"Theodore Sturgeon - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon


Theodore Sturgeon

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

From the screenplay "Voyage To The Bottom Of The
Sea" written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett, and
based on an original story by Irwin Allen.



AT THE END, THE BOTTOM, THE VERY WORST of it, with the world afire and hell's flame-
winged angels calling him by name, Lee Crane blamed himself. The youngest sub skipper in history
blamed himself for the burning sky and the floods, the droughts and dangers of that terrible August
when the devil himself brought his face to the Earth's crust and breathed on it, laughed and said, Die.
It's my fault, Captain Crane told himself, which is probably why he did what he did. That he should
feel this thing is only a measure of the man.

It's my fault because I was at the top, that day, and knew it, and told myself so. That was it: he had
let himself tell himself so. Well... it takes a big man to be where he was, that day, and only a big
man, with such a big brag in his heart, could have kept it to himself. And it was like him to react
with horror so huge when he caught himself at it; and only a sizable soul could shoulder so much
guilt for a moment of glory.

In his terror and agony, there near the end, he gave himself again the moment of the brag, not so
much to relive the pleasure, but to flagellate himself with his sense of sin and the extremities of his
penitence. Forgive him that. It was a time for extremities.

The Day of the Brag was a sunny day, and they stood in the wardroom of the U.S.O.S. Seaview,
stood, sat, lounged and, as it became one or two of them, postured. The visitors had only just come
aboard from an aircraft carrier lying just off the brim of Earth's ice hat. A huge turbine-powered
whirlybird had gentled them off the flat-top and eased their precious and important presences on to
the broad shoulders of the Seaview just aft of the conning tower, and from there they were conveyed
up and over and down inside with the smoothness of eggs through a candler.

And with exquisite timing, if you're building a brag, they were no sooner arranged in the wardroom
with their heart's desire in welcoming drinks in their hands, when the after bulkhead, between the
doors to the Captain's galley and the radio shack, a wall nine feet wide and six feet high, lit up in a
blaze of color and presented to them a TV news show featuring themselves and their adventure and,
oh yes, their importance. Captain Lee Crane, resplendent in dress blues (a tailor had once remarked
of him "the guy's got one-and-a-half the shoulders and only half the hips!") and with pleasure

file:///C|/3226%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...ge%20to%20the%20Bottom%20of%20the%20Sea.htm (1 of 134) [1/3/2005 12:22:09 AM]
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon

watched the show on the screen, and the show of the people who watched the show. The image on
the new wide-screen TV was perfect, the sound was stereophonic, the submarine idled along with a
greased kind of gentleness, the drink was excellent and so was the weather.