"Niven, Larry - Rammer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

"But what do the probes do?"

'They're biological packages. Bacteria. The idea is to turn a reducing atmosphere into an oxygen atmosphere just the way certain bacteria did it for Earth, something like fifteen-times-ten-to-the-eighth years ago." The checker smiled-barely. His small narrow mouth wasn't built to express any great emotion, "You're part of a big project, Corbett."

"Good Lord. How long does it take?"

"We think about fifty thousand years. Obviously we've never had a chance to measure it."

"But, good Lord! Do you really expect the State to last that long? Does even the State expect to last that long?"

"That's not your affair, Corbett. Still-" Pierce considered. "-I don't suppose I do. Or the State does. But humanity will last. One day there will be men on those worlds. It's a Cause, Corbett. The immortality of the species. A thing bigger than one man's life. And you're part of it."

He looked at Corbett expectantly. Corbett was deep in thought. He was running a finger tip back and forth along the straight line of his nose.

Presently he asked, "What's it like out there?"

"The stars? You're-"

"No, no, no. The city. I catch just a glimpse of it twice a day; cubistic buildings with elaborate carvings at the street level-"

"What the bleep is this, Corbett? You don't need to know anything about Selerdor. By the time you come home the whole city will be changed."

"I know, I know. That's why I hate to leave without seeing something of this world. I could be going out to die-"

Corbett stopped. He had seen that considering look before but he had never seen Pierce actually angry.

The checker's voice was flat, his mouth pinched tight. "You think of yourself as some kind of tourist."

"So would you if you found yourself two hundred years in the future. If you didn't have that much curiosity you wouldn't be human."

"Granted that I'd want to look around. I certainly wouldn't demand it as a right. Corbett, what were you thinking when you foisted yourself off on the future? Did you think the future owed you a debt? It's the other way around-and time you realized it!"

Corbett was silent.

"I'll tell you something. You're a rammer because you're a born tourist. We tested you for that. You like the unfamiliar, it doesn't send you scuttling back to something safe and known. That's rare." The checker's eyes said: And that's why I've decided not to wipe your personality yet. His mouth said, "Was there anything else?"

Corbett pushed his luck. "I'd like a chance to practice with a computer like the ship's computer-autopilot."

"We don't have one. But you'll get your chance in two days. You're leaving then."

IV

The next day he received his instructions for entering the solar system. He was to try anything and everything to make contact, up to and including flashing his attitude jets in binary code. The teaching widget was fanatical on the subject.

He found that he would not be utterly dependent on rescue ships. He could slow the ramship by braking directly into the solar wind until the proton flux was too slow to help him. He could then proceed on attitude jets, using whatever hydrogen was left in the emergency tank. A nearly full tank would actually get him to the moon and land him there.

The State was through with him when he dropped his last probe. It was good of the State to provide for his return, Corbett thought-and then he shook himself. The State was not altruistic. It wanted the ship back.

Now, more than ever, Corbett wanted a chance at the computer-autopilot.