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

'I'll tell you later,' was the reply.

'But the whole thing is fantastic,' said Marie. 'Whatare you?'

'I'm a Silkie.' he answered. 'Thefirst Silkie.'


I
NATC EMP, a class-C Silkie, awakened in his selective fashion and perceived with those perceptors
which had been asleep that he was now quite close to the spaceship whose approach he had first sensed
an hour before.

Momentarily, he softened the otherwise steel-hard chitinous structure of his outer skin, that the area
became sensitive to light waves in the humanly visible spectrum. These he now recorded through a lens
arrangement that utilised a portion of the chitin for distance viewing.

There was a sudden pressure in his body as it adjusted to the weakening of the barrier between it and
the vacuum of space. He experienced the peculiar sensation that came whenever the stored oxygen in the
chitin was used up at an excessive rate, for vision was always extremely demanding of oxygen. And then,
having taken a series of visual measurements, he hardened the chitin again. Instantly, oxygen consumption
returned to normal.

What he had seen with his telescopic vision upset him. It was a V ship.

Now the V's. as Cemp knew, did not normally attack a full-grown Silkie. But there had been reports
recently of unusual V activity. Several Silkies had been psychologically harassed. this group might
conceivably discover where he was going and use all their energy to prevent his arrival.

Even as he considered whether to avoid them or to board them тАФ as Silkies often did тАФ he sensed that
the ship was shifting its course ever so slightly toward him. The decision was made for him. The V's
wanted contact.

In terms of space orientation, the ship was neither up nor down in relation to him, of course. But he
sensed the ship's own artificial gravity and adopted it as a frame of reference. By that standard its
approach was somewhat below him.

As Cemp watched it with upper-range perception that registered in his brain like very sharp radar blips,
the ship slowed and made a wide turn, and presently it was moving in the same direction as he but at a
slightly slower speed. If he kept going as he was, he would catch up with it in a few minutes.

Cemp did not veer away. In the blackness of space ahead and below, the V ship grew large. He had
measured it as being about a mile wide, half a mile thick, and three miles long.

Having no breathing apparatus, since he obtained his oxygen entirely by electrolytic interchange, Cemp
could not sigh. But he felt an equivalent resignation, a sadness at the bad luck that had brought him into
contact with such a large group of V's at so inopportune a time.
 As he came level with it, the ship lifted gently until it was only yards away. In the darkness on the deck
below, Cemp saw that several dozen V's were waiting for him. Like himself, they wore no spacesuits; for
the time being, they were completely adjusted to the vacuum of space. In the near background, Cemp
could see a lock that led into the interior of the ship. The outer chamber was open. Through its