"Eric Frank Russell - The Witness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

"Fifth witness!"
"Tenth witness!"
"Sixteenth witness!"
That one, number sixteen, ended the prosecution's roster. Four or five times as
many witnesses could have been pro-duced, but these were the pick of the bunch.
They had something cogent to offer, something calculated to help the public to
decide once and for allтАФat least with its prejudices if not with its brainsтАФwhether
gallivanting life-forms were to be tolerated, or given the bum's rush, or worse. The
question at issue was the ephemeral one of public safety, and it was for the public to
say whether or not they were going to take any risks. With this in mind, the evidence
of the sixteen made a formidable indictment against the queer, golden-eyed thing on
trial for its liberty or even its life.
Conscious that he was leading on points, Mr. Prosecutor came erect, gazed
authoritatively at the defendant.
"Just why did you come to this world?"
"To escape my own."
"Do you expect us to believe that?"
"I expect nothing," chalked Maeth laboriously. "I merely hope."
"You hope for what?"
"For kindness."
It disconcerted the questioner. Left with no room for a telling retort, he was silent
a moment while he sought another angle.
 "Then your own world did not please you? What was wrong with it?"
"Everything," responded Maeth.
"Meaning you were a misfit?"
"Yes."
"Nevertheless you view this world as a suitable dumping-ground for misfits?"
No reply.
"I suggest that your plea is nonsense, your whole story a sheer fabrication. I
suggest that your motives in coming here are deeper and darker than you dare admit.
I will go further and put it to you that you do not come even from the region of
Procyon, but from somewhere a good deal nearer, such as Mars."
Still no reply.
"Are you aware that astronautical engineers have subjected your damaged ship to
long and careful examination and made a report on it?"
Maeth stood there, pathetically patient, eyes looking into the distance as if in
search of peace, and said nothing.
"Are you aware that they have reported that while your vessel is far in advance of
anything yet developed by us, and while it is undoubtedly capable of travelling far
outside this solar system, it is not able to reach Alpha Centauri, much less
Procyon?"
"That is true," wrote Maeth on the board.
"Yet you maintain that you came from the region of Pro-cyon?"
"Yes."
The prosecuting attorney spread despairing hands. "You have heard defendant,
Your Honors. His ship cannot reach here from Procyon. All the same, it came from
Procyon. This creature cannot manage to be consistent, either because it is
dimwitted or, more probably, an ineffectual liar. I therefore see little purpose in
continuing myтАФ"