Description
The Amphibian Man: This is one of the most touching and famous stories in world science fiction. The plot tells the story of a young man named Ichthyander, who had shark gills transplanted into him as a child to save his life. Now he can live freely underwater, but he becomes an outsider among people. It is a story about the collision of a pure heart with human greed, the impossibility of love in a world that does not accept those who are different, and the infinite freedom of the ocean.
Professor Dowell’s Head: A gripping science fiction thriller that raises complex ethical questions. A talented scientist makes a breakthrough and finds a way to sustain life in a head separated from its body. However, his assistant decides to use this discovery for selfish purposes, turning the brilliant professor into his hostage. The book keeps the reader in suspense and forces them to think about where the line is drawn between scientific progress and humanity.
PROFESSOR DOWELL’S HEAD
“I dedicate this to my wife,
Margarita Konstantinovna Belyaeva ”
First Encounter
“Please, have a seat.”
Marie Laurent settled into a deep leather armchair. While Professor Kern opened the envelope and read the letter, she quicky scanned the office.
What a gloomy room! But it’s good for working here: nothing distracts your attention. A lamp with a thick lampshade illuminated only the desk, which was piled high with books, manuscripts, and galley proofs. Her eye could barely make out the solid black oak furniture. Dark wallpaper, dark drapes. In the semi-darkness, only the gold of embossed bindings in heavy cabinets shimmered. The long pendulum of an old wall clock swung steadily and smoothly.
Shifting her gaze to Kern, Laurent involuntarily smiled: the professor himself entirely matched the style of the office. As if carved from oak, Kern’s ponderous, severe figure seemed part of the furnishings. His large, tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses resembled two clock faces. Like pendulums, his gray-ash eyes moved, scanning line after line of the letter. His rectangular nose, straight-cut eyes and mouth, and square, protruding chin gave his face the look of a stylized decorative mask, sculpted by a Cubist.
“It’s strange to decorate a fireplace with such a mask,” Laurent thought.
“Colleague Sabatier has already spoken about you. Yes, I need an assistant. Are you a medical student? Excellent. Forty francs a day. Weekly payment. Breakfast, lunch. But I have one condition…”
Tapping a dry finger on the table, Professor Kern asked an unexpected question:
“Can you keep silent? All women are talkative. You are a woman — that’s bad. You are beautiful — that’s even worse.”
“But what does that have to do with…”
“Everything. A beautiful woman is doubly a woman. This means she possesses feminine flaws twofold. You might have a husband, a friend, a fiancé. And then all secrets go to hell.”
“But…”
“No ‘buts’! You must be mute as a fish. You must keep silent about everything you see and hear here. Do you accept this condition? I must warn you: non-compliance will lead to extremely unpleasant consequences for you. Extremely unpleasant.”
Laurent was confused and intrigued…
“I agree, if there’s no…”
“Crime, you mean? You can be completely at ease. And you face no responsibility whatsoever… Are your nerves in order?”
“I’m healthy…”
Professor Kern nodded.
“No alcoholics, neurasthenics, epileptics, lunatics in your family line?”
“No.”
Kern nodded again.
His dry, sharp finger pressed the electric doorbell.
The door opened silently.
In the room’s dim light, as if on a developing photographic plate, Laurent first saw only the whites of the eyes, then gradually the glints of a shiny black man’s face emerged. His black hair and suit blended with the dark drapes of the door.
“John! Show Mademoiselle Laurent the laborato-ry.”
The black man nodded, inviting her to follow, and opened a second door.
Laurent entered a completely dark room.
A switch clicked, and the bright light of four frosted hemispheres flooded the room. Laurent involuntarily covered her eyes. After the semi-darkness of the gloomy office, the whiteness of the walls was dazzling… The glass cabinets sparkled with gleaming sur-gical instruments. Steel and aluminum of apparatuses unfamiliar to Laurent shone with a cold light. Warm, yellow glints of light fell on polished copper parts. Tubes, coils, flasks, glass cylinders… Glass, rubber, me-tal…
In the middle of the room was a large dissection table. Next to the table, a glass box; inside it, a human heart pulsated. Tubes ran from the heart to cylinders.
Laurent turned her head aside and suddenly saw something that made her start as if from an electric shock.
A human head looked at her — a head without a torso.
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