JК
World Of Ptavvs :: Нивен Ларри
Страница: 11 из 127But I, the doctor of physics, I have solved the mystery. I believe.
"Tomorrow I will show you why I believe the statue is an alien being in a time-retarder field. You can guess what I want you to do. I want to put you and the statue in the time-retarder field, to cancel out our, er, visitor's own field, and let you read its mind."
They walked down to the corner at ten the next morning, and Judy stayed while Larry pushed the call button and waited for the cab. About two minutes passed before a yellow-and-black-checked flyer dropped to the corner.
Larry was getting in when he felt Judy grasping his upper arm. "What's wrong?" he asked, turning half around.
"I'm frightened," she said. She looked it. "Are you sure it's all right? You don't know anything about him at all!"
"Who, Jansky? Look-"
"The statue."
"Oh." He considered. "Look, I'm just going to quickly make a couple of points. All right?" She nodded. "One. The contact gadget isn't dangerous. I've been using it for years. All I get is another person's memories, and a little insight into how he thinks. Even then they're damped a little so I have to think hard to remember something that didn't happen to me personally.
"Two. My experience with dolphins has given me experience with unhuman minds. Right?"
"Right. And you always want to play practical jokes after a session with Charley. Remember when you hypnotized Mrs. Grafton and made her-"
"Nuts. I've always liked practical jokes. Third point is that the time field doesn't matter at all. It's just to kill the field around the statue. You can forget it.
"Four. Janaky won't take any chances with my life. You know that, you can see it. Okay?"
"All that scuba diving last summer-"
"That was your idea."
"Uh? I guess it was." She smiled and didn't mean it. "Okay. I thought you'd be practicing next on bandersnatchi, but I guess this is the acid test. And I'm still worried. You know I'm prescient."
"Well- oh, well. I'll call you as soon as I can." He got into the cab and dialed the address of the UCLA physics school level.
"Mark will be back with the coffee in a minute," said Dorcas Jansky. "Let me show you how the time-retarding field works." They were in a huge room whose roof contained two of those gigantic electrodes which produce ear-splitting claps of artificial lightning to impress groups of wide-eyed college students. But Jansky didn't seem concerned with the lightning maker. "We borrowed this part of the building because it has a good power source," he said, "and it was big enough for our purposes.
"Tomorrow I will show you why I believe the statue is an alien being in a time-retarder field. You can guess what I want you to do. I want to put you and the statue in the time-retarder field, to cancel out our, er, visitor's own field, and let you read its mind."
They walked down to the corner at ten the next morning, and Judy stayed while Larry pushed the call button and waited for the cab. About two minutes passed before a yellow-and-black-checked flyer dropped to the corner.
Larry was getting in when he felt Judy grasping his upper arm. "What's wrong?" he asked, turning half around.
"I'm frightened," she said. She looked it. "Are you sure it's all right? You don't know anything about him at all!"
"Who, Jansky? Look-"
"The statue."
"Oh." He considered. "Look, I'm just going to quickly make a couple of points. All right?" She nodded. "One. The contact gadget isn't dangerous. I've been using it for years. All I get is another person's memories, and a little insight into how he thinks. Even then they're damped a little so I have to think hard to remember something that didn't happen to me personally.
"Two. My experience with dolphins has given me experience with unhuman minds. Right?"
"Right. And you always want to play practical jokes after a session with Charley. Remember when you hypnotized Mrs. Grafton and made her-"
"Nuts. I've always liked practical jokes. Third point is that the time field doesn't matter at all. It's just to kill the field around the statue. You can forget it.
"Four. Janaky won't take any chances with my life. You know that, you can see it. Okay?"
"All that scuba diving last summer-"
"That was your idea."
"Uh? I guess it was." She smiled and didn't mean it. "Okay. I thought you'd be practicing next on bandersnatchi, but I guess this is the acid test. And I'm still worried. You know I'm prescient."
"Well- oh, well. I'll call you as soon as I can." He got into the cab and dialed the address of the UCLA physics school level.
"Mark will be back with the coffee in a minute," said Dorcas Jansky. "Let me show you how the time-retarding field works." They were in a huge room whose roof contained two of those gigantic electrodes which produce ear-splitting claps of artificial lightning to impress groups of wide-eyed college students. But Jansky didn't seem concerned with the lightning maker. "We borrowed this part of the building because it has a good power source," he said, "and it was big enough for our purposes.