《Lord of Rays》作者： - Robert F. Young 【EPUB】

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Robert Young whose stories are fast becoming mainstays for us achieves a remarkable diversityof both mood and content with each of his appearances here. This time he describes thebreakdown of reality which occurs when an astronaut confronts the— LORD OF RAYS ROBERT F. YOUNG Illustrated by RICHARD OLSEN L T. COMDR. GUEST sighted the Unorthodox Orbitting Object less than five hours before theHelios 5 was scheduled to break solar orbit and head for home. Or for where home would be comenext year. Two hours remained before final Burn. Guest had buried his co-astronaut Comdr. Avery on the other side of the sun. Avery had diedof uremia. Guest had sat by and watched him die not knowing what to do till Moonbase checkedout Averys symptoms made the diagnosis and pararadioed the appropriate instructions. By thenit was too late. Probably it would have been too late anyway. So Guest had buried Avery in the Solar Sea. His buddy. Nights were gray since he went away. Hisbuddy. Actually he had hated Avery. Not in the beginning. In the beginning they had been fastfriends. Not till six months after sunlaunch had the first shoots of hatred broken the soil ofGuests brain. It had grown like a noxious weed poisoning everything he said. In retrospect he realized that he couldnt have avoided hating Avery any more than Avery hadbeen able to avoid hating him. There should have been three men in the tub like the rhymewent—not two. But both limitation of living space and conservation of energy had said No.Since Averys death Guest had hated himself. There was no one else available. The UOO layabout an eighth of a mile off the Helios 5s prow on the sunward side. He centered it on thecontrol-panel viewscreen and described it to Moonbase: Some thirty feet long by perhaps eightwide upturned at both ends like a two-toed Persian slipper. Apparently constructed of wood. Wood A bench situated mid-ships with a masked figure lying on it. Two other figuresindubitably statues one stationed at the prone figures head the other at its feet. Decor: ariot of reds yellows blues. MOONBASE: quotGet closer Andy. Lock one of the cameras on it.quotHELIOS 5: quotRight.quot Guest got busy on manual. He shrank the Helios 5s orbit with a brief burst of retro-fire andby means of a series of attitude manuevers brought her directly behind and within fifty feet ofthe UOO. He programmed the A.P. to maintain the relationship then crawled into the forwardcontrol cubicle and focused