"A. E. Van Vogt - Asylum" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

the secret ultra signals for the last two hours"-a sardonic note entered his
voice-"warning all ships to stay clear because the system isn't ready for any
kind of contact with Galactic planets."
Some of the diabolic glee that was in his thoughts must have communicated
through his tone. The woman stared at him, and slowly her eyes widened. She
half whispered:
"You mean-"
He shrugged. "The signals ought to be registering full blast now. We'll see
what degree system this is. But you can start hoping hard right now."

At the control board, he cautiously manipulated the room into darkness and set
the automatics-a picture took form on a screen on the opposite wall.
At first there was only a point of light in the middle of a starry sky, then a
planet floating brightly in the dark space, continents and oceans plainly
visible. A voice came out of the screen:


"This star system contains one inhabited planet, the third from the Sun,
called Earth by its inhabitants. It was colonized by Galactics about seven
thousand years ago in the usual manner. It is now in the third degree of
development, having attained a limited form of space travel little more than a
hundred years ago. It-"
With a swift movement, the man cut off the picture and turned on the light,
then looked across at the woman in a blank, triumphant silence.
"Third degree!" he said softly, and there was an almost incredulous note in
his voice. "Only third degree. Merla, do you realize what this means? This is
the opportunity of the ages. I'm going to call the Dreegh tribe. If we can't
get away with several tankers of blood and a whole battery of 'life,' we don't
deserve to be immortal. We-"
He turned toward the communicator, and for that exultant moment caution was a
dim thing in the back of his mind. From the corner of his eye, he saw the
woman flow from the edge of the cot. Too late he twisted aside. The frantic
jerk saved him only partially; it was their cheeks, not their lips that met.
Blue flame flashed from him to her. The burning energy seared his cheek to
instant, bleeding rawness. He half fell to the floor from the shock; and then,
furious with the intense agony, he fought free.
"I'll break your bones!" he raged.
Her laughter, unlovely with her own suppressed fury, floated up at him from
the floor, where he had flung her. She snarled:
"So you did have a secret supply of 'life' for yourself. You damned
double-crpsser!"
His black mortification dimmed before the stark realization that anger was
useless. Tense with the weakness that was already a weight on his muscles, he
whirled toward the control board, and began feverishly to make the adjustments
that would pull the ship back into normal space and time.

The body urge grew in him swiftly, a dark, remorseless need. Twice, black
nausea sent him reeling to the cot; but each time he fought back to the
control board. He sat there finally at the controls, head drooping, conscious
of the numbing tautness that crept deeper, deeper- Almost, he drove the ship