"Cordwainer Smith - Under Old Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Cordwainer)

There was silence.
The Lord Sto Odin stared at them all. In his eyes was the brightness and fierceness which had made whole generations of lords plead with him to live just a few more years, so that he could help them with their work. He had agreed, but within the last quarter-year he had overridden them all and had picked his day of death. He had lost none of his powers in doing this. They shrank from his stare while they waited with respect for his decision.
The Lord Sto Odin looked at the Lord Nuru-or and said, "I think you have guessed what I am going to do in the Gebiet and why I have to go there."
"The Gebiet is a preserve where no rules apply and no punishments
are inflicted. Ordinary people can do what they want down there, not what we think they should want. From all I hear, it is pretty nasty and pointless, the things that they find out. But you, perhaps, may sense the inwardness of these things. You may find a cure for the weary happiness of mankind."
"That is right," said Sto Odin. "And that is why I am going, after I make the appropriate official preparations."
3
Go he did. He used one of the most peculiar conveyances ever seen on Earth, since his own legs were too weak to carry him far. With only two-ninths'of a year to live, he did not want to waste time getting his legs re-grafted.
He rode in an open sedan-chair carried hy two Roman legionaries.
The legionaries were actually robots, without a trace of blood or living tissue in them. They were the most compact and difficult kind to create, since their brains had to be located in their chests-several million sheets of incredibly fine laminations, imprinted with the whole life experience of an important, useful and long-dead person. They were clothed as legionaries, down to cuirasses, swords, kilts, greaves, sandals and shields, merely because it was the whim of the Lord Sto Odin to go behind the rim of history for his companions. Their bodies, all metal, were very strong. They could batter walls, jump chasms, crush any man or underperson with their mere fingers, or throw their swords with the accuracy of guided projectiles.
The forward legionary, Flavius, had been head of Fourteen-B in the Instrumentality-an espionage division so secret that even among lords, few knew exactly of its location or its function. He was (or had been, till he was imprinted on a robot-mind as he lay dying) the director of historical research for the whole human race. Now he was a dull, pleasant machine carrying two poles until his master chose to bring his powerful mind into bright, furious alert by speaking the simple Latin phrase, understood by no other person living, Summa nulla est.
The rear legionary, Livius, had been a psychiatrist who turned into a general. He had won many battles until he chose to die, somewhat before his time, because he perceived that battle itself was a struggle for the defeat of himself.
Together, and added to the immense brainpower of the Lord Sto Odin himself, they represented an unsurpassable team.
"The Gebiet," commanded the Lord Sto Odin.
"The Gebeit," said both of them heavily, picking up the chair with its supporting poles.
"And then the Eezirk," he added.
"The Bezirk," they chimed in toneless voices.
Sto Odin felt his chair tilt back as Livius put his two ends of the poles carefully on the ground, came up beside Sto Odin and saluted with open palm.
"May I awaken?" said Livius in an even, mechanical voice.
"Summa nulla est," said the Lord Sto Odin.
Livius' face sprang into full animation. "You must not go there, my Lord! You would have to waive immunity and meet all dangers. There is nothing there yet. Not yet. Some day they will come pouring out of that underground Hades and give you men a real fight. Now, no. They are just miserable beings, cooking away in their weird unhappiness, making love in manners which you never thought of-"
"Never mind what you think I've thought. What's your objection in real terms?"
"It's pointless, my Lord! You have only bits of a year to live. Do something noble and great for man before you die. They may turn us off. We would like to share your work before you go away."
"Is that all?" said Sto Odin.
"My Lord," said Flavius, "you have awakened me too. I say, go forward. History is being respun down there. Things are loose which you great ones of the Instrumentality have never even suspected. Go now and look, before you die. You may do nothing, but I disagree with my companion. It is as dangerous as spaces might be, if we ever were to find it, but it is interesting. And in this world where all things have been done, where all thoughts have been thought, it is hard to find things which still prompt the human mind with raw curiosity. I'm dead, as you perfectly well know, but even I, inside this machine brain, feel the tug of adventure, the pull of danger, the magnetism of the unknown. For one thing, they are committing crimes down there. And you lords are overlooking them."
"We chose to overlook them. We are not stupid. We wanted to see what might happen," said the Lord Sto Odin, "and we have to give
those people time before we find out just how far they might go if they are cut off from controls."
"They are having babies!" said Flavius excitedly.
"I know that"
"They have hooked in two illegal instant-message machines," shouted Flavius.
Sto Odin was calm. "So that's why the Earth's credit structure has appeared to be leaking in its balance of trade."
"They have a piece of the congohelium!" shouted Flavius.
"The congohelium!" shouted the Lord Sto Odin. "Impossible! It's unstable. They could kill themselves. They could hurt Earth! What are they doing with it?"
"Making music," said Flavius, more quietly.
"Making what?"
"Music. Songs. Nice noise to dance to."
The Lord Sto Odin sputtered, "Take me there right now. This is ridiculous. Having a piece of the congohelium down there is as bad as wiping out inhabited planets to play checkers."
"My Lord," said Livius.
"Yes?" said Sto Odin.
"I withdraw my objections," said Livius.
Sto Odin said, very drily, "Thank you."
'They have something else down there. When I did not want you to go, I did not mention it. It might have aroused your curiosity. They have a god."
The Lord Sto Odin said, "If this is going to be a historical lecture, save it for another time. Go back to sleep and carry me down."
Livius did not move. "I mean what I said."
"A god? What do you call a god?"
"A person or an idea capable of starting wholly new cultural patterns in motion."
The Lord Sto Odin leaned forward, "You know this?"
"We both do," said Flavius and Livius.
"We saw him," said Livius. "You told us, a tenth-year ago to walk around freely for thirty hours, so we put on ordinary robot bodies and happened to get into the Gebiet. When we sensed the congohelium operating, we had to go on down to find out what it was doing. Usually, it is employed to keep the stars in their place-"
"Don't tell me that I know it Was it a man?"