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

The fear had proved unfounded. From time to time, Silkies who boarded the V ships learned that some
promising boy had been executed by the V's themselves. Far from welcoming a superior child, the V's
seemed to fear that if allowed to be come full-grown he would be a natural leader and would threaten
their freedom.

The extermination of promising boys now required the permission of a Silkie, which explained the
secrecy. If they failed to obtain permission, they might still kill the youngster, trusting that the murder ship
would never be identified.

'Is that the reason?' Cemp demanded.

It was.

Cemp hesitated. He sensed within himself the entire remarkable complex of sensations that meant that he
was about to change. This was no time for him to spend a day or so aboard a V ship.

Yet if he didn't stay, it would be tantamount to granting permission for the execution, sight unseen. And
that, he realised, could not be permitted.

'You have done well,' he communicated gravely. 'I shall come aboard.'

The entire group of V's moved along with him to the lock, huddling together as the great steel door
rolled shut behind them, closing them away from the vacuum of space. The water came in silently. Cemp
could see it exploding into gas as it poured into the utter emptiness of the lock. But presently; as the
narrow space filled up, it began to hold its liquid form, and it roiled and rushed around the extremities of
the beings in the little group.

The feel of it was exquisitely pleasurable. Cemp's bones tried to soften automatically, and he had to fight
to hold them hard. But when the water closed over the upper part of his body, Cemp let the living barrier
that made up his outer skin grow soft. Because the feel of the water excited him, now that the change
was so near, he had to exercise a conscious restraint. He wanted to suck the warm, delightful liquid with
visible enjoyment through the gills that were now being exposed, but it seemed to him that such a display
of exuberance might give away his condition to the more experienced V's.

Around him, the V's were going through the transformation from their space form to their normal gill
state. The inner lock opened, and the entire group swam through with casual ease. Behind them, the inner
lock door slid shut, and they were inside the ship itself or, rather in the first of the many big tanks that
made up the interior.

Cemp, using his vision now, looked around for identifying objects. But it was the usual dim watery world
with transplanted sea life. Seaweed swayed in the strong currents that, Cemp knew, were kept in motion
by a powerful pumping system. He could feel the surge of the water at each impulse from the pumps. As
always, he began to brace himself for that surge, accepting it, letting it become one of the rhythms of his
life.
 II
CEMP HAD no problems in this environment. Water was a natural element for him, and in the
transformation from Silkie to human fish he had lost only a few of his Silkie abilities. The entire Silkie
inner world of innumerable sensations remained. There were nerve centers that, both separately and in
combination, tuned in on different energy flows. In early days, they would have been called senses. But