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

to carry theirs about in physical being all the time so that always was the surface of
their bodies entirely marred.
Yet that was not the only part of their ugliness, and proof of the lowliness of their
origin, for whereas our fine bodies support themselves by muscular development,
these poor creatures were dependent entirely upon a strange structure to keep them
in their proper shape.
Imagine if you can a bony skeleton somewhat like the foundations upon which we
build our edifices, laying stone and cement over the steel framework. But this
skeleton instead is inside a body which the flesh, muscle and skin overlay.
Everywhere in their bodies are these cartilaginous structures тАУ hard, heavy, bony
structures developed by the chemicals of the being for its use. Even the hands, feet
and head of the creatures were underlaid with these bones тАУ ugh, it was terrible when
we dissected one of the fellows for study. I shudder to think of it.
Yet again there was still another feature of the Detaxalans that was equally as
horrifying as the rest, namely their outer covering. As we viewed them for the first
time out there in the square we discovered that parts of the body, that is the part of
the head which they called the face, and the bony hands were entirely naked without
any sort of covering, neither fur nor feathers, just the raw, pinkish-brown skin
looking as if it had been recently plucked.
Later we found a few specimens that had a type of fur on the lower part of the face,
but these were rare. And when they doffed the head coverings which we had first
taken for some sort of natural covering, we saw that the top of the head was overlaid
with a very fine fuzz of fur several inches long.
We did not know in the beginning that the strange covering on the bodies of the four
men, green in color, was not a natural growth, but later discovered that such was the
truth, and not only the face and hands were bare of fur, but the entire body, except
for a fine sprinkling of hair that was scarcely visible except on the chest, was also
bare. No wonder the poor things covered themselves with their awkward clothing.
We arrived at the conclusion that their lack of fur had been brought about by the fact
that always they had been exposed to the bright rays of the sun so that without the
dampness of our own planet the fur had dried up and fallen away from the flesh!
Now thinking it over I suppose that we of Gola presented strange forms to the
people of Detaxal with our fine circular bodies, rounded at the top, our short
beautiful lower limbs with the circular foot pads, and our short round arms and hand
pads, flexible and muscular like rubber.
But how envious they must have been of our beautiful golden coats, our movable
eyes, our power to scent, hear and touch with any part of the body, to absorb food
and drink through any part of the body most convenient to us at any time. Oh yes,
laugh though you may, without a doubt we were also freaks to those freakish
Detaxalans. But no matter, let us return to the tale.


II.


On recognizing our visitors for what they were, simple-minded males, Geble was
chagrined at them for taking up her time, but they were strangers to our world and
we Golans are always courteous. Geble began of course to try to communicate by
thought transference, but strangely enough the fellows below did not catch a single
thought. Instead, entirely unaware of Geble's overture to friendship, the leader