"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 7 - Masters Of The Vortex" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

'Ho, chief. Glad to see somebody. Sit down.'
'You're the most-wanted man in the galaxy, not excepting Kimball Kinnison. Here's a spool of tape, which you can look at
as soon as Lacy will let you have a scanner. It's only the first one. As soon as any planet finds out that we've got a sure-
enough-vortex-blower-outer who can really call his shotsтАФand that news gets around mighty fastтАФit sends in a double-
urgent, Class A Prime demand for you.'
'Sirius IV got in first by a whisker, but it was a photo finish with Aldebaran II and all channels have been jammed ever
since. Canopus, Vega, Rigel, Spica. Everybody, from Alsakan to Zabriska. We announced right off that we wouldn't
receive personal delegationsтАФwe had to almost throw a couple of pink-haired Chickladorians out bodily to make them
believe we meant itтАФthat our own evaluation of necessity, not priority of requisition, would govern. QX?'
'Absolutely,' Cloud agreed. 'That's the only way to handle it, I should think.'
'So forget this psychic trauma ... No, I don't mean that,' the Lensman corrected himself hastily. 'You know what I mean.
The will to live is the most important factor in any man's recovery, and too many worlds need you too badly to have you
quit now. Check?'
'I suppose so,' Cloud acquiesced, but somberly, 'and I've got more will to live than I thought I had. I'll keep on pecking
away as long as I last.'
'Then you'll die of old age, Buster,' the Lensman assured him. 'We got full data. We know exactly how long it takes to go
from fully inert to fully free. We know exactly what to do to your screens. Next time nothing will come through except
light, and only as much of that as you like. You can wait as close to a
vortex as you please, for as long as is necessary to get exactly the conditions you want. You'll be as safe as if you were in
Klono's hip pocket.'
'Sure of that?'
'AbsolutelyтАФor at least, as sure as we can be of anything that hasn't happened yet. But your guardian angel here is eyeing
her clock a bit pointedly, so I'd better do a flit before she tosses me out on my ear. Clear ether, Storm!'
'Clear ether, chief!'
Thus 'Storm' Cloud, nucleonicist, became the most narrowly-specialized specialist in the long annals of science; became
'Storm' Cloud, the Vortex Blaster.
And that night Lensman Philip Strong, instead of sleeping, thought and thought and thought. What could he doтАФwhat
could anybody doтАФif Cloud should get himself killed? Somebody would have to do something ... but who? And what?
CouldтАФor could notтАФanother Vortex Blaster be found? Or trained?
And next morning, early, he Lensed a thought.
'Kinnison? Phil Strong. I've got a high-priority problem that will take a lot of work and a lot more weight than I carry. Are
you free to listen for a few minutes?'
'I'm free. Go ahead.'
24
25
3: Cloud Loses an Ann
Tellurian Pharmaceutical, Inc., was Civilization's oldest and most conservative drug house. 'Hide-bound' was the term most
frequently used, not only by its younger employees, but also by its more progressive competitors. But, corporatively,
Tellurian Pharmaceuticals, Inc., did not care. Its board of directors was limited by an iron-clad, if unwritten, law to men of
seventy years or more; and against the inertia of that ruling body the impetuosity of the younger generation was exactly as
efficacious as the dashing of ocean waves against an adamantine cliffтАФand in very much the same fashion.
Ocean waves do in time cut into even the hardest rock; and, every century or two, TPI did take forward stepтАФafter a
hundred years of testing by others had proved conclusively that the 'new' idea conformed in every particular with the
exalted standards of the Galactic Medical Association,
TPI's plant upon the planet Deka (Dekanore III, on the charts) filled the valley of Clear Creek and the steep, high hills on
its sides, from the mountain spring which was the creek's source to its confluence with the Spokane River.
The valley floor was a riot of color, devoted as it was to the intensive cultivation of medicinal plants. Along both edges of
the valley extended row after row of hydroponics sheds. Upon the mountains' sides there were snake dens, lizard pens, and
enclosures for many other species of fauna.
Nor was the surface all that was in use. The hills were hollow; honeycombed into hundreds of rooms in which, under