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

The cliff side came into his vision again. A fault in the escarpment touched a hidden spot in his memory. He involuntarily started toward it. But he slowed up before he got to the fault: which was really a cave that tapered out to nothingness as its sides rose.
The cave!
And this sloping plain, these mountains, composed the surface of Asteroid 1007, millions of years from now.

Tony dropped emotionlessly to his knees at the mouth of the cave. Not so long ago, he had done the same thing. Then there had been a complete, undisjointed skeleton lying there.
Somehow, then, he had known the skeleton existed before the human raceЧas if it were someoneЧthe skeleton?Чthat had spoken to him across the unutterable years. The skeleton? That could not be! Yet, whence had come the memory?
He took the ring from his pocket and put it on his finger. It gleamed.
He knelt there for minutes, lie a man who worships at his own grave, and he was not dead. Not dead! He took the ring from his finger, then, a cold, bleak smile growing on his face.
He came to his feet, a rising wind whipping at his hair. He took a half dozen running steps toward the river, brought his arm over his shoulder in a throwing gesture.
Somehow the ring slipped from his fingers and fell.
He stooped, picked it up. This time, he made it leave his hand. It spun away, twinkling in the faint sunlight. But the gravity had hold of it, and it fell on the brink of the river, plainly visible.
A dry, all-gone feeling rose in Tony's throat. Grimly, he went forward, picked it up again. Keeping his eyes on it, he advanced to the brink of the river gorge. He held the ring over the darkly swirling waters, slowly released it.
It struck the river like a plummet. The waters enclosed it and it was gone. He looked at the spot where it had disappeared, half expecting it to spring back up into his hand. But it was gone. Gone for good!
He started dazedly back to the ship, moving in an unreal dream. Paradoxical that he had been able to get rid of it. It had dropped from his hand once, fallen short of the river once. The third time it had given up trying!
When he came up to the ship, Masters was standing at the stern, looking at the broken rocket jets. He turned, and saw Tony, water still dripping from his uniform. He fell back a step, face turned pallid.
Tony's lips curled. "Who did it?"
"D-did what?"
"You know what I mean," Tony bit out. He took three quick steps forward.
Masters saw that, and went reckless. Tony side-stepped him, brought his left arm around in a short arc. Masters went down cursing. Tony knelt, holding Masters down by the throat. He felt through his pockets, unearthed the key to the cuffs. Then he hauled Masters to his feet and shook him. Masters' teeth clicked.
"Murderer!" Tony snapped, white with rage.
Masters broke loose. "I'd do it again," he said wildly, and swung. He missed. Tony lashed out with the full power of his open palm, caught Masters on the side of the head. Masters went reeling back, slammed against the side of the ship. Tony glared at him, and then turned on his heel.
He met Laurette Overland coming down the stairs to the upper corridor.
"Lieutenant!" Her eyes danced with excitement. "I've been looking for you. Where in the world have you been?"
"Ask Masters." He urged himself down the corridor, jaw set. She fell into step beside him, running to keep up with his long strides.
"You're all wet!" she exclaimed. "Can't you tell me what happened? Did you go swimming?"
"Involuntarily." He kept on walking.
She grabbed his arm, and slowed him to a stop. An ominous glint replaced her excitement.
"What," she said, "did you mean when you said I should ask Erie about it? Did he push you in? If he did, I'llЧ" She was unable to speak.
Tony laughed humorlessly. "He admitted it. He stole my key to the handcuffs with the idea that it would be easier to free Braker and Yates that way after I was . . . uh . . . properly prepared to be a skeleton."
Her head moved back and forth. "That's horrible," she said lowly. "Horrible."
He held her eyes. "Perhaps I shouldn't have told you about it," he said, voice faintly acid. "He's your fiance, isn't he?"
She nodded, imperceptibly, studying him through the half gloom. "Yes. But maybe I'll change my mind, lieutenant. Maybe I will. But in the meantime, come along with me. Daddy's discovered something wonderful."

Professor Overland's head was propped up. He had a pencil and paper on his pyramided legs.
"Oh. Lieutenant! Come in." His face lighted. "Look here! Gravitons can thrust their way through to the future, giving the ship a thrust into the past. But only if it happened to enter the spherical type of etheric vacuum. This vacuum would be minus everythingЧelectrons, photons, cosmic rays and so forth, except under unusual circumstances. At some one time, in either the past or future, there might be a stream of photons bridging the vacuum. Now, when gravitons are ejected into the past, they grab hold of light photons, and become ordinary negative electrons. Now say the photons are farther away in the past than they are in the future. The gravitons therefore follow the line of least resistance and hook up with photons of the future. The photons in this case were perhaps hundreds of millions of years away in the vacuum. In traveling that time-distance, the gravitons kicked the ship back for a proportionate number of years, burned up our machinery, and wrecked us on this suddenly appearing before-the-asteroid world."
Laurette said brightly, "But that isn't the important part, daddy."
"I can find another of those etheric vacuums," Overland went on, preoccupiedly, pointing out a series of equations. "Same type, same structure. But we have to go to the planet Earth in order to rebuild the reversed contraction machinery. We'll find the materials we need there" He glanced up. "But we have to get off this world before it cracks up, lieutenant."
Tony started. "Before this world cracks up?"
"Certainly. Naturally. You canЧ" His heavy brows came down abruptly. "You didn't know about that, did you? Hmm-m." He stroked his jaw, frowning. "You recall the crescent planet you and Masters saw? Well, he took some readings on that. It's wonderful, son!" His eyes lighted. "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good. Not only do we know now that the asteroid evolved from a broken-up planet, but we also know the manner in which that planet broke up. Collision with a heavy, smaller body."
Tony paled. "You meanЧ" he said huskily. "Good heavens!" Sweat stood out on his forehead. "How soon will that happen?" he said ominously.
"Well, Erie has the figures. Something over eighteen or nineteen days. It'll be a crack-up that'll shake the sun. And we'll be here to witness it." He smiled wryly. "I'm more scientist than man. I guess. I never stop to think we might die in the crack-up, and furnish six skeletons instead of one."
"There'll be no skeletons," Tony said, eyes narrowed. "For one thing, we can repair the ship, though we'll have to work like mad. For anotherЧI threw the ring into the river. It's gone."
Laurette seemed to pale. "I ... I don't see how that could be done," she stammered. "You couldn't get rid of it, not reallyЧcould you?"
"It's gone," Tony said stubbornly. "For good. And don't forget it. There'll be no skeleton. And you might try to impress that on Masters, so he doesn't try to produce one," he added significantly.
He left the room with a nod, a few seconds liter stepped into the lounge. Braker and Yates turned around. Both were cuffed.
Tony took the key from his pocket and the cuffs fell away. In brief, pungent tones, then, he explained the situation, the main theme being that the ship had to be well away from the planet before the crack-up. Yates would go over the wiring system. Braker, Master's and Tony would work with oxyacetylene torches and hammers over the hole in the hull and the rocket jets.
Then he explained about the ring.
Yates ran a thin hand through his yellow hair.
"You don't do it that easy," he said in his soft, effortless voice. "There's a skeleton up there, and it's got Braker's ring on its finger. It's got to be accounted for, don't it? It's either me or you or Braker or the girl or her old man or Masters. There ain't any use trying to avoid it, either." His voice turned sullen. He looked at Braker, then at Tony. "Anyway, I'm keeping my back turned the right way so there won't be any dirty work."
Braker's breath sounded. "Why, you dirty rat," he stated. He took a step toward Yates. "You would think of that. And probably you'd try it on somebody else, too. Well, don't go pulling it on me, understand." He scowled. "And you better watch him, too, Crow. He's pure poisonЧin case you got the idea we were friends."