"Murray Leinster - Keyhole (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

traitor.

When Worden went into the nursery again—the days and nights on the Moon are two weeks-long
apiece, so men ignored such matters inside the station—Butch leaped for the dunce-cap stone and
clung to its top. He had been fumbling around the rocking stone. It still swayed back and forth on
its plate. Now he seemed to try to squeeze himself to unity with the stone spire, his eyes staring
enigmatically at Worden.
“I don’t know whether we’ll get anywhere or not,” said Worden conversationally. “Maybe
you’ll put up a fight if I touch you. But we’ll see.”
He reached out his hand. The small furry body— neither hot nor cold but the temperature of
the air in the station—resisted desperately. But Butch was very young. Worden peeled him loose and
carried him across the room to the human schoolroom equipment. Butch curled up, staring fearfully.
“I’m playing dirty,” said Worden, “by being nice to you, Butch. Here’s a toy.”
Butch stirred in his grasp. His eyes blinked rapidly. Worden put him down and wound up a
tiny mechanical toy. It moved. Butch watched intently. When it stopped he looked back at Worden.
Worden wound it up again. Again Butch watched. When it ran down a second time the tiny handlike
paw reached out.
With an odd tentativeness, Butch tried to turn the winding key. He was not strong enough.
After an instant he went loping across to the dwelling-cave. The winding key was a metal ring.
Butch fitted that over a throw-stone point, and twisted the toy about. He wound it up. He put the
toy on the floor and watched it work. Worden’s jaw dropped.
“Brains!” he said’ wryly. “Too bad, Butch! You know the principle of the lever. At a guess
you’ve an eight-year-old human brain! I’m sorry for you, fella!”
At the regular communication hour he made his report to Earth. Butch was teachable. He
only had to see a thing done once—or at most twice—to be able to repeat the motions involved.
“And,” said Worden, carefully detached, “he isn’t afraid of me now. He understands that I
intend to be friendly. While I was carrying him I talked to him. He felt the vibration of my chest
from my voice. “Just before I left him I picked him up and talked to him again. He looked at my
mouth as it moved and put his paw on my chest to feel the vibrations. I put his paw at my throat.
The vibrations are clearer there. He seemed fascinated. I don’t know how you’d rate his
intelligence but it’s above that of a human baby.”
Then he said with even greater detachment, “I am disturbed. If you must know, I don’t like
the idea of exterminating his kind. They have tools, they have intelligence. I think we should try
to communicate with them in some way—try to make friends—stop killing them for dissectiop.” -
The communicator was silent for the second and a half it took his voice to travel to Earth
and the second and a half it took to come back. Then the recording clerk’s voice said bristly,
“Very good, Mr. Worden! Your voice was very clear!”
Worden shrugged his shoulders. The lunar station in Tycho was a highly official
enterprise. The staff on the Moon had to be competent—and besides, political appointees did not
want to risk their precious lives—but the Earth end of the business of the Space Exploration
Bureau was run by the sort of people who do get on official payrolls; Worden felt sorry for
Butch—and for Butch’s relatives.

In a later lesson session Worden took an empty coffee tin into the nursery. He showed
Butch that its bottom vibrated when he spoke into it, just as his throat did. Butch experimented


file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Murray%20Leinster%20-%20Keyhole.txt (3 of 8) [10/16/2004 4:43:52 PM]
 file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Murray%20Leinster%20-%20Keyhole.txt