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

fields aplenty for the adventurous spirit. Or one could simply drowse the days
away- Clouds thickened softly across the dreamy vistas of Eden. Bill Cory
leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes with both hands. The hands were
shaking, and he stared at them a little stupidly, still half lost in the
wonder of what he had seen, in the strange welter of emotions that still
warred in him-the memory of Sallie and his strong love for her, the memory of
Sue's sweetness, the memory of pride in them both. And in the queer feeling
that it had been himself in those many daughters of his through the ages,
striving so hard for world peace to the ultimate end that mankind might
achieve-ruin.
For it was wrong-it was bad. The whole world. The race of man
was too splendid, too capable of working miracles, to end on a myrtle bank
dreaming about abstractions. He had just seen a decadent, indolent,
civilization going down the last incline into oblivion as a result-yes, as a
direct result-of his own action. He'd seen himself sinking into a fat, idle
old age, without honor of achievement.
Suddenly and desperately he hoped that Ashley had been right- that this was
not the inevitable and changeless future. If he tore up the letter lying on
his desk now, if he never married Sallie, would not his work be finished
successfully some day, and the catastrophe of unbalanced births avoided? Or
could a man change his ordained future?
Almost fearfully he reached for the letter lying beside that clouded cube in
which the years had mirrored themselves. Would he be able to take the letter
up and rip it across-like this? The sound of tearing paper reassured him. So
far, at least, he was still a free agent.
And knowing that, suddenly he was sorry. Not to marry Sallie, with her
bubbling laugh. Never to see young Sue growing into beauty and courage and
sweetness. Old age without achievement, had he said to himself a moment ago?
Sue herself was achievement enough for any man. Sue and those other Susans
down the long line of his descendants, incarnating again and again all that
was finest in him, eternal as life itself through millenniums.
He did not want to meet again the brown eyes of this latest Susan who had come
to him in the depths of the cube. While he l├аoked, his reason was lost in his
love for her, and not even against reason could he believe the world which had
produced her to be anything but perfect, simply because this beloved daughter
moved and breathed in it.
But the letter was torn. He would never marry Sallie if he could help himself.
The cost was too high, even for such a reward as Sue. And an almost tremulous
awe broke over him in a sudden tide as he realized what he was doing. This was
what Ashley had dreamed of- opening a window into the Plane of Probability and
learning enough to force the Cosmic Mind out of its course. Changing the shape
of his own future and that of all mankind. Greater than gods-but he was no
god. And Ashley had warned him that it might be dangerous to usurp a god's
prerogative. Suddenly he was afraid.
He looked away from that cube which held his future, and across from it on his
desk the violet eyes of Marta Mayhew caught his, fixed in their changeless
smile. She was a girl, he thought, he remembered from half a lifetime ago, so
much had happened since he glanced last into her face. Dark and lovely she
was, her eyes meeting his almost as if there were vision behind their deep,
long stare. Almost as if-