"Pohl, Frederik - Father Of The Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pohl Frederick)

Marchand reeled and fell; he could not help it; he knew he was a spectacle, could feel the incongruous tears rheuming out of his beast eyes, but this last and unexpected blow was too harsh. He had faced the fact of fifty thousand damaged lives and accepted guilt for them, but one abandoned baby, left to an aunt and the apology of a letter, broke his heart.
УI wonder why you donТt kill me,Ф he said.
УDr. Marchand! I donТt know what youТre talking about.Ф
УIf onlyЧФ said Marchand carefully. УI donТt expect any favors, but if only there were some way I could pay. But I canТt. I have nothing left, not even enough life to matter. But IТm sorry, Mr. Ferguson, and that will have to do.Ф
Ferguson said, УDr. Marchand, if IТm not mistaken, youТre saying that you apologize for the Institute.Ф Marchand nodded. УButЧoh, IТm not the one to say this, but thereТs no one else. Look. Let me try to make it clear. The first thing the colonists did yesterday was choose a name for the planet. The vote was unanimous. Do you know what they called it?Ф
Marchand only looked at him dully.
УPlease listen, Dr. Marchand. They named it after the man who inspired all their lives. Their greatest hero. They named it Marchand.Ф
Marchand stared at him, and stared longer, and then without changing expression closed his eyes. УDr. Marchand!Ф said Ferguson tentatively, and then, seriously worried at last, turned and scuttled ape-like, legs and knuckles bearing him rapidly across the ground, to get the shipТs doctor, who had left him with strict orders to call him as soon as the patient showed any signs of life.
When they got back, the chimp was gone. They looked at the fronded forest and at each other.
УWandered off, I expect,Ф said the doctor. УIt may be just as well.Ф
УBut the nights are cold! HeТll get pneumonia. HeТll die.Ф
УNot any more,Ф said the doctor, as kindly as he could. УHeТs already dead in every way that matters.Ф
He bent and rubbed his aching thighs, worn already from the struggle against this new EdenТs gravity, then strthghtened and looked at the stars in the darkening western sky. A bright green one was another planet of Groombridge 1618Тs, farther out, all ice and copper salts. One of the very faintest ones, perhaps, was Sol. УHe gave us these planets,Ф said the doctor, and turned back toward the city. УDo you know what being a good man means, Ferguson? It means being better than you really areЧso that even your failures carry someone a little farther to successЧand thatТs what he did for us. I hope he heard what you were trying to tell him. I hope he remembers it when he dies,Ф the doctor said.
УIf he doesnТt,Ф said Ferguson very clearly, Уthe rest of us always will.Ф
The next day they found the curled-up body.
It was the first funeral ever held on the planet, and the one that the history books describe. That is why, on the planet called Marchand, the statue at the spaceport has a small bas-relief carved over the legend:

THE FATHER OF THE STARS

The bas-relief is in the shape of a chimpanzee, curled on itself and looking out with blind, frightened eyes upon the world, for it was the chimpanzeeТs body that they found, and the chimpanzeeТs body that they buried under the monument. The bas-relief and the body, they are ape. But the statue that rises above them is a godТs.