"Stanislaw Lem - Ijon Tichy 02 - Memoirs of a Space Traveler" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lem Stanislaw)

Absolute Order, am transforming your frail, weak bodies into solid, beautiful, durable forms, from which
I then arrange pleasing, symmetrical designs, and patterns of incomparable regularity, thereby bringing
perfect order to the planet. . .'
" 'Monster!!' cried the Spiritors and Eminents. 'How dare you destroy us?! You trample on our
laws, you murder us!'
"In reply the Machine rasped scornfully and said:
" 'Did I not tell you that you cannot reason logically? Of course I respect your laws and
freedoms. I am establishing order without coercion, without resorting to violence or constraint. No one
entered the Rainbow Palace who did not wish to; but everyone who did enter I transformed (acting on
my own initiative, let me repeat), reshaping the material of his body so that in its new form it will endure
for ages. I guarantee it.'
"For some time there was silence. Then, whispering among themselves, the Plenum concluded
that the law really had not been broken and that things were not as bad as they had first seemed. 'We,'
the Eminents said, 'would never have committed such a crime. The Machine is to blame; it swallowed up
multitudes of desperate Drudgelings. But now the surviving Eminents will be able to enjoy temporal peace
together with the Spiritors, praising the inscrutable decrees of the Great Phoo. We shall keep far away
from the Rainbow Palace,' they told themselves, 'and no harm will befall us.'
"They were about to disperse when the Machine addressed them again:
" 'Pay careful attention now to what I say. I must finish what I have begun. I will not compel,
persuade, or urge you to do anything; I still leave you complete freedom of initiative. But if anyone wishes
to see his neighbor, brother, friend, or other close associate achieve the level of Circular Harmony, let
him summon the black robots; they will appear immediately and at his behest escort the designated
individual to the Rainbow Palace. That is all.'
"In the silence that followed, the Eminents looked at one another with sudden suspicion and fear.
Archspiritor Nolab, in a wavering voice, explained to the Machine that it was gravely in error to wish to
remake them all into shiny disks; this would come to pass if it were the Great Phoo's will, but in order to
know His will much time was needed. He proposed to the Machine, therefore, that it put off its decision
for seventy years.
" 'I cannot,' replied the Machine, 'for I have already worked out a precise plan of action for the
period that follows the transformation of the last Phool; I assure you that I am preparing for the planet the
most glorious fate -- existence in harmony. This, I believe, would also befit the Phoo whom you
mentioned but with whom I am otherwise unacquainted; could you not bring him also to the Rainbow
Palace?'
"It stopped, for the square was now deserted. The Eminents and Spiritors had run off to their
homes, where each gave himself up to solitary reflection on his future. The more they reflected, the more
apprehensive they grew, for each feared that some neighbor or acquaintance who nursed a grudge
against him might summon the black robots. There was no recourse but to act first. Soon the quiet of the
night was shattered by cries. Sticking their fear-contorted faces out of windows, the Eminents shouted
desperately into the darkness, and the streets resounded with the many-footed tread of iron robots. Sons
betrayed fathers; grandfathers, grandsons; brother sent brother to the palace; thus, in a single night,
thousands of Eminents and Spiritors melted away to the handful you see before you, alien traveler. The
dawn revealed fields strewn with myriads of shiny disks arranged in harmoniously geometric designs. The
last trace, this, of our friends and relatives. At midday the Machine announced in a thunderous voice:
" 'Enough. Be so good as to curb your eagerness, O Eminents and remaining Spiritors. I am
closing the portal of the Rainbow Palace -- but not, I promise you, for long. I have exhausted the designs
prepared for the Universalization of Absolute Order, and must think awhile, so that I may create new
ones. Then you will be able to continue acting of your own volition.' "
With these words the Phool looked at me wide-eyed and finished more quietly:
"That was two days ago. . . Gathered here, we wait. . ."
"O worthy Phool!" I cried, smoothing down my hair, which had stood on end. "Yours is a terrible