"Aleksandr Abramov, Sergei Abramov. Horsemen from Nowhere ("ВСАДНИКИ НИОТКУДА", англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

contents. The picture of my double did not cause excitement at first and was
not convincing, for they simply took it for me myself, though I pointed out
straightway that to film myself and in motion too and from different angles
was simply impossible even for a Grand Master documentalist. But what really
compelled them to believe in duplicate human beings were the pictures of
Martin's double on the snow-I succeeded in getting him close up-and then the
real Martin and Zernov approaching the site of the catastrophe. The hall
buzzed with excitement and when the crimson flower threw out a snake-like
tentacle and the dead Martin vanished into its flared maw, somebody even
cried out in the darkness. But the most striking effect, the deepest
impression was made by the concluding part of the film, its ice symphony.
Zernov was right, 1 greatly underestimated the sensation.
But the viewers gave it its due. The showing was hardly over when
voices were heard demanding a second showing. This time the silence was
total: not a single exclamation resounded in the hall, nobody coughed, no
one exchanged a single word with his neighbour, even whispering could not be
heard. The silence continued even when the lights went on. The people were
still in the grip of events and were released only by the voice of the
oldest of the old-timers, the doyen of the corps of wintering-over men,
Professor Kedrin, who said:
"All right, now tell us, Boris, what you think about it. That will be
better because we still have to think things over."
"I've already said that we have no material witnesses," Zernov replied.
"Martin was not able to get a sample: the 'cloud' did not allow him to
approach. On the ground, too, we could not get close enough and were pressed
to the ground as if our bodies were filled with lead. This means that the
'cloud' can set up a gravitational field. Added confirmation is the ice cube
in the air that we saw. Martin's plane was probably landed and our tractor
pulled out of the crevice in the same fashion. The following inferences may
be classed as beyond question: the 'cloud' readily changes its shape and
colour. This you have seen. It creates any temperature regime needed:
hundred-metre-thick ice can be cut only by using very high temperatures. It
floats in the air like a fish in water and can change direction and speed
instantaneously. Martin claims that the 'cloud' he saw escaped from him at
hypersonic speed. His 'colleagues' obviously went slow simply to create a
gravitational barrier around the airplane. The ultimate conclusion can only
be that the rose 'clouds' have nothing whatsoever to do with meteorological
phenomena. This 'cloud' is either a living thinking organism or a bio system
with a specific programme. Its principal tasks are to remove and transport
into space enormous masses of continental ice. And incidentally for some
unknown reason and in some unknown way it synthesizes (I would rather say
duplicates or models) any thing it encounters (atomic structures such as
human beings, machines and other things) and then destroys them.
The American Admiral Thompson asked Zernov the first question:
"There is one thing that is not clear to me from your report, and that
is, whether these creatures are hostile or not towards human beings."
"I do not think so. They destroy only the copies they themselves have
created."
"Are you positive?"
"But you've just seen that yourself," Zernov replied in surprise.