"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 1 - Triplanetary" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

and the body fitted the job.

They were asexual: sexless to a degree unapproached by any form of Tellurian life higher than the yeasts.
They were not merely hermaphroditic, nor androgynous, nor parthenogenetic. They were completely
without sex. They were also, to all intents and purposes and except for death by violence, immortal. For
each Eddorian, as its mind approached the stagnation of saturation after a lifetime of millions of years,
simply divided into two new-old beings. New in capacity and in zest; old in ability and in, power, since
each of the two тАЬchildrenтАЭ possessed in toto the knowledge and the memories of their one тАЬparentтАЭ.

And if it is difficult to describe in words the physical aspects of the Eddorians, it is virtually impossible to
write or to draw, in any symbology of Civilization, a true picture of an EddorianтАЩs - any EddorianтАЩs mind.
They were intolerant, domineering, rapacious, insatiable, cold, callous, and brutal. They were keen,
capable, persevering, analytical, and efficient. They had no trace of any of the softer emotions or
sensibilities possessed by races adherent to Civilization. No Eddorian ever had anything even remotely
resembling a sense of humor.
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While not essentially bloodthirsty-that is, not loving bloodshed for its own sweet sake-they were no
more averse to blood-letting than they were in favor of it. Any amount of killing which would or which
might advance an Eddorian toward his goal was commendable; useless slaughter was frowned upon, not
because it was slaughter, but because it was useless and hence inefficient.

And, instead of the multiplicity of goals sought by the various entities of any race of Civilization, each and
every Eddorian had only one. The same one: power. Power! P- O-W-E-R!!

Since Eddore was peopled originally by various races, perhaps as similar to each other as are the
various human races of Earth, it is understandable that the early history of the planet while it was still in its
own space, that is, was one of continuous and ages-long war. And, since war always was and probably
always will be linked solidly to technological advancement, the race now known simply as тАЬThe
EddoriansтАЭ became technologists supreme. All other races disappeared. So did all other forms of life,
however lowly, which interfered in any way with the Masters of the Planet.

Then, all racial opposition liquidated and overmastering lust as unquenched as ever, the surviving
Eddorians fought among themselves: тАЬpush-buttonтАЭ wars employing engines of destruction against which
the only possible defense was a fantastic thickness of planetary bed-rock.

Finally, unable either to kill or to enslave each other, the comparatively few survivors made a peace of
sorts. Since their own space was practically barren of planetary systems, they would move their planet
from space to space until they found one which so teemed with planets that each living Eddorian could
become the sole Master of an ever increasing number of worlds. This was a program very much
worthwhile, promising as it did an outlet for even the recognizedly insatiable Eddorian craving for power.
Therefore the Eddorians, for the first time in their prodigiously long history of fanatical non-cooperation,
decided to pool their resources of mind and of material and to work as a group.

Union of a sort was accomplished eventually; neither peaceably nor without highly lethal friction. They
knew that a democracy, by its very nature, was inefficient; hence a democratic form of government was
not even considered. An efficient government must of necessity be dictatorial. Nor were they all exactly