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

downward until it hung poised one scant mile over the building. Missiles, jets, and heavy guns were set and ready,
but no attack was made. Therefore Garlock introduced himself to various personages and invited them aboard instead
of snatching them; nor did he immobilize them after they had been teleported aboard.
'The president, the chief of staff, the chief justice, the most eminent scientists, the head of a church, the leaders of the
legislative body and four political bosses, the biggest business man, biggest labor leader, and biggest gangster.
Fourteen men." As Garlock studied them his face hardened. 'I thought to leave your Nations armed, to entrust this
world's future to you, but no. Only two of you are really concerned about the welfare of
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your peoples, and one of those two is very weak. Most of you are of no higher motivation than are the two dictators
and your gangster Clyden. You are much better than those we have already disarmed, but you are not good enough.'
Oarlock's hard eyes swept over the group for a long thirty seconds before he went on:
'I am opening all of your minds, friend and foe alike, to each other, so that you may all see for yourselves what
depths of rottenness exist there and just how unfit your world is to associate with the decent worlds of this or any
other galaxy. It would take God Himself to do anything with such material, and I am not God. Therefore, when we
have rid the world of atomics we will leave and you will start all over again. If you really try, you can not only kill
all animal life on your planet, but make it absolutely uninhabitable for тАФ'
'Stop it, Clee!' Lola jumped up, her eyes flashing. Garlock dropped the tuned group, but Belle took it over. Everyone
there understood every thought. 'Don't you see you've done enough? That now you're going too far? That these
twenty-odd men, having had their minds opened and having been given insight into what is possible, will go forward
instead of backward?'
'Forward? With such people as the Prime Ministers, the labor and business leaders, the bosses and the gangsters to
cope with? Do you think they've got spines stiff enough for the job?'
'I'm sure of it. Our world did it with no better. Millions and millions of other worlds did it. Why can't this one do it,
too?'
'May I ask a couple of questions?' This thought came from the tall, trim, soldierly chief of staff.
'Of course, General Cordeen.'
'We have all been taking it for granted that you four belong to some superhuman race - some kind of Homo Superior.
Do I understand correctly your thought that your race is Homo Sapiens, the same as ours?'
'Why, of course it is,' Lola answered in surprise. "The only difference is that we are a few thousand years older than
you are.'
'You said also that there were "millions and millions" of words that have solved the problems facing us. Were all
those
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worlds also peopled by Homo Sapiens1] It seems incredible.'
'True, nevertheless. On any and every world of this type humanity is identical physically; and the mental differences
are due only to their being in different stages of development. In fact, every planet we have visited except this one
makes a regular custom of breeding its best blood with the best blood of other solar systems. And as to the "millions
and millions", I meant only a very large but indefinite number. As far as I know, not even a rough estimate has ever
been made - has it, Clee?'
'No, but it will probably turn out to be millions of millions, instead of millions and millions; and squared and then
cubed at that. My guess is that it'll take another ten thousand years of preliminary surveying such as we're doing, by
all the crews the various Galaxian Societies can put out, before even the roughest kind of an estimate can be made as
to how many planets are inhabited by mutually fertile human peoples.'
For a moment the group was stunned. Then:
'Do you mean to say,' asked the businessman, 'that you Galaxians are not the only ones who have interstellar travel?'
Tar from it. In fact, yours is the only world we have seen that does not have it, in one form or another.'
'Oh? More than one way? That makes it still worse. Would you be willing to sell us plans, or lease us ships ... ?'
'So that you could exploit other planets? We will not. You would get nowhere, even if you had an interstellar drive
right now. You, personally, are a perfect example of what is wrong with this planet. Rapacious, insatiable - you
violate every concept of ethics, common decency, and social responsibility. Your world's technology is so far ahead