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

THE SACK
by William Morrison


At first they hadn't even known that the Sack existed. If they had noticed it at all
when they landed on the asteroid, they thought of it merely as one more outpost of
rock on the barren expanse of roughly ellipsoidal silicate surface, which Captain
Ganko noticed had major and minor axes roughly three and two miles in diameter,
respectively. It would never have entered anyone's mind that the unimpressive object
they had unconsciously acquired would soon be regarded as the most valuable prize
in the system.
The landing had been accidental. The government patrol ship had been limping
along, and now it had set-tled down for repairs, which would take a good seventy
hours. Fortunately, they had plenty of air, and their recirculation system worked to
perfection. Food was in somewhat short supply, but it didn't worry them, for they
knew that they could always tighten their belts and do without full rations for a few
days. The loss of water that had resulted from a leak in the storage tanks, however,
was a more serious matter. It occupied a good part of their conversation during the
next fifty hours.
Captain Ganko said finally, "There 's no use talking, it won't be enough. And there
are no supply stations close enough at hand to be of any use. We'll have to radio
ahead and hope that they can get a rescue ship to us with a reserve supply."
The helmet mike of his next in command seemed to droop. "It'll be too bad if we
miss each other in space, Captain."
Captain Ganko laughed unhappily. "It certainly will. In that case we'll have a
chance to see how we can stand a little dehydration."
For a time nobody said anything. At last, however, the second mate suggested,
"There might be water somewhere on the asteroid, sir."
"Here? How in Pluto would it stick, with a gravity that isn't even strong enough to
hold loose rocks? And where the devil would it be?"
"To answer the first question first, it would be retained as water of crystallization,"
replied a soft liquid voice that seemed to penetrate his spacesuit and come from
behind him. "To answer the second question, it is half a dozen feet below the
surface, and can easily be reached by digging."
They had all swiveled around at the first words. But no one was in sight in the
direction from which the words seemed to come. Captain Ganko frowned, and his
eyes narrowed dangerously. "We don't happen to have a practical joker with us, do
we?" he asked mildly.
"You do not," replied the voice.
"Who said that?"
"I, Yzrl."
A crewman became aware of something moving on the surface of one of the great
rocks, and pointed to it. The motion stopped when the voice ceased, but they didn't
lose sight of it again. That was how they learned about Yzrl, or as it was more often
called, the Mind-Sack.
If the ship and his services hadn't both belonged to the government, Captain
Ganko could have claimed the Sack for himself or his owners and retired with a
wealth far beyond his dreams. As it was, the thing passed into government control.
Its importance was realized almost from the first, and Jake Siebling had reason to be
proud when more important and more influential figures of the political and industrial