"09 - Synthetic Men of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

out of the city to be tamed and trained by officers and the more intelligent
hormads.
I was delighted and relieved when Ras Thavas suggested that we inspect another
phase of his work and we were permitted to leave that veritable chamber of
horrors. He took us to another room where reconstruction work was carried on.
Here heads were growing new bodies and headless bodies new heads. Hormads which
had lost arms or legs were growing new ones. Sometimes these activities went
amiss, when nothing but a single leg sprouted from the neck of a severed head.
An identical case was among those that we saw in this room. The head was very
angry about it, and became quite abusive, reviling Ras Thavas.
"What good shall I be," he demanded, "with only a head and one leg? They call
you The Master Mind of Mars! Phooey! You haven't the brains of a sorak. When
they produce their kind they give them a body and six legs, to say nothing of a
head. Now what are you going to do about it? That's what I want to know."
"Well," said Ras Thavas, thoughtfully, "I can always redisect you and return the
pieces to the culture vat."
"No! No!" screamed the head. "Let me live, but cut off this leg and let me try
to grow a body."
"Very well," said Ras Thavas; "tomorrow."
"Why should a thing like that wish to live," I asked, after we had passed along.
"It is a characteristic of life, however low its form," replied Ras Thavas.
"Even these poor sexless monstrosities, whose only pleasure in life is eating
raw animal tissue, wish to live. They do not even dream of the existence of love
or friendship, they have no spiritual or mental resources upon which to draw for
satisfaction or enjoyment; yet they wish to live."
"They speak of friendship," I said. "Tor-dur-bar's head told me not to forget
that it was my friend."
"They know the word," replied Ras Thavas, "but I am sure they cannot sense its
finer connotations. One of the first things they are taught is to obey. Perhaps
he meant that he would obey you, serve you. He may not even remember you now.
Some of them have practically no memories. All their reactions are purely
mechanical. They respond to oft repeated stimuli – the commands to march, to
fight, to come, to go, to halt. They also do what they see the majority of their
fellows doing. Come! We shall find Tor-dur-bar's head and see if it recalls you.
It will be an interesting experiment."
We passed into another chamber where reconstruction work was in progress, and
Ras Thavas spoke to an officer in charge there. The man led us to the far end of
the room where there was a large vat in which torsos were growing new arms or
legs or heads, and several heads growing new bodies.
We had no more than reached the tank when a head cried out, "Kaor, Vor Daj!" It
was Four-Million-Eight himself.
"Kaor, Tor-dur-bar!" I replied. "I am glad to see you again."
"Don't forget that you have one friend in Morbus," he said. "Soon I shall have a
new body, and then if you need me I shall be ready."
"There is a hormad of unusual intelligence," said Ras Thavas. "I shall have to
keep an eye on him."
"You should give such a brain as mine a fine looking body," said Tor-dur-bar. "I
should like to be as handsome as Vor Daj or his friend."
"We shall see," said Ras Thavas, and then he leaned close and whispered to the
head, "Say no more about it now. Just trust me."