"Campbell, John W Jr - The Brain Pirates" - читать интересную книгу автора (Campbell John W Jr)

"Well, now see. You see me. Now-" Terruns grinned and wasn't there.
in
THE STOLEN SHIP
PENTON WIGGLED his head slowly, and looked more carefully. Definitely there was a large, and conspicuous hole in the landscape, a large, grayish mist that swirled and seethed with a curious riot of colors and angles and impossibly shaped buildings.
Abruptly Terruns was back. Blake looked at him with considerable distaste.
"Can,all of you do that?"
"It's very simple," nodded Terruns. "But we can't see a kntll. I merely telepathized the idea that I wasn't there. Momentarily you were deceived, but quickly reasoned that I must be there, because of the hole in the landscape. Therefore you saw me again. A krull, of course, sees in all directions, and therefore can fill the hole in the landscape by telepathizing two things. He isn't there. You see the landscape. Very simple."
Blake looked at Penton from the side of his eyes.
"Ted, shall we go for a walk? Back to the ship, maybe. Somehow telepathizing imps don't promise well."
"They make themselves completely invisible in that way?" asked Penton.
"Quite," Terruns replied. A more serious expression crossed his face as he explained further the troubles of his people. "And worse, as you saw. They make automobiles invisible. Sit on the bumper in front. They like excitement and that sometimes makes a lot of excitement." His face lighted a bit as he nodded toward the car. "But not so much since the fire-vents were installed."
"Oh. Explosives?"
"Yes. Serves two purposes. First, if I see a car coming toward me that doesn't seem to see me, I know a krull is riding in front. I press a button on the panel. Explosions warn
the other driver, and we both brake sharply. Also explosions immediately under krull usually induce them to move. Frequently the krull gets caught between cars, which is very good. Usually," he sighed, "they escape, merely somewhat singed. But they are intelligent. They learn."
"Why the devil don't you drive them away?"
Terruns smiled sadly.
"How? We would very much like to. Oh, no end. But no results. They steal our food, they steal anything that will move. Don't attack us, because we are very much stronger. Very hard to shoot what you can't see."
"Great Worlds, Terruns, can't you get rid of the creatures somehow? Use colored glasses so you see differently than they, and make them visible. Any trick like that?"
"Trick? Oh, my dear friend, the mind is tricked. It does no good to trick our eyes, when our minds are tricked. We have tried a truly remarkable assortment of mechanisms," Terruns sighed, "but none of them work."
"From your fall, I should think people would be very badly injured tripping over the blamed things," Blake suggested.
"That's why we wear these suits," Terruns replied.
"Suits?"
The moon face split in a good-natured grin.
"I'm not quite as large as this. It's the protective suit. It bounces." The Pornan touched something somewhere in his Suit. Rapidly the seemingly skin-tight suit shrank. It hung in folds, disconsolate droops and lumps all over him. Then the elasticity of the suit began to work, and slowly it crawled back to a skin-tight fit in fact.
An utterly different Terruns emerged. His body was squat and enormously powerful, the huge chest heavily banded with thick sheets and cords of muscle, great rippling cords of it flowing into thick, muscle-ridged arms. His torso tapered to a narrow waist, then expanded into blocky, corded legs. Far from pudgy, there was not an ounce of fat on that
perfect specimen of the powerfully muscled denizen of this heavy-gravity world.
And with that alteration, his face seemed now subtly changed. The roundness was not the fullness of fat, but a roundness of differently shaped bones, and differently placed muscle-cords. The roundness differed from a human face as a bulldog's round face from the lean jaws of the wolfhound.
Blake whistled softly.
The Pornan's good-natured smile reappeared.
"Different worlds-different people."
"Different worlds," repeated Penton with a gentle moan, "different people. I, Blake, am different for life."
"Do you still remember that-six long hours ago? Old Elephant Penton. Can you remember anything else that was said?"
"Little." Penton moved gingerly. The motion, inasmuch as he was floating in Terruns' saltwater-filled swimming pool, sent his nose under the surface. He straightened out with hasty caution and a soft, but heartfelt remark. "Damn little. Six hours under doubled gravity and-" He stopped and looked up. Terruns was standing on the edge of the pool looking down at them with sad reproof.
"I asked you," their host said reproachfully, "I asked you particularly, but you said the ship would not move if you weren't there."
"Right," agreed Penton, paddling gently to bring himself to a vertical position. "You asked, and it won't."
"Sorry." Terruns shook Jiis head. "Report from the Park Department. They can't find it. They didn't expect to see it. We never see things like that, but they can't feel it. Very unusual, if it can't be moved."
"What? Can't find our ship?"
"You said," Terruns began. He stopped abruptly as he leaped violently and awkwardly into the air, to land in the pool with a mighty thunder, and a tidal wave that all but swamped the Terrestrials. Immediately, the inflated suit brought him bobbing to the surface, lying on his stomach, his arms moving uselessly because of the airtight suit. They
would not grip the water. Simultaneously there was a chuckling chatter and a loud thump,
Terruns released a mighty "oof and sank six inches into the water. The chattering went on excitedly from empty air, while a mad splashing began on both sides of the balloon-clad Pornan, as though an invisible side-wheeler in a frightful hurry had gone slightly askew. Terruns was gasping heavily, half stunned, while his body began to move in hurried circles to the accompaniment of much chattering.
Blake and Penton stared in paralyzed astonishment. Terruns recovered his wind, reached the tab on his suit, and Pornan and invisible rider plunged into the water. Instantly both struck out for the shore, and the krull, too busy otherwise to remain invisible, appeared.
A rabbit-eared, rabbit-faced, four-limbed creature the size of a ten-year-old child, it had a surprisingly chunky body. Details of arms and legs were rather blurred, as both were working with a truly amazing determination and efficiency. For a moment Terruns was handicapped as his suit shrank back to fit; then he too got into action. Arms churning like twin propellers and both feet going in a white froth of water, he overhauled the shrieking krull, a six-inch bow wave curling about his ears.
The little creature bounced out of the water when it reached the pool edge, and disappeared the instant it hit the tiled floor. Immediately behind it, Terruns swarmed up the lip of the pool and set off down the tile like a bloodhound on the trail. The wet animal was dripping revealingly. Halfway to the arched door at the far end, he skidded to a halt, and grabbed at the air. A yowling shriek greeted his move, and triumphantly he raised his arm. The shrieks continued but nothing appeared as a source.
Terruns walked back toward the pool more leisurely.
"You said," went on the Pornan calmly, "that it couldn't be moved, but it was. It isn't there." He reached the edge of the pool, and bent down. The shrieking chatter mounted; as he lowered his hand a hole appeared in the water, then a white froth. "Presently, my friends, I shall show you a krull.
Very reckless fellow. They love to go paddling, though." The shrieking chatter had changed to an unhappy glubbing and a thunder of splashing water. Slowly the glubbing and splashing reached a climax and died away. The pool-edge, the water, and even Terruns wavered and twisted crazily in appearance. Then a wet, feebly kicking, half-drowned creature appeared, about six inches below the surface of the water.
"Oh," said Penton distastefully, "we have 'em on our world, too. They appear and disappear, and sometimes only one person can see them."
"Sure," said Penton. "We have a drug that makes them visible. Alcohol. We call them D.T.'s."
"Deetees," said Terruns mildly, looking down at the wet, slowly reviving creature. "Curious." The krull's rabbit ears drooped dejectedly, bright green rabbit ears drooping over a bright red face. The red faded gradually into a handsome purple body, marked by a large and unnaturally brilliant orange stripe down the middle of the back. Constant wear had removed all hair from feet, hands, and other parts frequently in contact with the ground, exposing the bright red skin.
"Maybe," said Blake, "you should leave it alone so it will recover rapidly. They really are more pleasant to look at when they are invisible."