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

5
 The Ultimate Earth
by Jack Williamson


how the big impacts killed Earth and killed it again. We have
always brought it back to life.” My throat felt dry. I had to
gulp, but I went on. “If Earth’s alive now, that’s because of
us.”
“True. Very true.” He nodded, with an odd little smile. “But
perhaps you don’t know that your little Moon has suffered a
heavy impact of his own. If you are alive today, you owe your
lives to me.”
“To you?” We all stared at him, but Casey was nodding.
“To you and the digging machines? I’ve watched them and
wondered what they were digging for. When did that object
hit the Moon?”
"¿Quién sabe?" He shrugged at Pepe, imitating the gesture
and the voice Pepe had learned from his holo father. “It was
long ago. Perhaps a hundred thousand years, perhaps a
million. I haven’t found a clue.”
“The object?” Pepe frowned. “Something hit the station?”
“A narrow miss.” Uncle Pen nodded at the great dark pit in
the crater rim just west of us. “The ejecta smashed the dome
and buried everything. The station was lost and almost
forgotten. Only a myth till I happened on it.”
“The diggers?” Casey turned to stare down at the landing
field where Uncle Pen had left his flyer in the shadows of
those great machines and the mountains they had built. “How
did you know where to dig?”
“The power plant was still running,” Uncle Pen said.
“Keeping the computer alive. I was able to detect its metal
shielding and then its radiation.”


6
 The Ultimate Earth
by Jack Williamson


“We thank you.” Pepe came gravely to shake his hand.
“I’m glad to be alive.”
“So am I,” Casey said. “If I can get to Earth.” He saw
Uncle Pen beginning to shake his head, and went on quickly,
“Tell us what you know about the Earth impacts and how we
came down to terraform the Earth and terraform it again
when it was killed again.”
“I don’t know what you did.”
“You have showed us the difference we made,” Casey said.
“The land is all green now, with no deserts or ice.”