"Robert F. Young - Passage to Gomorrah" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

arms and paced back and forth. The night sky of Thais arched incongruous-ly above him, and the
ithyphallic structures of Wine-Women-and-Song formed an ironic backdrop for his im-precations.
"They brazenly walked the streets of Earth, and now they brazenly walk the streets of the new
worldsтАФand you, you scum, you dregs of hu-manity, fawn at their feet like dogs, waiting for their
meretricious favors, waiting for the contemptible privilege of spending your hard-earned dollars in order
to experience the appetites they feed but never satisfyтАФ"
"How do you know?" someone in the crowd shouted.
There was a scattering of laughter, but the evangelist continued, unperturbed: "I tell you that
happiness does not lie in such lascivious pursuits, that nothing but misery can result from consorting with
the ladies of the stars! They have come to you, not to heal your loneliness, but to deprive you of your
earnings your respect, yourтАФ"
"But at least they came!" the heckler shouted again. "That's more than you can say for the women
sitting self-righteously in their suburban houses back on Earth patting themselves on the back for having
given birth to the children they were afraid not to have!"
"But let me ask you this," the evangelist said, singling out his antagonist and pointing at him with his
finger. "Why did they come?"
"First I'll tell you why we came," the heckler answered. "We came because we were basically
insecure and needed to prove to others that we were something more than they thought us to be, and
thereby prove to ourselves that we are something more than what we really are. And yet, for all our
bravado, we remain mere men, terrified, in our hearts, of the abysses we claim to have conquered, alone,
afraid, unwantedтАФNow is it wrong for a woman feel the same as a man, to have the same frustrations,
the same needs? And is it wrong if she fulfills herself in the only way modern society left open for her,
especially when by so doing she supplies a factor without which there could be no space travel, no raw
materials for the stay at homes on Earth to turn into mechanical gadgets, ornate wigwams and four-wheel
golden calvesтАФ"
"But they're prostitutes!" the evangelist screamed. "Prostitutes!"
"Sure, they're prostitutesтАФto you, and to the people on Earth. But to us, they're women, the only
women we can ever know, can ever have. And if you must have something to condemn, then condemn
the prostitution corporations, for theyтАФand they aloneтАФare responsible for the loveless efficiency of
their products!"
"ProstitutesтАФ"
An ugly murmur began in the crowd, rose swiftly into a roar. Cross felt himself being drawn into the
maelstrom, heard his own voice blending with the voices of the others. He saw the whiteness of the
evangelist's face, saw the sil-houette of the descending po-lice copter, and then the frightened figure on
the shak-ing pulpit fumbling for the lowered rope ladder. When he was firmly secured on the lad-der, and
the copter was rising, the evangelist shook his fist at the mob he had created, shouting: "Armageddon is
on hand, and every sinning one of you, every glorified street-walker and her lover, shall perish in the
flames!"

There were some things you knew without quite knowing how you knew them, and the moment she
had seen him standing in the lock of the Pandora she had known that he was the one.
But it was impossible, she had kept telling herself. Ut-terly impossible. And then, after escorting her
to her cabin, he had mentioned A Priori, and she had remem-bered a spaceman telling her once that, in
A Priori, almost anything was possible, and that, during an A Priori storm, everything was possi-ble.
She still didn't quite under-stand, standing in the shower now, the misted spray gently bombarding her
skin. But she had acted, and would continue to act, on the assumption that what the spaceman had told
her was true, and on the addi-tional assumption that the impossible would be less im-possible if she
cooperated with it. She felt perfectly justified in what she was do-ing and in what she intended to do:
after all, even a mon-ster was entitled to a father, and anyway, what was going to happen had already
hap-pened weeks ago.