"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 2 - First Lensman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

FIRST LENSMAN

FIRST PUBLISHED - Fantasy Press hardbound, 1950


BY E. E. "DOC" SMITH

CHAPTER 1

The visitor, making his way unobserved through the crowded main laboratory of
The Hill,
stepped up to within six feet of the back of a big Norwegian seated at an
eleotrono-
optical bench. Drawing an automatic pistol, he shot the apparently unsuspecting
scientist
seven times, as fast as he could pull the trigger; twice through the brain, five
times,
closely spaced, through the spine.
"Ah, Gharlane of Eddore, I have been expecting you to look me up. Sit
down."
Blonde, blue-eyed Dr. Nels Bergenholm, completely undisturbed by the passage of
the
stream of bullets through his head and body, turned and waved one huge hand at a
stool
beside his own.
"But those were not ordinary projectiles!" the visitor protested. Neither
person --
or rather, entity -- was in the least surprised that no one else had paid any
attention to
what had happened, but it was clear that the one was taken aback by the failure
of his
murderous attack. "They should have volatilized that form of flesh -- should at
least have
blown you back to Arisia, where you belong."
"Ordinary or extraordinary, what matter? As you, in the guise of Gray
Roger, told
Conway Costigan a short time since, 'I permitted that, as a demonstration of
futility.'
Know, Gharlane, once and for all, that you will no longer be allowed to act
directly
against any adherent of Civilization, wherever situate. We of Arisia will not
interfere in
person with your proposed conquest of the two galaxies as you have planned it;
since
the stresses and conflicts involved are necessary -- and, I may add, sufficient
-- to
produce the Civilization which must and shall come into being. Therefore,
neither will you,
or any other Eddorian, so interfere. You will go back to Eddore and you will
stay there."