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

nothing back. Nothing, exceptтАФ
"They forgot that they had reconditioned me. When I entered the colony I was a reasonably normal
human being. When I left it, I wasтАФas you see me now. I hated every one. Almost the first thing I did
was to square the account a bit. I had paid the customary ten years for a human life, paid it in advance. I
took what was coming to me by killing the most brutal of the guards. I felt better then, but I still hated
people.
"While I was in the penal colony, the intergalactic drive had been discovered. But its use was
prohibited indefinitely. The authorities reasoned that the other galaxies might be full of unknown dangers,
and they didn't want to bring any of them down upon the Solar System: Intergalactic exploration was
forbidden to all ships but official Government vessels, which were to be especially trained to take the
necessary precautions."
He grinned unpleasantly. "Personally I didn't give a damn whether I brought danger down upon the
Solar System or not. All I knew was that there were hundreds of thousands of planets yet unexplored,
and that they probably contained enough in raw materials to make fortunes for everybody in the first few
thousand crews to explore them. I started recruiting a crew as fast as I could.
"As it turned out, I couldn't get even ordinary criminals to join up with me. They had too much of a
sense of human responsibility, too much conscience. That's why I had to fall back on this outfit of haters.
With themтАФand with meтАФit's every man for himself, and devil take the hindmost."
"That was what we wished to know."
Again the two A-creatures exchanged glances, and Grayson thought he detected doubt. He had been
telling the truth, for reasons of his own, of course, but the truth none the less. He said harshly, "If you
don't believe me, ask the others. They'll tell you whether or not I'm lying. There's only one thing to add.
That is, that we hadn't counted on coming across a race like yours. Now we'll never get back to our
native planet to enjoy the wealth we found."
If he could only be sure of that! But perhaps they would get back. There was a good possibility. The
ship's engines hadn't been destroyed, they had merely been removed. Perhaps the crew would yet return
to the System and to the people they had so bitterly hated.
"We shall repair your ship. Perhaps we shall build several others like it. And you will lead us back."
It was as he had feared. Grayson stared at the two creatures and had a moment of panic. He hadn't
told them that he had changed his mind about hating the human race. He hadn't told them that a man
could think he knew his own mind, knew his own dearest wishтАФand when face to face with its
realization, perceive that he knew nothing of the sort. That was one thing he mustn't tell. Nor must he tell
them that he was terrified now at the nightmare of what would happen when such almost invulnerable
creatures descended upon the weak things that called themselves "men." And for a moment he was afraid
that they would read his mind.
That, however, was absurd. If they could do that, they would never have bothered to ask him so
many questions. His thoughts were his ownтАФup to the point where his own cowardice would force him
to reveal them.
But if they could not read his mind in the literal' sense, they could at least judge what he was thinking.
One of the A-creatures said, "You are wondering about us. We have no machinery such as fills your
ship, we lack much of your science. How can we dream of building another ship?"
"Yes, I'm wondering. I don't understand your race in the least."
"We have only recently begun to understand ourselves." The creature said softly, "We are a young
race. Those that look like us but are so much smaller, like the creatures you call lizardsтАФthose are our
ancestors."
"I thought there was a relationship. But it doesn't make sense. Those small ones," objected Grayson,
"are the only creatures we have seen you destroy."
"They are the only ones we have to fear," returned the other.
Not the only ones, thought Grayson. You have usтАФme. Yes, I hated the human race for what it did
to me. It was a blind, reasoning hate, and some of its members deserved part of what I feltтАФbut no one