"James White - Federation World" - читать интересную книгу автора (White James)

for something better, or at least different. The young couple climbed briskly and confidently,
as if they knew what to expect at the top. Like Martin they had probably been here before and
had had second thoughts. Unlike Martin they now seemed to have made up their minds.

Not wishing to get into a discussion with any of them, Martin held back to allow the
others to precede him.

Going through that entrance was still a shock, he thought, and always would be no matter
how often he did it. There was no physical sensation, just the shattering realization that one
had arrived in the center of an enormous reception area with a transparent roof, and that it
was not on the second floor but the twentieth. Like the perpetually white stairs and the
omnilingual signs, instantaneous matter transmission was just another piece of technological
intimidation aimed at making the backward Earth people more amenable.

The reception area was carpeted and furnished in warm, relaxing shades of gold and green
and brown, and covered with random groupings of chairs and reading desks. All but a few of
the chairs were empty, and the desks were heaped with Federation literature. Three of the
distant walls were covered by large pictures, each of which showed a stylized, almost
heraldic, representation of one of the member races of the Federation of Galactic Sentients.
There were close to two hundred of the pictures ranged around the three walls and, so far as
Martin could see, none of them was duplicated.

Along the wall facing him, like a row of unmanned reservation desks at an air terminal,
were the examination computers.

By the time he reached them the old man had been passed through, and he could hear the
young couple talking quietly to the visual display unit of the examiner. But they were several
desks away and Martin could not tell whether they were asking or answering questions. Then
suddenly they lifted their hands from the top surface of the unit and moved around the desk
to disappear through one of the two doors beyond it, the door bearing the symbol which
appeared on all of the Federation's literature and equipment. He had been watching the
successful candidates so closely that he walked into the outer edge of another desk.

The display unit lit up, and the words which appeared on it shone white against a field of
deep green.

GOOD AFTERNOON, SIR. PLACE ONE HAND ON THE UPPER SURFACE OF THIS
UNIT AND STATE YOUR REASONS FOR WISHING TO BECOME A CITIZEN OF THE
FEDERATION OF GALACTIC SENTIENTS. PLEASE RELAX AND TAKE ALL THE TIME
YOU REQUIRE.

Martin looked at the examiner, at the large, smooth cube whose only features were its
display screen and the ever-present Federation symbol centered on top, and kept his hands by
his sides.

He said, "I have studied the brochure and have asked questions not covered by it on two
previous occasions. I do not want to waste your tune."
 THANK YOU. SIR. PLEASE PASS THROUGH ON THE RIGHT AND USE THE
UNMARKED DOOR.