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

Cross stirred on the couch, sat up. The storm was over and gone. The Lady Bere-nice's eyes were
closed. Her breathing was soft, almost imperceptible. Her face, be-reft now of all the hardness and the
cynicism civilization had Imposed upon it, was like a little girl's.
He knew her, now, almost as well as she knew herselfтАФ
 And sheтАФshe knew him al-most as well as he knew him-selfтАФ
As he sat there, watching her, a feeling of tenderness he had never known before came over him, and
then he thought тАФBut she's a lady of the starsтАФ
And thenтАФBut she's a woman, too, the only kind of woman I can ever know, or haveтАФthe mother
of my child-to-beтАФ
And thenтАФShe tricked me. She knew, she must have guessedтАФ
And thenтАФNo, she had no more free will, really, than I did. There is no free will in an A Priori
storm, any more than there is decency or com-passion or love in a civiliza-tion created and maintained by
opportunistsтАФ
And thenтАФBut thisтАФthis may be love, and if it isn't love, could it not be turned into love, under the
right cir-cumstances, in the right en-vironmentтАФ
On Gomorrah?тАФ

"Gomorrah, my lady." Her bags were packed and setting just inside the door.
She picked one up and he took the other. She was wearing a white morning dress, and her hair made
him think more than ever of Martian maize, but her eyes no longer reminded him of the ice lakes of
Frigidia. The ice lakes of Frigidia never melted ...
She followed him down the spiral companionway to the open lock. He heard her gasp when she
looked out over the unexpected vista of fields and farmhouses, of hills and woods and rivers. "But this
can't be Gomorrah," she said "WhereтАФwhere's the space-port?"
"On the other side of the mountains," Cross said. "They will be coming for us soon, and well have to
go back and go through all the red tape ports are noted for. But first, I wanted you to see the monsters."
She lowered her eyes to the fields surrounding the ship, her face pale. Presently he heard her gasp
again, and then he heard the whir of the children's wings and their gay morning laughter. "WhyтАФ why
they aren't monsters at all," she said. She gazed wide-eyed at the sight before them.
"Their parents and their parents' parents areтАж" Cress said. "At least in the eyes of the Earth Council
and the prostitution corporations. But then, I suspect that even a bluebird would seem like a monster to
tyrannosaurus rex . .. You see, the mutation required three generations for completionтАФa possibility
that the Earth Council failed to take into consideration."
"But why don't they take it into consideration now? Why should such a marvelous mir-acle as this be
kept secret?"
"The corporation lobbyists are a powerful groupтАФand you can imagine what a de-velopment like this
could do to their business. Not only that, I suspect that they have an inherent fear of angels. But it's only a
matter of time before the Earth Council will be forced to act, and in the meantime, the 'monsters' will have
an opportunity to de-velop a society of their own."
The first Gomorrite, a pretty, blue-eyed girl with cupid-wings, landed lightly in the lock. "Welcome to
Gomor-rah," she said.
The Lady Berenice reached out and took her hand. "Why тАФshe's adorable!"
"She is, my lady," Cross said. "All of them are."
"Stop calling me 'my lady'!" Then: "WillтАФwill my great-grandchildren look like that?"
"Our great-grandchildren will, my laтАФ MyтАФBere-nice. . . ."

THE END