"C. L. Moore - Greater Than Gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore C. L)

oblivion, let them wink out into nothingness.
He shut the door with a little slam to wake himself out of the dream, greeting
the crystal-shrined girl on his desk with a smile. She was so real-the breeze
blowing those curls was a breeze in motion. The lashes should flutter against
the soft fullness of her lids- Bill squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head
to clear it. There was something wrong-the crystal was clouding- A ringing in
his ears grew louder in company with that curious blurring of vision. From
infinitely far away, yet strangely in his own ears,
a tiny voice came crying. A child's voice calling, "Daddy. . . - daddy!"
A girl's voice, coming nearer, "Father-" A woman's voice saying over
and over in a smooth, sweet monotone, "Dr. Cory. . . . Dr. William
Cory-"
Upon the darkness behind his closed lids a streaked and shifting light moved
blurrily. He thought he saw towers in the sun, forests, robed people walking
leisurely-and it all seemed to rush away from his closed eyes so
bewilderingly-he lifted his lids to stare at- To stare at the cube where
Sallie smiled. Only this was not Sallie.
He gaped with the blankness of a man confronting impossibilities. It was not
wholly Sallie now, but there was a look of Sallie upon the lovely, sun-touched
features in the cube. All of her sweetness and softness, but with it-something
more. Something familiar. What upon this living, lovely face, with its level
brown eyes and courageous mouth, reminded Bill of-himself?
His hands began to shake a little. He thrust them into his pockets and sat
down without once taking his eyes from the living stare in the cube. There was
amazement in that other stare, too, and a halfincredulous delight that
brightened as he gazed.
Then the sweet curved lips moved-lips with the softness of Sallie's closing on
the firm, strong line of Bill's. They said distinctly, in a sound that might
have come from the cube itself or from somewhere deep within his own brain:
"Dr. Cory . . . Dr. Cory, do you hear me?"
"I hear you," he heard himself saying hoarsely, like a man talking in a dream.
"But-"
The face that was Sallie's and his blended blazed into joyful recognition,
dimples denting the smooth cheeks with delicious mirth. "Oh, thank Heaven it
is you! I've reached through at last. I've tried so hard, so long-"
"But who . - . what-" Bill choked a little on his own amazement and fell
silent, marveling at the strange warm tenderness that was flooding up in him
as he watched this familiar face he had never seen before. A tenderness more
melting and protective and passionately selfless than he had ever imagined a
man could feel. Dizzy with complete bewilderment, too confused to wonder if he
dreamed, he tried again. "Who are you? What are you doing here? How did-"
"But I'm not there-not really." The sweet face smiled again, and Bill's heart
swelled until his throat almost closed with a warmth of pride and tenderness
he was too dizzy to analyze now. "I'm here- here at home in Eden, talking to
you across the millennium! Look-"


Somehow, until then he had not seen beyond her. Sallie's face had smiled out
of a mist of tulle, beyond which the cube had been crystal-clear. But behind
the face which was no longer wholly Salli~'s, a green hillside filled the