"Philip Jose Farmer - Jesus on Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

There were trees and farms and small parks and forests everywhere with
villages here and there. The only structures over two storeys high were the
barns. Each obviously residential structure was surrounded by a large yard and
had a garden. Some of the buildings looked like schools. To each village was
attached an open stadium where track and field meets, horse races, and games
were held. One of the games was much like soccer and another was a form of
basketball. There were also many public swimming pools, but no private house
had any.
Through the binoculars given them by Hfathon, one of their captors, they
could see much of what would otherwise have been blurred or unviewable. If
there were tall buildings anywhere, they would have been able to detect them.
The upward swell of the floor assured that.
Two-lane paved roads connected the towns and farms. They saw no
trucks, though horse-drawn wagons laden with farm produce were plentiful.
Near the central lake was a long one-storey building into which people
streamed in large numbers at 08:00. They left at noon and picnicked in parks or
swam or boated in the lake. An hour later they re-entered; at 14:00 they swarmed
out. Most went to houses within a range of a mile, but others bicycled or rode
horses or even jogged to more distant dwellings.
Bronski thought that it might be the main administration building for the
government.
'There's no telling how many levels there are under the ground.'
Opposite this, on the other side of the lake, was what had to be a
university campus. Other buildings, from the number of people who entered them
on the Sabbath, looked like places of worship.
All the structures were roofed. Orme wondered why they should be, since
the entire hollow was probably air-conditioned. The fourth day, he found out why.
Water rained from the ceiling of the dome for half an hour.
'So that's why the farms don't have irrigation systems.'
The captives had eaten their noon lunch, and then put the dirty dishes on
trays into a wall-slot. Now they watched Martians driving up in two automobiles
towards them. These disappeared below the porch, and presently the heads of
those in the first vehicle appeared. There was a road leading up alongside the
prison. But these people seemed to prefer walking to driving whenever possible.
So far, Orme and Bronski had no complaints about ill-treatment. They had
been given thorough physical and medical examinations and had been
interrogated, but they were well-housed, well-fed, and given plenty of privacy.
The six Martians paused while the shatterproof glass front of the room
rose into a slot overhead. Orme knew that the transparent stuff was unbreakable
because he had tested it with various chairs, his booted foot, and a heavy bronze
vase.
Three of their captors were Homo sapiens, very tall, well-built, and
wearing flowing robes. Two of these had long dark hair and full beards and were
dark-skinned. The third had light skin, dark-blue eyes, and a golden-brown beard.
All wore long curly sidelocks.
The other trio were humanoid, but a glance showed a Terrestrial that they
came from another planet. They were almost seven feet tall, no unusual height
for Terrans in 2015 AD. This, their slimness, their long arms and legs, and their
quickness would have qualified them for the best basketball team on Earth. They
had five long-nailed fingers and toes and aside from their faces resembled