"Jack Williamson - The Ultimate Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Jack)

land thrust into the crescent. “If you ever get to Earth—which
I don’t expect—you could meet your doubles there in the
Tycho exhibit.”
Casey asked, “Is Mona there?”
Mona Lisa Live was the professional name of the woman
Casey’s father brought with him when he forced his way
aboard the escape plane just ahead of the first impact. We
knew them only from their holo images, he with the name “El
Chino” and the crossed flags of Mexico and China tattooed
across his black chest, she with the Leonardo painting on her
belly.
Those ancient images had been enough to let us all catch
the daring spirit and desperate devotion that had brought
them finally to the Moon from the Medellin nightclub where he
found her. From his first glimpse of her holo, Casey had loved
her and dreamed of a day when they might be together
again. I’d heard him ask my holo father why she had not
been cloned with us.
“Ask the computer.” He shrugged in the fatalistic way he
had when his voice had its dry computer undertone. “It could
have been done. Her tissue specimens are still preserved in
the cryostat.”
15
 The Ultimate Earth
by Jack Williamson


“Do you know why she wasn’t cloned?”
“The computer seldom explains.” He shrugged again. “If
you want my own guess, she and Kell reached the Moon as
unexpected intruders. The maternity lab was not prepared to
care for them or their clones.”
“Intruders?” Casey’s dark face turned darker. “At least
DeFort thought their genes were worth preserving. If I’m
worth cloning, Mona ought to be. Someday she will be.”
Back in the station dome, Pen made his final farewell. We
thanked him for that exciting glimpse of the far-off Earth, for
the space suits and all his gifts, for restoring us to life. A
trifling repayment, he said, for all he had found at the station.
He shook our hands, kissed Tanya and Dian, and got into his
silvery suit. We followed him down to the air lock. Tanya must
have loved him more than I knew. She broke into tears and
ran off to her room as the rest of us watched his bright little
teardrop float away toward Earth.
“We put them down there,” Casey muttered. “We have a
right to see what we have done.”
When the robots left the restored spaceplane standing on
its own landing gear, the digging machine crept away to join
the others. Busy again, they were digging a row of deep pits.
We watched them bury themselves under the rubble, leaving