"Robert F. Young - When Time Was New" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

ransom. Earth is their hideout. There are three of them altogether — Roul and Fritad and Holmer. One of
them is probably back in the spaceship."
Carpenter was silent for several moments. The Mars of 2156 A.D. was a desolate place of rubble,
sand and wind inhabited by a few thousand diehard colonists from Earth and a few hundred thousand
diehard Martians, the former living beneath atmosphere-domes and the latter, save for the few who had
intermarried with the colonists, living in deep caves where oxygen could still be obtained. But
twenty-second century excavations by the Extraterrestrial Archaeological Society had unearthed
unquestionable evidence to the effect that an ultra-technological civilization similar to that of Earth Present
had existed on the planet over 70,000,000 years ago. Surely it was no more than reasonable to assume
that such a civilization had had space travel.
That being the case, Earth, during her uppermost Mesozoic Era, must have presented an ideal
hideout for Martian criminals, kidnapers included. Certainly such a theory threw considerable light on the
anachronisms that kept cropping up in Cretaceous strata. There was of course another way to explain
Marcy's and Skip's presence in the Age of Dinosaurs: they could be 2156 A.D. Earth children, and they
could have come back via time machine the same as he had. Or they could have been abducted by
twenty-second century kidnapers for that matter, and have been brought back. But, that being so, why
should they lie about it?
"Tell me, Marcy," Carpenter said, "do you believe I came from the future?"
"Oh, of course, Mr. Carpenter. And I'm sure Skip does, too. It's —it's kind of hard to believe, but I
know that someone as nice as you wouldn't tell a fib — especially such a big one."
"Thank you," Carpenter said. "And I believe you came from Greater Mars, which, I imagine, is the
planet's largest and most powerful country. Tell me something about your civilization."
"It's a magnificent civilization, Mr. Carpenter. Every day we progress by leaps and bounds, and now
that we've licked the instability factor, we'll progress even faster."
" 'The instability factor'?"
"Human emotion. It held us back for years, but it can't any more. Now, when a boy reaches his
thirteenth birthday and a girl reaches her fifteenth, they are desentimentalized. And after that, they are
able to make calm cool decisions strictly in keeping with pure logic. That way they can achieve maximum
efficiency. At the Institute preparatory school, Skip and I are going through what is known as the
`pre-desentimentalization process.' After four more years we'll begin receiving dosages of the
desentimentalization drug. Then—"

SKRRRREEEEEEEEEEK! went one of the pteranodons as it sideswiped the shield-field.
Carpenter watched it as it wobbled wildly for a moment, and before it shot skyward he caught a
glimpse of its occupant. All he saw was an expressionless face, but from its forward location he deduced
that the man was lying in a prone position between the two twelve-foot wings.
Marcy was trembling. "I—I think they're out to kill us, Mr. Carpenter," she said. "They threatened to
if we tried to escape. Now that they've got our voices on the ransom tape, they probably figure they
don't need us any more."
He reached back and patted her hand where it lay lightly on his shoulder. "It's all right, pumpkin.
With old Sam here protecting you, you haven't got a thing to worry about."
"Is—is that really his name.
"It sure is. Sam Triceratops, Esquire. Sam, this is Marcy. You take good care of her and her
brother—do you hear me?" He turned his head and looked into the girl's wide blue eyes. "He says he
will. I'll bet you haven't got anybody like him on Mars, have you?"
She shook her head — as standard a Martian gesture, apparently, as it was a terrestrial—and for a
moment he thought that a tremulous smile was going to break up on her lips. It didn't, though — not
quite. "Indeed we haven't, Mr. Carpenter."
He squinted up through the nacelle at the circling pteranodons (he still thought of them as
pteranodons, even though he knew they were not). "Where's this spaceship of their's, Marcy? Is it far