"Alexander Kazantsev. The Destruction of Faena (ГИБЕЛЬ ФАЭНЫ, англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

matter was, so to speak, part of the machine and wore out with it.
Ave Mar was in a dejected mood. He dropped in on one of his friends;
but the friend had summoned a secret meeting and had not invited Ave. Ave
understood what it was all about and drove off immediately.
On the way back he saw the pathetic hovels of the Faetians who worked
in the fields. He felt ashamed of himself for having, over his garage,
several living rooms in which no one lived, in fact, except for himself.
He had never known lack of room, but he had known loneliness and could
only call up his mother over the screen. Oh, Mother, Mother! Even at that
enormous distance, she unerringly guessed what was in her son's heart and
was always the first to appear on the screen.
Ave glumly stepped onto the upward moving staircase.
What was the meaning of life, if all that lay ahead was a blind alley
from which the Faetians could not escape? It was madness to seek deliverance
in wars of annihilation. Many Faetians understood as much...
But why did his friends not trust him? He needn't keep quiet with them.
Did he not also subscribe to the Doctrine of Justice? But they didn't need
him... No one needed him...
Ave went into the first of his round rooms and stopped dead in
amazement. A broad-shouldered, burly hunchback came up to meet him with a
guarded smile on his hard face.
"Ease and happiness!" said the stranger. "I am Kutsi Merc! The Ruler
Dobr Mar gave me the key of this flat as his son's secretary."
Ave smiled bitterly.
"Is my father worried that his son is gnawed by misery?"
"Your father was thinking of something more important."
"Will it deliver me from bitterness?"
"Would it be a bad thing to visit the ancient continent of Powermania?
High technology in the hands of barbarians who call themselves Superiors?"
"What's the sense of such dreams? I worked with Um Sat. I specialise in
the disintegration of matter, so I am not allowed to travel overseas. We
live in times of emptiness, disillusion, tension..."
"As your secretary, I shall help you in everything, even in a trip to
the continent of the barbarians."
So saying, the hunchback went into the other room. He soon returned
carrying vessels with beverages and two cylinders of compressed narcotic
smoke which the Culturals loved to inhale when relaxing. Kutsi Merc's
clothes were stretched tight over his hump, as if tailored for someone else.
Ave was amazed at the speed with which his new acquaintance made
himself at home. The neglected flat was transformed. Mechanisms, switched on
before the occupant's arrival, had cleaned the place up.
As he inhaled the smoke, the young Faetian studied Kutsi Merc.
"If only we journey to Powermania," he said reflectively, "before
misery kills desire..."
"Desires must be fulfilled. Otherwise it is not worth desiring. The
Faetesses over the ocean are very beautiful."
"How can that be of any importance? Even knowledge is powerless to lead
the Faetians out of their blind alley. Soulless power politics, blind
subordination to dogma! The blockheads refuse to listen to anything that is
unfamiliar to them!.." Ave was suffering from rejection of his ideas and was