"Jach Williamson - The Ultimate Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Jack)

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 "The Ultimate Earth" by Jack Williamson

brown deserts on the continents. Terraformed, the new Earth had no deserts and no ice. Under the bright cloud spirals, the land
was green where the sun struck it, all the way over the poles. It looked so wonderful that Casey and Pepe begged him to take us
back with him to let us see it for ourselves.

"IтАЩm sorry." He shook his neat, fur-crowned head. "Terribly sorry, but you canтАЩt even think of a trip to Earth."

We were looking from the dome. Earth stood high in the black north, where it always stood. Low in the west, the slow Sun blazed
hot on the new mountains the machines had piled up around the spaceport, and filled the craters with ink.

Dian had learned by now to trust him. She sat on his knee, gazing up in adoration at his quirky face. Tanya stood behind him,
playing a little game. She held her hand against his back to bleach the golden tan, and took it away to watch the Sun erase the
print.

Looking hurt, Casey asked why we couldnтАЩt think of a trip to Earth.

"You arenтАЩt like me." That was very true. Casey has a wide black face with narrow Chinese eyes and straight black hair. "And you
belong right here."

"I donтАЩt look like anybody." Casey shrugged. "Or belong to you."

"Of course you donтАЩt." Uncle Pen was gently patient. "But you do belong to the station and your great mission." He looked at me.
"Remind him, Dunk."

My clone father was Duncan Yarrow. The master computer that runs the station often spoke with his holo voice. He had told us
how we had been cloned again and again from the tissue cells left frozen in the cryostat.

"Sir, thatтАЩs true." I felt a little afraid of Uncle Pen, but proud of all the station had done. "My holo father has told us how the big
impacts killed Earth and killed it again. We have always brought it back to life." My throat felt dry. I had to gulp, but I went on. "If
EarthтАЩs alive now, thatтАЩs because of us."

"True. Very true." He nodded, with an odd little smile. "But perhaps you donтАЩt know that your little Moon has suffered a heavy
impact of his own. If you are alive today, you owe your lives to me."

"To you?" We all stared at him, but Casey was nodding. "To you and the digging machines? IтАЩve watched them and wondered
what they were digging for. When did that object hit the Moon?"

"┬┐Qui├йn sabe?" He shrugged at Pepe, imitating the gesture and the voice Pepe had learned from his holo father. "It was long
ago. Perhaps a hundred thousand years, perhaps a million. I havenтАЩt found a clue."

"The object?" Pepe frowned. "Something hit the station?"

"A narrow miss." Uncle Pen nodded at the great dark pit in the crater rim just west of us. "The ejecta smashed the dome and
buried everything. The station was lost and almost forgotten. Only a myth till I happened on it."

"The diggers?" Casey turned to stare down at the landing field where Uncle Pen had left his flyer in the shadows of those great