiting for something to go wrong, but nothing did, and the skin of my hands was obviously different Чno scars, no calluses, no tan, just smooth pink translucent skinЧso I finally went and looked.

УThen I checked it with a medical exam. YouТll find that data in with the other notes. Alec, IТm eighteen years old. That is as young as an adult can get.

УI wonder how Aladdin felt after rubbing a rusty lamp just to polish it up a bit.

УSurprised I suppose. The most noticeable feature of this new face so far is its surprised expression. It looks surprised from every angle, and sometimes it looks pale, and alarmed.

УAlarmed. Einstein was not alarmed when he discovered relativity, but they made a bomb out of it anyhow. I donТt see how they could make a bomb out of this, but people are a wild, unpredictable lot. How will they react to being ageless? I canТt guess, but IТm not reckless enough to hand out another PandoraТs box to the world. The only safe way is to keep the secret until you get back, and then call a quiet council of experts for advice.

УBut meanwhile, what if one of our friends happens to see me on the street looking like eighteen years old? What am I supposed to say?

УIt is hard to be practical, darling. My imagination keeps galloping off in all directions. Did you know your hair is getting thin in back? Another two years with that crew cut and you would have begun to look like a monk.

УI know, I know, youТll tell me it is not fair for you to be a juvenile when every one else is gray, but what is fair? To be fair at all everyone will have to have the treatment available free, for nothing. And I mean everyone. We can leave it to an economist to worry out how. Meanwhile we will have to change our names and move to California. You donТt want people to recognize you, and wonder who I am, do you? You donТt want to go around looking twice as old as your wife and have people calling you a cradle snatcher, now do you?