"Jerry Davis - Down In The Canyon (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

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DOWN IN THE CANYON

┬й 1997 by Jerry J. Davis



Jason didn't understand most of what his parents told him,
except the part where he should never go near the canyon where the
mists came out. "Never ever go near there," his father said. "If
you fall in we wouldn't be able to get you out." He told Jason
there were monsters down there, and that if the fall didn't kill
him, the monsters certainly would.
Jason had seen the canyon twice, once when the worker robots
were building the fence, and once after the fence had been torn
down. Everyone seemed upset that the fence had been wrecked. It
happened during the night, and there were large claw marks in the
brown dirt all around the twisted metal. Jason's father said that
whatever had done it was very strong, and probably very large.
The canyon cut across the brown landscape, running from the
distant hills all the way to the sea, passing the edge of the
settlement on the East side. The settlement had been placed beside
the canyon because of the mists. Jason's computer told him that
the mist was made up of tiny droplets of water, and this water
helped the settlement's plants grow.
The plants were everywhere, surrounding Jason's home and
lining the roads and filling every little spot in between. "Earth
plants," they were called. "From the homeworld." Jason liked to
walk among them, especially the trees, and wonder what it was like
to be on Earth.
The other kids were usually out playing among the trees, or
out at the edge where the robots were doing the new planting.
Bradley Rosewald was there, as was Frederick Turney and his sister
Stephanie. They were the three that were of about Jason's age.
Stephanie, who was tanned and dark-haired like her brother, was
pinching her nose in distaste. "It smells here," she complained.
"That stuff is pooo-cheee."
"Dad says it smells a lot worse when they pull it out of the
ocean," Frederick said. "Before they take the salt out of it."
"Why do they have to put it in the ground?" Jason asked,
watching as a large autonomic tractor laced the soil with the
green, odorous slime.
"It gives the plants something to eat," Bradley Rosewald
said.
"To eat?"
"Of course. Don't you know anything, Jason? This soil is
sterile, it has no nutrients in it."
"Oh." Jason decided he'd ask his computer what "nutrients"
were when he got home. "How did the soil get sterile?"