Citizen in Spase. Stories / Гражданин в Космосе. Рассказы. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Morrison tried grimly to push the work ahead, but the men were beginning to get out of hand. Some of them were babbling about flying objects, fiery hands in the sky, talking animals and sentient machines. They drew a lot of listeners. It was unsafe to walk around the camp after dark. Self-appointed guards shot at anything that moved, and quite a number of things that didn’t.

Morrison was not particularly surprised when, late one night, he found the work camp deserted. He had expected the men to make a move. He sat back in his tent and waited.

After a while Rivera came in and sat down. “Gonna be some trouble,” he said, lighting a cigarette.

“Whose trouble?”

“The natives. The boys are going up to that village.”

Morrison nodded. “What started them?”

Rivera leaned back and exhaled smoke. “You know this crazy Charlie? The guy who’s always praying? Well, he swore he saw one of those natives standing beside his tent. He said the native said, �You die, all of you Earthmen die.

“In a cloud of smoke?” Morrison asked.

“Yeah,” Rivera said, grinning. “I think there was a cloud of smoke in it.”

Morrison remembered the man. A perfect hysteric type. A classic case, whose devil spoke conveniently in his own language, and from somewhere near enough to be destroyed.

“Tell me,” Morrison asked, “are they going up there to destroy witches? Or psi supermen?”

Rivera thought it over for a while, then said, “Well, Mr.

In the distance they heard a loud, reverberating boom.

“Did they take explosives?” Morrison asked.

“Don’t know. I suppose they did.”

It was ridiculous, he thought. Pure mob behavior. Dengue would grin and say: When in doubt, always kill the shadows. Can’t tell what they’re up to.

But Morrison found that he was glad his men had made the move. Latent psi powers… You could never tell.

Half an hour later, the first men straggled in, walking slowly, not talking to each other.

“Well?” Morrison asked. “Did you get them all?”

“No sir,” a man said. “We didn’t even get near them.”

“What happened?” Morrison asked, feeling a touch of panic.

More of his men arrived. They stood silently, not looking at each other.

“What happened?” Morrison shouted.

“We didn’t even get near them,” a man said. “We got about halfway there.