"Colin Wilson - Lifeforce" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Colin)

van Vogt, whose story "Asylum" is a classic of vampire fiction. (Aficionados of the genre
will recognize my indebtedness to it.) August Derleth, who published my first work of
science fiction, offered warm encouragement; unfortunately, he has not lived to see the
completion of our project. For the idea of the parallelism between vampirism and crime, I
must acknowledge my indebtedness to June O'Shea of Los Angeles, who has kept me
plentifully supplied with books and press cuttings on recent American crime. This book
also owes much to the stimulus of discussions with Dan Parson -- on vampirism in
general, and on his great-uncle, Bram Stoker, in particular. I must also express my
warmest thanks to Count Olof de la Gardie, both for his hospitality at Raback, and for
allowing me to inspect family papers relating to his ancestor Count Magnus. Finally. I
must thank Mrs. Sheila Clarkson for her careful work in retyping and correcting the dog-
eared manuscript.
-- C.W.




1
Their instruments picked up the massive outline long before they saw it. That was
to be expected. What baffled Carlsen was that even when they were a thousand miles
away, and the braking rockets had cut their speed to seven hundred miles an hour, it was
still invisible.
Then Craigie, peering through the crystal-glass of the port, saw it outlined against
the stars. The others left their places to stare at it. Dabrowsky, the chief engineer, said:
"Another asteroid. What shall we name this one?"
Carlsen looked out through the port, his eyes narrowed against the blinding glare
of the stars. When he touched the analyser control, symmetrical green lines flowed across
the screen, distorted upwards by the speed of their approach. He said: "That's no asteroid.
It's all metal."
Dabrowsky came back to the panel and stared at it. "What else could it be?"
At this speed, the humming of the atomic motors was scarcely louder than an
electric clock. They moved back to their places and watched as the expanding shape
blocked the stars. They had examined and charted nine new asteroids in the past month;
now each knew, with the instinct of trained spacemen, that this was different.
At two hundred miles, the outline was clear enough to leave no doubt. Craigie
said: "It is a bloody spacecraft."
"But, Christ, how big is it?"
 In empty space, with no landmarks, distances could be deceptive. Carlsen
depressed the keys of the computer.
Looking over his shoulder, Dabrowsky said with incredulity: "Fifty miles?"
"That's impossible," Craigie said.
Dabrowsky punched the keys and stared at the result. "Forty-nine point six four
miles. Nearly eighty kilometres." The black shape now filled the port. Yet even at this
distance, no details could be seen.
Lieutenant Ives said: "It's only a suggestion, sir. . . But wouldn't it be an idea to
wait until we get a reply to our signal from base?"
"That'll be another forty minutes." Base was the moon, two hundred million miles
away. Travelling at the speed of light, it would take their signal half an hour to get there,
and another half-hour to bring a reply. "I'd like to get closer."
Now the motors were silent. They were drifting towards the spacecraft at fifty