"Jean Marie Stine - Future Eves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stine Jean Marie)

I.


HOLA, my daughters (sighed the Matriarch), it is true indeed,
I am the only living one upon Gola who remembers the invasion from Detaxal. I
alone of all my generation survive to recall vividly the sights and scenes of that past
era. And well it is that you come to me to hear by free communication of mind to
mind, face to face with each other.
Ah, well I remember the surprise of that hour when through the mists that enshroud
our lovely world, there swam the first of the great smooth cylinders of the
Detaxalans, fifty tas in length, as glistening and silvery as the soil of our land,
propelled by the man-things that on Detaxal are supreme even as we women are
supreme on Gola.
In those bygone days, as now, Gola was enwrapped by her cloud mists that keep
from us the terrific glare of the great star that glows like a malignant spirit out there in
the darkness of the void. Only occasionally when a particularly great storm parts the
mist of heaven do we see the wonders of the vast universe, but that does not prevent
us, with our marvelous telescopes handed down to us from thousands of
generations before us, from learning what lies across the dark seas of the outside.
Therefore we knew of the nine planets that encircle the great star and are subject to
its rule. And so are we familiar enough with the surfaces of these planets to know
why Gola should appear as a haven to their inhabitants who see in our
cloud-enclosed mantle a sweet release from the blasting heat and blinding glare of the
great sun.
So it was not strange at all to us to find that the people of Detaxal, the third planet of
the sun, had arrived on our globe with a wish in their hearts to migrate here, and end
their days out of reach of the blistering warmth that had come to be their lot on their
own world.
Long ago we, too, might have gone on exploring expeditions to other worlds, other
universes, but for what? Are we not happy here? We who have attained the greatest
of civilizations within the confines of our own silvery world. Powerfully strong with
our mighty force rays, we could subjugate all the universe, but why?
Are we not content with life as it is, with our lovely cities, our homes, our daughters,
our gentle consorts? Why spend physical energy in combative strife for something
we do not wish, when our mental processes carry us further and beyond the
conquest of mere terrestrial exploitation?
On Detaxal it is different, for there the peoples, the ignoble male creatures, breed for
physical prowess, leaving the development of their sciences, their philosophies, and
the contemplation of the abstract to a chosen few. The greater part of the race faces
forth to conquer, to lay waste, to struggle and fight as the animals do over a morsel
of worthless territory. Of course we can see why they desired Gola with all its
treasures, but we can thank Providence and ourselves that they did not succeed in
"commercializing" us as they have the remainder of the universe with their ignoble
Federation.
Ah yes, well I recall the hour when first they came, pushing cautiously through the
cloud mists, seeking that which lay beneath. We of Gola were unwarned until the two
cylinders hung directly above Tola, the greatest city of that time, which still lies in its
ruins since that memorable day. But they have paid for it тАУ paid for it well in
thousands and tens of thousands of their men.