"Samuel R. Delany - High Weir" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Samuel R)

"Here we are on Mars, and Rimky is still in another world. Is there any writing or
hen-scratching up there where you are, Smith?"

"Nothing up here. But look at the surface of this eye, the way it's carved out!"

"What about it?"
And then JimmiтАФRimkin could always tell Jimmi because her suit was a head and a
half shorter than any of the othersтАФclimbed up the rough stone foundation blocks
and, with a beautiful "Martian lope" and a wake of russet dust, crossed the flooring,
then turned back. "Look!" He could always tell her voice, no matter the static and
distortion of the radios (long range; no fidelity). "Here's one that fell!"

"Here!" Rimkin said. "Let me see." They mustn't think he wasn't interested.

Her soft voice said in his ear: "I can't very well move it. You'll have to come up here,
Rimky."

But he was already climbing. "Yes, yes. Of course. I'm coming." And there was the
sound of somebody trying not to snicker, position concealed by lack of stereo.

The carving had fallen. And it had cracked on the stone flags.

He walked up to Jimmi. The top of her helmet came to the middle of his upper arm.

"It's so funny," she said with that oddness to her laughter the radio couldn't mask.
"It looks just like a Martian."

"What?"

She looked up at him, small brown face behind the white frame. The movements of
her laughter were displaced from the sound in his ear. "Just look." She turned back.
"The great, high forehead, the big beady eyes, and hardly any chin. Wouldn't you
have guessed? Martians would turn out to look just like a nineteen-fifties s-f film."

"Maybe тАж" A third of the face had fallen away. The crack went through the left eye.
What remained of the mouth leered with prune-puckered lips. "Maybe it's all a joke.
Perhaps some of the military people from Bellona came here and set this whole
thing up like an elaborate stage-set. Just to play a joke on us. They would, you
know! This is absurd, just the five of us taking the skimmer on a routine scouting
trip across High Weir plateau, not sixty-five miles from the base, and coming
acrossтАФ"

"тАФacross a structure as big as the Parthenon! Hell, bigger than the Temple of Zeus!"
Hodges exploded. "Come off it, Rimky! You can't just sneak off in the morning and
erect an entire stone ruin. Not one like this."

"Yes, but it's soтАФ"

"Hey! You people!" Again, the voice came from Smith. "Somebody come up here
and take a look at the eyes. Are they the same stone as the rest of the building, just