Читать книгу The Science Fiction Anthology онлайн

256 страница из 776

Another program was beginning, an account of the tribulations of an unfortunate Plutonian family. It faded in to the strains of ulerin music, to a tune of Clarey’s. If they could have endured it to the end, she told him, it would have faded out the same way. “Every time they play it,” she said, “somewhere on Earth a cash register rings for you. And this one’s a daily program.”

He watched transfixed and transfigured as program after program featured his music, his ulerin.

“Not just on Earth,” Han said, “but on all the civilized planets, even in a few of the more sophisticated primitive ones. You’re a famous man, Clarey. Earth is waiting for you, literally and figuratively. There’ll be ulerin orchestras to greet you at the field; we sent a relay ahead to let them know you were coming.”

But his mind was slowly alerting itself. “And where am I supposed to be coming from, then, since they’re never to hear about Damorlan?”

“They’ve been told that you retired to a lonely asteroid to work—to perfect your art and its instrument.”