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.Maybe, O'Brien thought then, they hadn't caught any sickness on Mars; maybe they'd just brought asickness call it the Human Disease to a nice, clean, sandy planet and it was killing them, because hereit had nothing else on which to feed.O'Brien shook himself.He'd better watch out.This way madness lay."Better start talking to myself again.How are you, boy?Feeling all right? No headaches? No aches, no pains, no feelings of fatigue? Then you must be dead,boy!"When he went through the hospital that afternoon, he noticed that Belov had reached what could bedescribed as Stage Four.Beside Smathers and Ghose who were both still in the coma of Stage Three,the geologist looked wide awake.His head rolled restlessly from side to side and there was a terrible,absolutely horrifying look in his eyes."How are you feeling, Nicolai?" O'Brien asked tentatively.There was no reply.Instead the head turned slowly and Belov stared directly at him.O'Brienshuddered.That look was enough to freeze your blood, he decided, as he went into the engine room andgot out of his space suit.Maybe it wouldn't go any further than this.Maybe you didn't die of Belov's Disease.Schneider hadsaid it attacked the nervous system: so maybe the end-product was just insanity."Big deal," O'Brien muttered."Big, big deal."He had lunch and strolled over to the engine room porthole.The pyramidal marker they had plantedon the first day caught his eye; it was the only thing worth looking at in this swirling, hilly landscape.FirstTerrestrial Expedition to Mars.In the Name of Human Life.If only Ghose hadn't been in such a hurry to get the marker down.The inscription needed rewriting.Last Terrestrial Expedition to Mars.In the Memory of Human Life Here and on Earth.That would bemore apt.He knew what would happen when the expedition didn't return and no message arrived from it.TheRussians would be positive that the Americans had seized the ship and were using the data obtained onthe journey to perfect their bomb-delivery technique.The Americans would be likewise positive that theRussians.They would be the incident."Ghose would sure appreciate that," O'Brien said to himself wryly.There was a clatter behind him.He turned.The cup and plate from which he'd had lunch were floating in the air!O'Brien shut his eyes, then opened them slowly.Yes, no doubt about it, they were floating! Theyseemed to be performing a slow, lazy dance about each other.Once in a while, they touched gently, as ifkissing, then pulled apart.Suddenly, they sank to the table and came to rest like a pair of balloons with alast delicate bounce or two.Had he got Belov's Disease without knowing it, he wondered? Could you progress right to the laststage hallucinations without having headaches or fever?He heard a series of strange noises in the hospital and ran out of the engine room without bothering toget into his space-suit.Several blankets were dancing about, just like the cup and saucer.They swirled through the air, as ifcaught in a strong wind.As he watched, almost sick with astonishment, a few other objects joinedthem a thermometer, a packing case, a pair of pants.But the crew lay silently in their bunks.Smathers had evidently reached Stage Four too.There wasthe same restless head motion, the same terrible look whenever his eyes met O'Brien's.And then, as he turned to Belov's bunk, he saw that it was empty! Had the man got up in his deliriumand wandered off? Was he feeling better? Where had he gone?O'Brien began to search the ship methodically, calling the Russian by name.Section by section,compartment by compartment, he came at last to the control room.It, too, was empty.Then wherecould Belov be?As he wandered distractedly around the little place, he happened to glance through the porthole.Andthere, outside, he saw Belov.Without a space-suit!It was impossible no man could survive for a moment unprotected on the raw, almost airless surfaceof Mars yet there was Nicolas Belov walking as unconcernedly as if the sand beneath his feet were theNevsky Prospekt! And then he shimmered a little around the edges, as if he'd been turned partially intoglass and disappeared."Belov!" O'Brien found himself yelping."For God's sake! Belov! Belovi""He's gone to inspect the Martian city," a voice said behind him."He'll be back shortly."The navigator spun around.There was nobody in the room.He must be going completely crazy."No, you're not," the voice said.And Tom Smathers rose slowly through the solid floor."What's happening to you people?" O'Brien gasped."What is all this?""Stage Five of Belov's Disease.The last one.So far, only Belov and I are in it, but the others areentering it now."O'Brien found his way to a chair and sat down.He worked his mouth a couple of times but couldn'tmake the words come out."You're thinking that Belov's Disease is making magicians out of us," Smathers told him."No.First, itisn't a disease at all."For the first time, Smathers looked directly at him and O'Brien had to avert his eyes.It wasn't just thathorrifying look he'd had lying on the bed in the hospital.It was it was as if Smathers were no longerSmathers.He'd become something else."Well, it's caused by a bacillus, but not a parasitical one.A symbiotical one.""Symbi ""Like the intestinal flora, it performs a useful function.A highly useful function." O'Brien had theimpression that Smathers was having a hard time finding the right words, that he was choosing verycarefully, as if as if.As if he were talking to a small child!`That's correct," Smathers told him."But I believe I can make you understand.The bacillus of Belov'sDisease inhabited the nervous system of the ancient Martians as our stomach bacteria live in humandigestive systems.Both are symbiotic, both enable the systems they inhabit to function with far greatereffectiveness.The Belov bacillus operates within us as a kind of neural transformer, multiplying the mentaloutput almost a thousand times.""You mean you're a thousand times as intelligent as before?"Smathers frowned."This is very difficult.Yes, roughly a thousand times as intelligent, if you must put itthat way.Actually, there's a thousandfold increase in mental powers.Intelligence is merely one of thosepowers.There are many others such as telepathy and telekinesis which previously existed in suchminuscule state as to be barely observable.I am in constant comminication with Belov, for example,wherever he is.Belov is in almost complete control of his physical environment and its effect on his body.The movable objects which alarmed you so were the results of the first clumsy experiments we madewith our new minds.There is still a good deal we have to learn and get used to.""But what about " O'Brien searched through his erupting brain and at last found a coherent thought."But you were so sick!""The symbiosis was not established without difficulty," Smathers admitted."And we are not identicalwith the Martians physiologically.However, it's all over now.We will return to Earth, spread Belov'sDisease if you want to keep calling it that and begin our exploration of space and time.Eventually,we'd like to get in touch with the Martians in the the place where they have gone [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]