"Manna-From-Heaven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vanmeter Aaron)
Manna From Heaven
Aaron VanMeter comes from the mountains of North Carolina. He is a freshman at Virgina Tech, currently majoring in Computer Science, but with a strong interest in English and writing. He wrote this story during one of his classes because he was bored, as he has been doing since a junior in high school. He spends most of his free time between playing basketball and doing homework. The orb floated through space, quietly drifting towards nothingness. The man inside knew that he was going to die soon, but he didn't really care. His life had not been a long one, but he had enjoyed it immensely. "Live hard, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse." He didn't figure that anyone would ever find his corpse, but he took some satisfaction in knowing that it would be beautiful. He had worked very hard throughout his life to keep his body in shape while those around him let themselves grow fat in the weightlessness of space. He had always ventured to the farthest ring of the ship, braving the high gravity there to run his five miles every day. Few others on the ship could make it past the first ring, while he commonly walked in the third and fourth. It was because of his physical fitness that he was drifting out here in the first place. After almost 20 years of travel, the colony ship had finally neared its destination planet, but by now, no one on board besides him wanted in the least to colonize a new planet; it would be to much work. They tried to force him to change the autopilot settings out in the captains cabin on the fourth ring because they could not make it there themselves. He had refused, but then on one of his trips to the weightless center, they had captured and imprisoned him. After torturing him for several hours, he agreed to go change the autopilot settings to pass the planet by. As soon as he had been released however, he immediately ran to the fourth level, shutting and locking the doors behind him. He changed the autopilot, setting it to crash into the new planet instead of orbiting around it. He then got into one of the survival pods and jettisoned himself. The pod's rocket had malfunctioned, and so he found himself drifting along following the colonization ship on its path to destruction. Before he had left the ship, he had announced over the ship's intercom system what he had done to the autopilot, so he enjoyed imagining the peoples' terror at their impending doom. He knew that he would die along with them, but at least he would get to enjoy seeing their destruction for a few seconds. Inside the ship, there had been much fighting over trying to force one another to go change the autopilot, even though it was physically impossible for them by this time. Finally, they gave up, and in one last orgy of food, they stuffed themselves with everything they could get their hands on...almost a years supply of food. A few hours later, the ship hit the planet's atmosphere. A few seconds after the colonization ship hit the atmosphere, so did the man's survival pod. He was afraid for a minute that he was not going to see the ship's crash because of the blinding light produced by the friction between his pod and random air particles. Suddenly the pod jolted, and the light started to fade. As he looked out over the new world, he spotted the colonization ship, falling slowly underneath a spreading parachute. He surmised that the reason he was no longer plummeting towards the ground was because the survival pod had also been fitted with a parachute. He had mixed emotions over the revelation: it meant that he would probably survive...but it also meant that the people in the colonization ship could possibly survive. What he didn't know was that the ship's parachute was only designed to support the weight of the central landing module, and that the added weight of rings was making fall to fast for a safe landing. As he watched, it crashed into the ground, it's outer rings crumpling to absorb the impact and supporting the landing module on a makeshift tripod of crumpled titanium. After he had witnessed this, he leaned back into to safety chair and waited for his own inevitable impact with the ground. Inside the lander module, everyone had survived and were rejoicing. It would have been impossible for an observer to notice their joy, lying as they were, immobilized by the planet's crushing gravity; but here and there a faint chuckle wheezed out of gravity-squeezed lungs. The survival pod floated to the ground in several minutes, landing with a jolt, but otherwise not harming the man inside. He popped the hatch and stepped out onto the first real ground he had ever touched. He looked around, and saw the wreck of the colonization ship off in the distance. He began walking towards it. The thing he noticed about the new planet was that he saw no animal life anywhere...no bugs, birds, rodents...nothing bigger than the microscopic bacteria he paid no attention to. He thought it was strange that there were NO forms of life to be seen on a planet so like Earth, but he was more worried about what he could salvage from the wreck of the ship. Unfortunately, he could not approach the ship because of a huge fire blazing in the middle of it. He knew that the plasma fires wouldn't go out for several hours, so he decided to explore the surrounding area. A couple of hours later, he stumbled across a small village about a mile north of the wreck. It was the first sign of alien life he had encountered, but it seemed as dead as the rest of the planet. However, inside the huts he found the first aliens a human being had ever encountered. They were starving to death. The aliens seemed to be surprised by his appearance, but they were far to weak to express their surprise through anything other than indrawn breaths and wide eyes. Lucky for the man; they would have killed him a few days before for food. They made it clear, through feeble motions and their appearance, that they had not eaten in days. He gave them all the food he had brought from the survival pods, but he knew that it was pitifully too little. Suddenly, an image popped into his mind, and an idea formed. He took the strongest young aliens from the village and trekked back to the colonization ship. As he looked up at the central lander module supported over the dying plasma fire, the image of an iron kettle hanging over a campfire formed itself out of the wreck. They carried water from a nearby stream to put out the small remainder of fire and to cool down the titanium rings supporting the module. He climbed up one of the rings, up to the lander module's latch, and popped it. Steam and a heavenly smell floated out. Sure enough, the heat from the fire had cooked the people inside. As a private joke, the man smiled and whispered. "Manna from heaven." The people inside had used their useless muscles to do the only thing they could to escape the terrible heat rising from below; they had rolled from side to side, thereby cooking themselves perfectly. That night, the village dined on the finest veal in all the galaxy. Not only was it tender and succulent, but each person was stuffed with a variety of treats which they had consumed a few hours earlier. A world class cook could have never dreamed of a dish so perfectly suited for the human palate. The man knew that the next colonization ship was due to arrive exactly 3 months later, so he rationed the food to last until their rescue. Since a single cooked fat colonist could feed the entire village for a couple of days, they all ate better than they ever had before. Three months later, another colonization ship fell from the sky, followed by a survival pod containing two men. The lander module was again supported by the crumple mass of titanium rings, and another large plasma fire started underneath it. The two men’s stories were almost identical to the first man’s...they were the only ones who had been in shape after the long voyage, and they had been tortured and forced to go change the autopilot, whereupon they did the exact same thing he had done and set it on a collision course with the planet. However, they had known in advance about the survival pod’s parachute and were hoping to join the original colonists, who they thought would have their outpost set up by now. When they learned of the village’s situation, they agreed whole-heartedly with their actions. That afternoon, the natives celebrated their 'manna from heaven' as they now called it and danced around the fire until it died down and it was time to retrieve the food. Invariably, this same scene happened every three months. Sometimes it was a woman who escaped, sometimes it was a group of people, once it was a whole family...but there was always someone who had stayed in shape and made the same decision when ordered to change the autopilot by those that inexplicably let themselves unknowingly become the new planet’s main food supply. The village was never in short supply of manna from heaven, and it began to grow. Sometimes they had to 'help' the fire cook their manna, building it up to the desired heat or maneuvering the lander into a position to heat evenly and correctly, but it always turned out wonderfully, offering new experiences for the taste buds every time. Several years later the village was flourishing and the humans and the Morglocks had intermixed. That year, on the 7th anniversary of the original manna from heaven, a news ship landed near the village. When they found out what the colonists had done, they were disgusted. However, the colonists explained the circumstances behind their actions and persuaded the anchors to try some of the meat. With a look of disgust, they both took a bite from a human prepared especially for them. They both immediately agreed that it was the most delicious thing they had EVER tasted and took some back to their ship to return to Earth. The government back on Earth, upon hearing their story, decided to cover up the story so as not to be embarrassed by the almost failure of colonization. The richest men and women of Earth heard of the so-called "Manna from Heaven", from any number of paid-off sources, and got together to sponsor more 'colonization'. They paid to continue sending out a colonization ship every three months; however, the course plotted was a round trip around Alpha Centuari, not a course to the new planet. The course brought the colonists back to Earth about 15 years later. Some of the initial investors did not live to taste the return on their investment, but all those who did agreed that it was well worth the wait. They still send out a ship every three months; and once a year they send a ship out with the correct course plotted to take them to the new planet, in gratitude for their discovery of the most delicious food in the galaxy--human veal. It is time for me to launch my escape pod and float down to the Brazilian jungle; where 50 of the most influential and richest people in the world await the most delicious meal of their lives. So why did I give up 15 years of my life to take this trip, knowing its outcome? For money, women, and fame? Nope. All I get for this trip is one human veal shank, worth more than some small countries, and well worth the wait. Manna from heaven, indeed. The End
Manna From Heaven
Aaron VanMeter comes from the mountains of North Carolina. He is a freshman at Virgina Tech, currently majoring in Computer Science, but with a strong interest in English and writing. He wrote this story during one of his classes because he was bored, as he has been doing since a junior in high school. He spends most of his free time between playing basketball and doing homework. The orb floated through space, quietly drifting towards nothingness. The man inside knew that he was going to die soon, but he didn't really care. His life had not been a long one, but he had enjoyed it immensely. "Live hard, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse." He didn't figure that anyone would ever find his corpse, but he took some satisfaction in knowing that it would be beautiful. He had worked very hard throughout his life to keep his body in shape while those around him let themselves grow fat in the weightlessness of space. He had always ventured to the farthest ring of the ship, braving the high gravity there to run his five miles every day. Few others on the ship could make it past the first ring, while he commonly walked in the third and fourth. It was because of his physical fitness that he was drifting out here in the first place. After almost 20 years of travel, the colony ship had finally neared its destination planet, but by now, no one on board besides him wanted in the least to colonize a new planet; it would be to much work. They tried to force him to change the autopilot settings out in the captains cabin on the fourth ring because they could not make it there themselves. He had refused, but then on one of his trips to the weightless center, they had captured and imprisoned him. After torturing him for several hours, he agreed to go change the autopilot settings to pass the planet by. As soon as he had been released however, he immediately ran to the fourth level, shutting and locking the doors behind him. He changed the autopilot, setting it to crash into the new planet instead of orbiting around it. He then got into one of the survival pods and jettisoned himself. The pod's rocket had malfunctioned, and so he found himself drifting along following the colonization ship on its path to destruction. Before he had left the ship, he had announced over the ship's intercom system what he had done to the autopilot, so he enjoyed imagining the peoples' terror at their impending doom. He knew that he would die along with them, but at least he would get to enjoy seeing their destruction for a few seconds. Inside the ship, there had been much fighting over trying to force one another to go change the autopilot, even though it was physically impossible for them by this time. Finally, they gave up, and in one last orgy of food, they stuffed themselves with everything they could get their hands on...almost a years supply of food. A few hours later, the ship hit the planet's atmosphere. A few seconds after the colonization ship hit the atmosphere, so did the man's survival pod. He was afraid for a minute that he was not going to see the ship's crash because of the blinding light produced by the friction between his pod and random air particles. Suddenly the pod jolted, and the light started to fade. As he looked out over the new world, he spotted the colonization ship, falling slowly underneath a spreading parachute. He surmised that the reason he was no longer plummeting towards the ground was because the survival pod had also been fitted with a parachute. He had mixed emotions over the revelation: it meant that he would probably survive...but it also meant that the people in the colonization ship could possibly survive. What he didn't know was that the ship's parachute was only designed to support the weight of the central landing module, and that the added weight of rings was making fall to fast for a safe landing. As he watched, it crashed into the ground, it's outer rings crumpling to absorb the impact and supporting the landing module on a makeshift tripod of crumpled titanium. After he had witnessed this, he leaned back into to safety chair and waited for his own inevitable impact with the ground. Inside the lander module, everyone had survived and were rejoicing. It would have been impossible for an observer to notice their joy, lying as they were, immobilized by the planet's crushing gravity; but here and there a faint chuckle wheezed out of gravity-squeezed lungs. The survival pod floated to the ground in several minutes, landing with a jolt, but otherwise not harming the man inside. He popped the hatch and stepped out onto the first real ground he had ever touched. He looked around, and saw the wreck of the colonization ship off in the distance. He began walking towards it. The thing he noticed about the new planet was that he saw no animal life anywhere...no bugs, birds, rodents...nothing bigger than the microscopic bacteria he paid no attention to. He thought it was strange that there were NO forms of life to be seen on a planet so like Earth, but he was more worried about what he could salvage from the wreck of the ship. Unfortunately, he could not approach the ship because of a huge fire blazing in the middle of it. He knew that the plasma fires wouldn't go out for several hours, so he decided to explore the surrounding area. A couple of hours later, he stumbled across a small village about a mile north of the wreck. It was the first sign of alien life he had encountered, but it seemed as dead as the rest of the planet. However, inside the huts he found the first aliens a human being had ever encountered. They were starving to death. The aliens seemed to be surprised by his appearance, but they were far to weak to express their surprise through anything other than indrawn breaths and wide eyes. Lucky for the man; they would have killed him a few days before for food. They made it clear, through feeble motions and their appearance, that they had not eaten in days. He gave them all the food he had brought from the survival pods, but he knew that it was pitifully too little. Suddenly, an image popped into his mind, and an idea formed. He took the strongest young aliens from the village and trekked back to the colonization ship. As he looked up at the central lander module supported over the dying plasma fire, the image of an iron kettle hanging over a campfire formed itself out of the wreck. They carried water from a nearby stream to put out the small remainder of fire and to cool down the titanium rings supporting the module. He climbed up one of the rings, up to the lander module's latch, and popped it. Steam and a heavenly smell floated out. Sure enough, the heat from the fire had cooked the people inside. As a private joke, the man smiled and whispered. "Manna from heaven." The people inside had used their useless muscles to do the only thing they could to escape the terrible heat rising from below; they had rolled from side to side, thereby cooking themselves perfectly. That night, the village dined on the finest veal in all the galaxy. Not only was it tender and succulent, but each person was stuffed with a variety of treats which they had consumed a few hours earlier. A world class cook could have never dreamed of a dish so perfectly suited for the human palate. The man knew that the next colonization ship was due to arrive exactly 3 months later, so he rationed the food to last until their rescue. Since a single cooked fat colonist could feed the entire village for a couple of days, they all ate better than they ever had before. Three months later, another colonization ship fell from the sky, followed by a survival pod containing two men. The lander module was again supported by the crumple mass of titanium rings, and another large plasma fire started underneath it. The two men’s stories were almost identical to the first man’s...they were the only ones who had been in shape after the long voyage, and they had been tortured and forced to go change the autopilot, whereupon they did the exact same thing he had done and set it on a collision course with the planet. However, they had known in advance about the survival pod’s parachute and were hoping to join the original colonists, who they thought would have their outpost set up by now. When they learned of the village’s situation, they agreed whole-heartedly with their actions. That afternoon, the natives celebrated their 'manna from heaven' as they now called it and danced around the fire until it died down and it was time to retrieve the food. Invariably, this same scene happened every three months. Sometimes it was a woman who escaped, sometimes it was a group of people, once it was a whole family...but there was always someone who had stayed in shape and made the same decision when ordered to change the autopilot by those that inexplicably let themselves unknowingly become the new planet’s main food supply. The village was never in short supply of manna from heaven, and it began to grow. Sometimes they had to 'help' the fire cook their manna, building it up to the desired heat or maneuvering the lander into a position to heat evenly and correctly, but it always turned out wonderfully, offering new experiences for the taste buds every time. Several years later the village was flourishing and the humans and the Morglocks had intermixed. That year, on the 7th anniversary of the original manna from heaven, a news ship landed near the village. When they found out what the colonists had done, they were disgusted. However, the colonists explained the circumstances behind their actions and persuaded the anchors to try some of the meat. With a look of disgust, they both took a bite from a human prepared especially for them. They both immediately agreed that it was the most delicious thing they had EVER tasted and took some back to their ship to return to Earth. The government back on Earth, upon hearing their story, decided to cover up the story so as not to be embarrassed by the almost failure of colonization. The richest men and women of Earth heard of the so-called "Manna from Heaven", from any number of paid-off sources, and got together to sponsor more 'colonization'. They paid to continue sending out a colonization ship every three months; however, the course plotted was a round trip around Alpha Centuari, not a course to the new planet. The course brought the colonists back to Earth about 15 years later. Some of the initial investors did not live to taste the return on their investment, but all those who did agreed that it was well worth the wait. They still send out a ship every three months; and once a year they send a ship out with the correct course plotted to take them to the new planet, in gratitude for their discovery of the most delicious food in the galaxy--human veal. It is time for me to launch my escape pod and float down to the Brazilian jungle; where 50 of the most influential and richest people in the world await the most delicious meal of their lives. So why did I give up 15 years of my life to take this trip, knowing its outcome? For money, women, and fame? Nope. All I get for this trip is one human veal shank, worth more than some small countries, and well worth the wait. Manna from heaven, indeed. The End |
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