"The Time Ships" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baxter Stephen)[9] Into TimeWe came to a chamber perhaps ten feet square; it was little more than a box of metal bolted to the inner hull of the ’Naut. A single electric bulb glowed in the ceiling, and padded leather coated the walls, alleviating the metal bleakness of the fort and suppressing the noise of the engines — although a deeper throb could be felt through the fabric of the vessel. There were six chairs here: simple upright affairs that were bolted to the floor, facing each other, and fitted with leather harnesses. There was also a low cabinet. Filby waved us to the chairs and started fussing around the cabinet. “I should strap yourselves in,” he said. “This time-hurdling nonsense is quite vertiginous.” Moses and I sat down to face each other. I fastened the restraints loosely around me; Nebogipfel had some trouble with his buckles, and the straps dangled about him until Moses helped him adjust their tightness. Now Filby came pottering up to me with something in his hand; it was a cup of tea in a cracked china saucer, with a small biscuit to one side of the cup. I could not help but laugh. “Filby, the turns of fate never cease to amaze me. Here we are, about to journey through time in this menacing mobile fort — and you serve us with tea and biscuits!” “Well, this business is quite difficult enough without life’s comforts. I sipped the tea; it was lukewarm and rather stewed. Thus fortified, I became, incongruously, rather mischievous — I think on reflection my mental state was a little fragile, and I was unwilling to face my own future, or the dire prospect of this 1938 War. “Filby,” I teased him, “do you not observe anything — ah — I introduced him to Moses — and poor Filby began a staring session which resulted in him dribbling tea down his chin. “And Filby questioned us on this issue of our identity for a little longer — good old Filby, skeptical to the last! “I thought I’d seen enough changes and wonders in my life, even without this time business. But now — well!” He sighed, and I suspected that he had actually seen a little I leaned forward, as far as my restraints allowed. “Filby, I can scarce believe that men have fallen so far — become so blind. Why, from my perspective, this damnable Future War of yours sounds pretty much like the end of civilization.” “For men of our day,” he said solemnly, “perhaps it is. But this younger generation, who’ve grown up to know nothing but War, who have never felt the sun on their faces without fear of the air-torpedoes — well! I think they’re inured to it; it’s as if we’re turning into a subterranean species.” I could not resist a glance at the Morlock. “Filby, why this mission through time?” “It isn’t so much “They knew pretty much how you went about your research, from the bits of notes you left behind — although you never published anything on the subject; there was only that odd account you left with us of your first trip into the remote future, on your brief return. And so the Nebogipfel lifted his head. “More confusion about causality,” he said. “Evidently the scientists of 1938 have still not begun to grasp the concept of Multiplicity — that one cannot Filby stared at him — this chattering vision in a school uniform, with hair sprouting from every limb! “Not now,” I said to Nebogipfel. “Filby, you keep saying He seemed surprised by the question. “The Government, of course.” “Which party?” snapped Moses. “Party? Oh, all of He gave us that chilling news — of the death of Democracy in Britain — with just those casual words! He went on, “I think we have all been expecting to find And with that, the single electric bulb dimmed, and I heard the engines roar; I felt the familiar, helpless plummeting which told me that this |
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