"Rocklynne, Ross - Time Wants a Skeleton" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rocklynne Ross)

"Now, there you have it, lieutenant. Do what you can with it."
Tony said, "What would happen if the gravitons were forced into the future rather than the past?"
"Lieutenant, I would have been surprised if you hadn't said that! Theoretically, it's an impossibility. Anybody who knows gravitons would say so. But if Braker is wearing a ring that a skeleton older than the human race is also wearingЧUgh!"
She put her hands to her temples in genuine distaste. "We'll have to see my father," she said wearily. "He'll be the one to find out whether or not you make this up as you go along."
Brie Masters looked from Tony to Laurette.
"You believe this bilge he's been handing you?"
"I'm not interested in what you think, Brie. But I am in what you do, Daddy."
Overland looked uneasy, his stubbled jaws barely moving over a wad of rough-cut.
"It does sound like . . . er . . . bilge," he muttered. "If you weren't an IPF man, I'd think you were slightly off-center. ButЧone thing, young man. How did you know the skeleton was older than the human race?"
"I said it existed before the human race."
"Is there any difference?"
"I think there isЧsomehow."
"Well," said Overland patiently, "how do you know it'?"
Tony hesitated. "I don't really know. I was standing at the mouth of the cave, and somethingЧor someoneЧtold me."
"Someone!" Masters blasted the word out incredulously.
"I don't know!" said Tony. "All I know is what I'm telling you. It couldn't have been supernaturalЧcould it?"
Overland said quickly, "Don't let it upset you, son. Of course it wasn't supernatural. There's a rational explanation somewhere. I guess. But it's going to be hard to come by."
He nodded his head abstractedly, and kept on nodding it like a marionette. Then he smiled peculiarly.
"I'm old now, sonЧyou know? And I've seen a lot. I don't disbelieve anything. There's only one logical step for a scientist to take now, and that's to go back and take a look at that skeleton."
Masters' breath sounded. "You can't do that!"
"But we're going to. And remember that I employ you, because Laurette asked me to. Now turn this ship back to 1007. This might be more important than patching up a torn-up world at that." He chuckled.
Laurette shook her blond head. "You know," she said musingly, "this might be the very thing we shouldn't do, going back like this. On the other hand, if we went on our way, that might be the thing we shouldn't do."
Masters muttered, "You're talking nonsense, Laurette."
He ostentatiously grabbed her bare arm, and led her from the room after her father, throwing Tony a significant glance as he passed.
Tony expelled a long breath. Then, smiling twistedly, he went back to the lounge, to waitЧfor what? His stomach contracted again with revulsionЧor was it a premonition?

Braker came sharply to his feet. "What's up, Crow?"
"Let me see that ring again," Tony said. After a minute he raised his eyes absently. "It's the same ring," he muttered.
"I wish to hell," Braker exploded, "I knew what you were talking about!"
Tony looked at him obliquely, and said under his breath, "Maybe it's better you don't."
He sat down and lighted a cigarette. Braker swore, and finally wandered to the window. Tony knew what he was thinking: of Earth; of the cities that teemed; of the vast stretches of open space between the planets. Such would be his thoughts. Braker, who loved life and freedom.
Braker, who wore a ring.
Then the constellations showing through the port abruptly changed pattern.
Braker leaped back, eyes bulging. "What theЧ"
Yates, sitting sullenly in the corner, came alertly to his feet. Braker mutely pointed at the stars.
"I could have sworn," he said thickly.
Tony came to his feet. He had seen the change. But his thoughts flowed evenly, coldly, a smile frozen on his lips.
"You saw right, Braker," he said coldly, then managed to grab the guide rail as the ship bucked. Braker and Yates sailed across the room, faces ludicrous with surprise. The ship turned the other way. The heavens spun, the stars blurring. Something else Tony saw besides blurred stars: a dull-gray, monstrous landscape, a horizon cut with mountains, a bright, small sun fringing tumbled clouds with reddish, ominous silver. Then stars again, rushing past the port, simmering through an atmosphere.
Blackness crushed its way through Tony Crow's consciousness, occluding it until, finally, his last coherent thought had gone. Yet he seemed to know what had happened. There was a skeleton in a cave on an asteroidЧmillions of years from now. And the ship had struck.

Tony moved, opened his eves. The lights were out. but a pale shaft of radiance was streaming through the still-intact port. Sounds insinuated themselves into his consciousness. The wet drip of rain, the low murmur of a spasmodic wind, a guttural kutakikchkut that drifted eerily, insistently, down the wind.
Tony slowly levered himself to his feet. He was lying atop Braker. The man was breathing heavily, a shallow gash on his forehead. Involuntarily, Tony's eyes dropped to the ring. It gleamedЧa wicked eye staring up at him. He wrenched his eyes away.
Yates was stirring, mumbling to himself. His eyes snapped open stared at Tony.
"What happened?" he said thickly. He reeled to his feet. "Phew!"
Tone smiled through the gloom "Take care of Braker." he said, and turned to the door, which was warped off its hinges. He loped down the corridor to the control room, slowing down on the lightless lower deck ramp. He felt his way into the control room. He stumbled around until his foot touched a body. He stooped, felt a soft, bare arm. In sudden, stifling panic, he scooped Laurette's feebly breathing body into his arms. She might have been lead, as his feet seemed made of lead. He forced himself up to the upper corridor, kicked open the door of her father's room, placed her gently on the bed. There was light here, probably that of a moon. He scanned her pale face anxiously, rubbing her arms toward the heart. Blood came to her cheeks. She gasped, rolled over. Her eyes opened.
"Lieutenant," she muttered.
"You all right?"
Tony helped her to her feet.
"Thanks, lieutenant. I'll do." She tensed. "What about my father?"
"I'll bring him up," said Tony.