Pokrewne

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Charlie Richards Carry Me 1 Fireman's Carry
Brewing Storm Derrick Storm T Richard Castle
Arleta Richardson [Grandma's In Grandma's Attic (epub)
Dusty Richards [Byrnes Family Blood on the Verde River (retai
Clarke, Richard A. World Wide Angriff aus dem Internet
Charlie Richards Kontra's Men Breaking the Playboy's Curse id
Dragonlance Heroes II 01 Kaz the Minotaur # Richard A Kn
Donald E Westlake as Richard St Deadly Edge (epub)
C J Richards [2061 The Undea Saving Hannah (epub)
Carrigan Richards [Elemental Under a Blood Moon (epub)

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.We still held a faint awareness of what the Earth had been—this passed down to us for many generations, in whisperings, by the wise ones of our people, back in the beginning of the city.And in those times, we had been in the city too long, for thousands of years.We knew that there must be freedom beyond the walls, if we could get through.But the walls were thick and high and without a flaw, making a sky over us.We worked for five hundred years on a machine to get us through the wall.Now a few of us have succeeded and more will follow us to the freedom out here in the good land.There is room for everyone here, there are no boundaries and no ceilings and no walls anywhere.And you may join us some time in the near future, if you wish."Twenty-three sighed in his sleep.Now a great city faded into his mind.There were long, tree lined streets and buildings, some built in rising spirals, some in spreading squares, others in ovals, domes and curved half circles.The wind wandered among the buildings and the bursts of green.People, dressed in white, flowing robes or black tights, walked the streets.He could hear their footsteps on the stone or grassy walk, could hear the hum of vehicles rolling along the streets or flying through the air.They were long and streamlined or short and round, or they were curved like gondolas or squat like saucers.And they were moving at many speeds.Yet there was order.And the air was sweet and clean.A black line of clouds was rising across the horizon.Soon there would be lightning and thunder and cool rain.The deep voice touched him again."This is the city that can be.A city of life, open to the sky and the earth, a city in which people can find and follow their own lives.After the wars, the cities were built to shut out the death of Earth.But the Earth has come to life again.And so can the cities."The silence came while the picture changed and Twenty-three stirred, waiting.A figure grew in his mind, wavered, and became a woman.Twenty-three saw the long body and the softness; saw the flowing hair and the smile as she watched him.He saw the gentleness in her face; saw a strength under the softness, like the storm that lies below the charged quiet of a summer evening.Her lips moved."Paul.Dream your dreams for us." The words seemed to fall on him.He trembled and cried out.And he felt a violent stirring in his body and a breaking away as though he had flung himself through the walls of a tomb.The picture blew away while the voice continued: "She is a woman, not a woman who half resembles a man." A pause."When you wish to leave the city, ask for the final card.You are welcome."There was silence and darkness.Twenty-three stirred.He opened his eyes.The glow from the city outside filtered into the room through the translucent walls.He lay motionless.Paul.He was Paul.Not Twenty-three.A man with a name.Wonder came into him, and a sense of strength, and a willingness to remember without fear.His mind ran back to the first mistake, almost a year past.He remembered the horror of failure then and the terror at his being subjected to a mistake.He remembered the inference from the Superfather that there might be a bad strain in his blood line.He remembered taking the dream cards that were to have set him straight, that were to have shown him working over the machines with super speed, moving up along the production line to its pinnacle and on up to the position of Superfather and on up to Superfather-plus and on up to the place of Father of The City.But the cards had been sabotaged, so that from them into his mind had come the dreams of the trees and the oceans and the green earth spreading off to the horizon and the expanse of blue sky.And then the words had directed him to the little man who had given him the cards on the street corner.They had known him, the words had said, through what was called telepathetic screening, for ones suitable to leave the city.He was one of those chosen, because he, like a few others, had been unable to adjust completely to the demands of the city.He was one of those in whom a rebellious nature had been passed down from generation to generation, by attitudes and acts of his ancestors, by a word spoken here and one there, by an intangible reaching out toward the sky and the green growing things and the need to understand who and what he was.But in him now this feeling was weak and close to death and would die in him if it were not brought out into life of the Earth.Now the memories receded; he lay motionless, listening to his breathing and his heartbeat, feeling his body press against the softness that held him.Suddenly a shaft of light fell on him through the transparent square.Opening his eyes, he saw his wife's face staring down at him.She moved her hand.The lid of the tube raised.He lay watching her, feeling naked and, for a moment, helpless."I talked for a long while with your Superfather," she said."I feel better.He told me you'd promised to take the prescribed dreams tonight."Twenty-three turned his face away from her.She began to undress."I'm going out for a walk." He stepped from the machine.She watched him dress, her look a mixture of curiosity and fright.When he left it was as though he were leaving an empty room and she watched him as though he were not quite human.The glow of the city was all around him as he walked toward the corner where the little man stood.The telepathic advertisers reached out from the places of entertainment, pulling at him.The voices enveloped him for a moment so that he almost turned back to them.But then he saw, in his mind, his arms working over the machines, saw them make a wrong motion that smashed a gear, saw the flashing red light and the heavy, expressionless face of the Superfather.He was aware that his memory would be erased and the skies, and the ocean, and the green hills [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]