"Doris Piserchia - A Billion Days of Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piserchia Doris)

for-getfulness."
Sheen had reached his shoulders. "I'll be gentle with you," he said. The silver being experienced a twinge of shame.
Blok hadn't been so bad. The man had some very good sides to his character.
"I will forget?" said Blok, as he was completely covered.
"Not exactly. I'm afraid you can't be omniscient with a memory block."
Blok saw and was shaken. "Oh, Sheen, you lied. No, you didn't lie. I lied to myself. Man is an I-want, an I-value, and an
I-will. He is a hunger, a conscience and a power. Now I'm an I-want and an I-value. Too late I see that man's I-will is his
most vital part. With it he puts himself onto the path of mobility, makes it possible for his three parts to coexist. Now I
have no peace, nor can I ever have it. The I-want is an ap-
petite that has no boundaries or saturation point. It is a mouth that demands everything in sight. I want, and you
provide it for me, but there is no way for me to choose be-tween my wants, no way for me to say, 'No, not this one,'
'Yes, that one.' Though I know the good and the evil be-cause of my I-value, there is no I-will to state the choice. My
I-value can only sit there and judge this hell. A hog of an ap-petite and a Freudian guilt complex are the best
description of what Blok is and will remain. Shame on Sheen. He sur-vives on the agony of others."
The silver creature winced. "Be still. I say be silent Chide me no more. I have consumed it all."
Blok was still. Blok was totally imprisoned. Blok was not.
"How do I do it?" murmured Sheen. "Born in ignorance, I have knowledge unheard of. It is there, a well of it, beneath
the surface of my consciousness. A word, phrase or gesture taps that well, and I have all the answers. Nice. But what
am I for? Why and who am I?"
He considered the history of Earth: Homo Sapiens dis-appeared somewhere around the year Two Million. His
chil-dren, Homo Superior, the Gods, became the dominant spe-cies. Sapiens had enjoyed experimenting with the genes
of other organisms. So did the Gods. Strange crossbreeds came into being. The sparrow and the honeybee were mated
and became a fuzzy little creature that made its home in the rot-ted trunks of trees. Eventually the Gods crossbred it
with the housecat. The zizzy was born: a furred, winged, four-legged animal with a stinger on its tail and a high order of
intelli-gence in its complex brain.
While the Gods played with the anatomies of many lesser creatures, one of the least of all creatures began a rapid
evolution on its own. The rat gained in stature and in-tellect. The Gods grew interested, watched and waited and soon
saw that the rat was assuming human qualities. This amused them. They taught the rats to be like Homo Sapiens of
old.
Perhaps evolution always followed the same pattern, or perhaps the interference of the Gods caused the rat species to
produce individuals who closely resembled men of olden times. At any rate, it amused the Gods to teach the newly
rising species to be men, and when some "rat" reminded the monarchs of a human in their own history, they gave the
"rat" the same name. So the rats had their Khans, Lord, Hit-ler, Freud, et cetera, and never knew the difference.
Eventually the strength of the Gods increased and they lost interest in ordinary events. They had almost total
com-mand over matter. They were telepathic and could even move their bodies through the air.
In the year Three Million, Sheen came. He didn't know his destiny. He would when he began to dream. He was an ego.
For the present the Gods were above him, while lower organisms would soon be beneath him. He came to accost and
his targets were the evolved descendants of rats; new man; Homo Sapiens in nearly every aspect.
Sheen: a creature of conscience and increasing power.
chapter i: the new men of earth
Rik was sitting in his living room reading the paper when a racket came at the window. It intensified until Aril threw it
open. Into the room came her pet zizzy. As usual, it flew over Rik with its stinger pointed at him.
"Damn it!" he said, hunching down in the chair. "The next time that thing gets close to me, I'll hook it with my claw."
Aril grabbed the zizzy out of the air and held it close. "It doesn't mean any harm."
Rik eyed the animal warily. One stab of its stinger in his carotid and he would have no troubles left. "Put it in its cage,"
he said. He looked away before she kissed it.
The zizzy nuzzled Aril's neck with its woolly head and she giggled. She made little crooning sounds and squeezed it so
hard it should have popped. It buzzed and snorted and tried to hug her with its puny forearms. Aril had found it in the
street, half-dead, and brought it home.
Rik had already tried to get rid of it. Once when Aril was away he drove a hundred miles and dumped it out near an