"Jerry Oltion - Artifacts" - читать интересную книгу автора (Oltion Jerry)

But how much damage could one person do? He wasn't a prophet or a messiah.
That's what they all said. Typhoid Mary didn't feel sick, either.
He'd read about previous alien thought patterns, how they'd allowed people to commit such atrocities,
how sometimes entire cities had been emptied, houses and monuments left standing, by the blood
sacrifice to a rogue system of belief. This one seemed to have the potential to be equally bloody. It had
turned trained scientists into ritual killers; it would be nearly unstoppable back home. Even without the
headsets, it could spread like fire.
He rested his forehead on the cool glass of the porthole. He couldn't be sure he was dangerous. He
might have just been scared when he ordered the ship to launch. But he knew he'd gotten Julie's memory
of killing Anton, and he remembered feeling momentarily excited by it. He also knew if he didn't take
action now he would never have the strength to do it later, and with religion it was better to be safe than
sorry. He couldn't even risk a message, for fear the alien concepts might leak through somehow in
subliminal form.
He took a deep breath. "Set... set course for Earth," he said.
"Course set."
His mouth felt suddenly dry. He swallowed, said, "Launch."
The computer said, "You are not in your--"
"Command override is still in place," he reminded it. "Launch."
The first of many bombs exploded.
***

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