"William Morrison - The Haters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

THE HATERS
BY WILLIAM MORRISON
They flung themselves across light years of space to show the world their
hatred and contempt. And out among the stars, they learned at last what hatred
could really mean to them and what they hated!

"We'll show them," said Kerman.
Grayson didn't answer. Kerman was more than half crazy, and he had been talking about showing
them ever since coming on board. Grayson had got used to him, just as he had got used to all the others.
After all, you couldn't expect to hire a crew that was exactly normal, not for a trip like this. You simply
picked up what you could get and took these characters in your' stride, and when they started talking in
their different peculiar ways, you didn't pay attention.
Still, if ever Kerman's remark had been appropriate, it was at a time like this. Here was a planet that
would everything they were looking for. And nobody to stop them from taking it.
McGant, who acted as first mate, came over to him and said, "We're all set to land, Captain."
"Hold off for awhile," replied Grayson. "I'm checking our observations."
"There's nothing to check," commented McGant sourly. "Oxygen, temperature, gravity; air
presssureтАФeverything's in the right range. Radioactivity's a little high, but that's the way we want it. Not
enough to hurt, but high enough to be promising."
"I'm not sure about the inhabitants," Grayson said.
McGant looked at him oddly. You didn't get respect from a crew like this, thought Grayson. Some
were slavish, but in general you were lucky if you got grudging obedience, and didn't have to dodge a
knife in the back. McGant, now, was not exactly half crazy, but he was a good quarter of the way gone.
And here he was looking at Grayson as if he considered the latter the one who was weak in the head.
Maybe he had something there at that, thought Grayson.
"There's no danger from them," said McGant. "Only one intelligent species, and not many specimens
of them around. And they're still in the ape-man stage."
"I'm not so sure."
"By Pluto, Captain, it's obvious enough. Not a building, not a boat, not a canal in the place. No sign
that they've ever heard of the use of tools. No sign that they grow their own plant food or use weapons
to kill their prey. What more do you want of them, an I. Q. test?"
"That would help," said Grayson. "For lack of it, I'm taking another look at some of these telescopic
films we made."
"I've gone through them. They don't show any danger."
"I tend to agree with you. But it doesn't pay to be careless."
"Anything you say, Captain," replied McGant in a respectful voice, managing to convey his contempt
by facial expression alone. "Somebody on every ship has to be careful, just as somebody has to be the
ship's clown. But I'll lay two to one that you're only wasting our time. An hour from now we'll be coming
in for the landing we should be making right now."
"I don't doubt it," returned Grayson coldly, He didn't like that remark about the clown.
"And then, by Pluto, we'll start collecting the stuff. We'll, show the dirty so-and-so's, Captain."
"You have restricted objectives," said Grayson. McGant's dirty so-and-so's, of course, were the
inhabitants of his native Mars. Kerman's "them" were the officers of the Interplanetary Transport Service,
who had fired him for perfectly justifiable reasons.
Grayson himself wasn't so petty. The "them" that he was going to show was nothing less than the
entire human race.
He studied the films, running them through three more times, looking for any clue that might hint at an
advanced but concealed state of civilization, for any sign that the intelligence of the highest race, the
A-race, was above what he called the ape-man stage. There was nothing.
The intelligent ones were not particularly impressive-looking. They were about five feet high, rather