Fiction - Frederick Brown: "Letter to the Phoenix"

   Frederick Brown
   Letter to Phoenix

   I want to tell you a lot, so much
that it is difficult to decide where to start. By the way-
I mean, for most of my life I haven't
I remember. It's good that memory is limited. It was
it would be terrible to remember in every detail a hundred
eighty thousand years - a period of four thousand
the lives I've lived since the first
great atomic war.
   This does not mean that I forgot for real
mu important points. I remember the first expedition
mission to Mars and a third expedition to Venus.
I remember - I think it was the third great
war - how Skora was fired from the sky
weapons, compared with nuclear weapons - everything
is the same as comparing a Nova explosion with a mountain
by our slowly dying Sun.
I was the assistant commander of a hyperspace
wounded cruiser during the war with
the second extragalactic invaders,
who, secretly from us, built bases on
satellites of Jupiter and almost knocked us out of
solar system before we had time
develop weapons against which they
couldn't resist. And they ran to where
we couldn't chase them and then leave
zeroed our Galaxy. When we followed
behind them in fifteen thousand years, they are already
there wasn't. They became extinct three thousand years before
that.
   I want to talk about this too - about that mo-
dense people and about others - but first
wa, so you know where all this comes from to me
I know, I'll tell youabout myself.
   I'm not immortal. There is only
one immortal creature. Compared to
I don't mean anything to them, but you won't understand and
don't believe me until you know who I am
like this.
   My name is not important, and it's for the best -
After all, I don’t remember my real name.
This is not as strange as you might think.
seem: one hundred eighty thousand years - long
deadline, and for one reason or another I
changed his name more than a thousand times. And what can
have less meaning than the name given
my parents are one hundred and eighty thousand years old
back?
   I'm not a mutant.  This happened to me
when I was twenty-three, during my first
howl of atomic war. That is, the first war,
where both sides used atomic weapons
alive - of course, if you compare it with
weapons developed subsequently are
the weapon was weak. It took less than two
eleven years since the discovery of atomic power
bombs.  The first bombs were dropped in Malaya
war when I was still a child. They are fast
ro ended the war because they were the only ones
one side.
   The first atomic war was not particularly
bad - yes, the first one cannot be that -
coy.  I'm lucky in this, because if
if she turned out to be bad - the one who once
destroys civilization - I wouldn’t survive,
despite biological chance,
happened to me. If from civilization-
tion was over, I would not have survived the six-
ten years of sleep,which will come
drank thirty years later. But I'm back again
I run forward.
   I was, I remember, twenty or two-
stood alone when the war began. I'm not
they took me into the army right away because I was not
fit for service.  I suffered very rare
some kind of pituitary gland disease.
I forgot the name. Besides everything else, she
caused obesity.  I had fifty
pounds of excess weight and no
shaft physical endurance.  I was without
hesitation was found unsuitable.
   For the next two years my illness was slightly
progressed, but everything else progressed
it was not at all slightly noticeable. By then
They have already recruited everyone into the army. They would all-
or a blind man without an arm and without a leg, if
he wanted to do an internship. And I wanted to fight. I
lost my family in a bombing, I'm sick and tired of
I worked at a military plant, and the doctors said
told me that my illness was incurable and
In any case, I have a year or so to live
two.  So I stepped into what was left
from the army, and was accepted without hesitation and
directed towards the nearest front, which is
walked ten miles. The very next day
I took part in the battle.
   I still remember enough to see
to say that this was the turning point of the war,
although the point here is not at all my participation.
The enemy had exhausted his bombs and switched to
shells and bullets.  We have also exhausted ours
bombs, but they failed to disable
all our military factories, andtheir factories we
completely disabled. We still have
there remained bombers and similar commanders
development that defines goals.  Of course
by eye;  sometimes we reset by mistake
bombs on your troops. A week after
before I entered the fight I was taken out
knocked out of order by our small bomb that fell
about a mile from me.
   Two weeks later I came to my senses in
fishing hospital with severe burns. Besides
time the war was over, not counting
operations to finish off the enemy and restore
new order. It was not at all like
same for what I call catastrophic
war. This war has destroyed - I can only-
I guess I don't remember exactly -
a fourth or fifth of the plan's population
you.  Enough production left
capacity and enough people survived to
civilization has been preserved. Humanity was
thrown back several centuries, but
there was no return to savagery, and to begin again
there was no need for new.  In times like these people
candles are again used for lighting and then
heels with firewood, but not because they don’t know
how to use electricity or mining
coal; just shocks and revolutions
throws everyone off track. Knowledge is not lost
it awaits the restoration of order.
   The consequences of a catastrophic disaster are completely different.
war, when no less than
nine-tenths of the Earth's population - or the Earth's
and other planets. Then the world will change tohalf-
new savagery, and the hundredth generation rediscovered
tears metals for spear tips.
   But I got distracted again. After I
regained consciousness in the hospital, it took me a long time
time was tormented by pain. Anesthetics
there are no more left. I got deep ra-
radiation burns that are somewhat me-
people caused me unbearable suffering,
until they gradually healed. I didn't sleep and
it was strange.  And it was scary because
that I didn’t understand what happened to me,
and the unknown is always scary. Doctors addressed
whether there was little attention paid to me - I was only one
him from the millions of burned and maimed.
I don't think they took mine seriously
statements that I am not sleeping at all. They
thought that I was sleeping little by little and either over-
I’m exaggerating, or I’m sincerely mistaken. But I
didn't sleep at all. And he continued to stay awake when...
yes, after a long time, he recovered and
abandoned the hospital. By chance, more
illness of my pituitary gland, weight returned to normal
meh, and my health became excellent.
   I haven't slept for thirty years. And then I fell asleep
and slept for sixteen years. And after that
forty-six years old physically to me
it was still twenty-three.
   You are probably beginning to understand that
happened to me, as at that time I was beginning to
I take it too. Radiation - or a combination of times -
new types of radiation - radically changed
functions of my pituitary gland. They also mattered
other factors.  Once upon a time, about a hundredfifty thousand years ago, I specifically
studied endocrinology, and it seems to me
managed to figure this out. If my you-
the numbers are correct, the probability that
happened to me - one to many billion
I'll give.
   Of course, the processes of decay and aging in
my body did not stop, but their
speed decreased by approximately
fifteen thousand times.  Every forty-five
years old I'm getting older by one day. So I don't
immortal.  For one hundred and eighty past
millennia, I have aged eleven years.
Now my physical age is thirty
four years.
   Forty-five years is my day. About
for thirty years I've been awake and then I sleep
about fifteen. I'm lucky that my
the first few "days" were not good
a time of complete collapse of society and savagery,
otherwise I would not have survived the first periods of sleep.
But I survived them, understood the system and in the future
was able to take care of his survival
NI.  Since then I've slept for about four thousand...
thousands of times and survived. Maybe someday
I'm out of luck.  Perhaps someday
despite all precautions,
someone will discover and open the cave or escape
shelter where I took refuge during the period of sleep. But this
unlikely.  I have years to prepare
the experience of such a place and the experience of four thousand
overnight stays  You can pass by a thousand times
and you will guess nothing, and even if something
If you suspect, you won’t be able to get in there.
   No,my chances of surviving between periods
staying awake is much higher than my chances
survive in a conscious, active period.
The fact that I lived there a lot of them can be called
work miraculously, despite the
ways of survival.
  ...And these are good ways. I've survived seven
large atomic and superatomic wars,
who reduced the world's population to a handful
savages gathered around several
parking lots in tiny areas, more
suitable for habitation. And at other times
and in other eras I visited five
galaxies other than our own.
  I had several thousand wives, but
always one at a time - I was born in the era
monogamy, and this habit took root. I
raised several thousand children. Of course I
couldn't stay with one wife anymore
thirty years and should have disappeared, but
thirty years was enough for both of us, especially
considering that she aged at a normal rate
speed, and I practically did not age.
Of course, this gave rise to problems, but I
coped with them.  When I got married, then
married a much younger girl
yourself, so that later the difference in
age has not become too noticeable.
Let's say I'm thirty and I'm marrying
sixteen year old girl. When it comes
time to leave her, she is forty-six, and I
still thirty.  And better for everyone
that after waking up I don’t come back.
If she toshe was alive at that time, she was already over
sixty and she won't be happy
meeting with a young husband who returned from
dead.    And I left her well
wealthy, wealthy widow,
bequeathing her money or whatever
a particular era was provided by wealth.
Sometimes these were beads and tips for
arrows, sometimes - grain reserves, and once -
it was an extraordinary civilization - even
fish scales.   I've never experienced
difficulties in getting money or
what replaced them.  After several thousand
years of practice it became more difficult on time
stop so as not to attract attention
excessive wealth.
  Naturally, I have always succeeded in this too.
For obvious reasons I never
sought power and never gave
people have reason to suspect that something from
I am different from them.  I usually go every night
I lie and think for several hours, doing
I look like I'm sleeping.
  But all this is no more important than myself. I
I told this only so that you understand,
where did I know what I’m telling you now?
  I don't need to convince you.   Nothing
you can’t change... but having learned everything, and
you won't want to.
  I'm not trying to influence you or anything
to lead you. Having lived four thousand lives,
I was anything but a leader. This
I avoided. Yes, I have often been a god among
savages, but only in order to survive.
I used my strengthseemed to them like magic,
to maintain order, not to
to lead them somewhere, to get them away from something
hold them back. If I taught them to use
bow and arrows, the reason for this was
hunger.  I saw that the existing order
necessary and never tried it
disrupt.
  My story won't break it either.
  That's the main thing - the only immortal
organism in the universe is
human race.
  There were and are other races in the Universe, but
they are already extinct or will become extinct in the future.
Once upon a time, a hundred thousand years ago, we studied
uh using a device that
registered the presence of thought,
the presence of reason, no matter how alien and
it was deleted, and we received all the data about
them.  And fifty thousand years ago this
the device was reopened. The number of reasonable
races have not changed, but only eight of them
existed for fifty thousand years, and that's all
these eight races had become decrepit and were now dying out.
They had passed the peak of their power and were moving towards
death.
  They've reached their limit
- and such a limit always exists, - and
there is no other way out for them except death
it was.  Life is always dynamic and static
it can't be.
  That's what I'm trying to tell you,
so that you will never experience again
fear.    Only the race that
periodically destroys himself and his
achievements, can survive, say,sixty thousand years of intelligent life.
  There is one humanity in the entire Universe
has reached a high level of intelligence, not
having reached a high level of common sense.
We are unique.  We are already at least in
five times older than any existing race
precisely because we don’t have it. More than once
the man felt that in madness lies
something amazing.  Not only tall
the level of culture gives a person the opportunity
realize that he is collectively insane, that
he will fight with himself, destroy himself
- and be reborn from the ashes.
  Phoenix, a bird that periodically
burns itself in flames and is immediately born
renewed to live longer
millennium, and repeats this cycle forever,
is a myth only conditionally.   She
exists, and it is the only one.
  This phoenix is ​​you.
  Nothing can destroy you, however
more now that many highly developed
civilizations have spread your seed across the planets
thousands of suns, thrown into hundreds of galaxies,
to do the same thing again and again
law.  To the law that was established a hundred
eighty thousand years ago.  Anyway
case, I think so.
  I can't be sure of this because
that I was convinced that those twenty-thirty
thousand years that pass between the fall
one civilization and the rise of the next,
destroy all traces. Over twenty to thirty
thousands of years, memories become legends,
legendsbecome superstitions, and then
even superstitions disappear. Metals rust
crumble and return to the ground, and
wind, rain and jungle destroy and
grind the stone into dust.  They change themselves
continental outlines come and go
glaciers, and twenty thousand years later cities
find themselves covered by miles of land or
miles of water.
  So I can't be sure.
Possibly the first disaster I know of
was not the first;   civilizations could
rise and fall and up to me. If so,
then this only strengthens what I said;
then it turns out that humanity was able
live more than one hundred eighty thousand years,
which I witnessed, and managed
survive not only those six disasters,
the first of which I considered the beginning of the fire
phoenix.
  But apart from the fact that we are so
thoroughly spread their seed
among the stars that cannot destroy us
neither the death of the Sun nor its transformation into
New - the past does not matter. Lur,
Kandra, Tragan, Ka, Well, Atlantis - these
six civilizations I knew disappeared without
trace, like after about twenty thousand
years this too will disappear, but the human race
will survive and will live forever.
  This knowledge will help you keep
courage now, in 1954 according to you
chronology when anxiety gnaws at you.
I hope this idea helps you:
the coming nuclear war,which perhaps
will happen within the lifetime of your generation,
will not be catastrophic. For this she
will come too soon before you
you will develop a truly devastating
a weapon that a person has used so many times
mastered earlier.  Yes, you will be thrown back.
The dark ages will come.  Then, scared
what will be called the Third World War,
people will think that they have curbed their madness...
they always think so after moderate
atomic wars.
  For a while - if history
will happen again - a person will beware
wars.  He will reach the stars again and meet
there are their own kind.  Not even five hundred
years until you land on Mars again, and I
I will also go there again
look at the canals I dig
helped once. I haven't been there eighty
thousand years, and I would like to see
what time has done to Mars and those of
us who were cut off there when
humanity has lost for the last time
spaceships.  Of course the story
repeats there too, but the timing may be
are different.  We can catch them at any
stages of the cycle except the apex. If they
were at the pinnacle of development, then we are not
would fly to them, and they to us.
Of course, considering ourselves Martians, like
They count now.
  I wonder how high you'll climb
this time?  I hope not as high as
Tragan.  Hope,will never reopen
the weapon that Tragan used
against his colony on Skora, which
was the fifth planet until the Traganians
smashed it into asteroids. Of course it is
weapons can only be developed after
how intergalactic travel
will become normal again. If I see that
As things go, I will leave the Galaxy,
although I really wouldn't want that. I
I love Zamlya and would like to spend time here
the rest of her mortal life, if she still
Enough time has been given.
  The Earth may not be so lucky, but
the human race will remain.  Everywhere and
forever because never
comes to his senses, but only madness is divine.
Only madmen are capable of destroying themselves and
everything they created.
  And only the phoenix lives forever...