"E. E. Doc Smith - The Galaxy Primes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

'Oh, I'm so sorry ... excuse my ignorance, please!' Garlock implored, as he picked the girl up, carried her across the
room to a sofa, and assured himself that she had not been really hurt. She recovered quickly. 'I'm very sorry, Grand
Lady Neldine and Governor Atterlin, but I didn't know ... that is, I didn't realize...'
'You are trying to break it gently.' Atterlin was both shocked and despondent. This being the first planet you have
visited, you simply did not realize how feeble our minds really are.'
'Oh, not at all, really.' Garlock began deftly to repair the morale he had shattered. 'Merely younger. With your system
of genetics, so much more logical and efficient than our strict monogamy, your race will undoubtedly make more
progress in a few centuries than we made in many millenia. And in a few centuries you will pass us - will master this
only partially-known Gunther Drive.
'Esthetically, Lady Neldine, I would like very much to father you a child.' He allowed his coldly unmoved gaze to
survey her superb body. 'I am very sorry indeed that it cannot be. I trust that you, Governor Atterlin, will be kind
enough to spread word of our physical shortcoming, and so spare us further embarrassment?"
'Not shortcomings, sir, and, I truly hope, no embarrassment,' Atterlin protested. 'We are immensely glad to have seen
you, since your very existence gives us so much hope for the future. I will spread word, and every Hodellian will do
whatever he can to help you in your quest.'
"Thank you, sir and lady,' Garlock said, and took his leave. 'What an act!' came Belle's clear thought, bubbling with
unrestrained merriment. 'For our revered Doctor Garlock, the
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Prime Exponent and First Disciple of Truth, what an act!' Esthetically, he'd like to father her a child, it says here in
fine print - God, if she only knew! Clee, I swear this thing is going to kill me yet!'
'Anything that would do that I'm very much in favor of!' Garlock growled the thought and snapped up his shield.
This one was, quite definitely, Belle's round.
Garlock took the Hodellian equivalent of a bus to the center of the city, then set out aimlessly to walk. The buildings
and their arrangement, he noted - not much to his surprise now -were not too different from those of the cities on
Earth.
With his guard down to about the sixth level, highly receptive but not at all selective, he strolled up one street and
down another. He was not attentive to detail yet; he was trying to get the broad aspects, the 'feel' of this hitherto
unknown civilization.
He found himself practically saturated with thought. Apparently this was the afternoon rush hour, as the sidewalks
were crowded with people and the streets were full of cars. It did not seem as though anyone, whether in the
buildings, on the sidewalks, or in the cars, was doing any blocking at all. If there were any such things as secrets on
Hodell, they were scarce. Each person, man, woman, or child; went about his own business, radiating full blast. No
one paid any attention to the thoughts of anyone else except in the case of couples or groups, the units of which were
engaged in conversation. It reminded Garlock of a big Tellurian party when the punchbowls were running low -
everybody talking at the top of his voice and nobody listening.
This whole gale of thought was blowing over Oarlock's receptors. He did not address anyone directly; and no one
addressed him. At first quite a few young women, at sight of his unusual physique, had sent out tentative feelers of
thought; and some men had wondered, in the same tentative and indirect fashion, who he was and where he came
from. However, when the information he had given Atterlin spread throughout the city - and it did not take long - no
one paid any more attention to him than they did to each other.
Probing into and through various buildings, he learned that groups of people were quitting work at intervals of about
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fifteen minutes. There were thoughts of tidying up desks; of letting the rest of this junk go until tomorrow; of putting
away and/or covering up office machines of various sorts. There were thoughts of powdering noses and repairing
makeup. There was one sequence of thought particularly sharp and clear - a high Third - which would have startled
Garlock no little if he had received it on Tellus. She wouldn't do it after the show tonight, either, if she had to slug
him in the brisket. She'd cancel him tonight anyway, whether he tried to make her or not. She'd quit playing around
with both those damn wolves and marry Tomko while she was still a virgin - there was an honest-to-God man ...
He pulled in his receptors and scanned the crowded ways for guardians - he'd have to call them that until either he or
Lola found out their real name. Same as at the airport - the more people, the more guardians. What were they? How?