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

most comfortable or roomy of homes, it was still, in a sense, a piece of Earth. He
had no trouble falling asleep, but, in the middle of the night, he woke with a start.
He'd thought he'd heard something hard rapping against the double hull. He got
up and. looked through the ports but could see nothing except darkness on all
sides but one. Stars still moved slowly across the open roof of the canyon. The
rover was a vague bulk which he would have thought a boulder if he hadn't
known it was there.
Then, as he watched, a light sprang from it, a beam that moved down into
the tunnel and then lifted and described a 380-degree arc. After two minutes, the
light went out. Once an hour, as ordered by Danton, it became activated and
swept the area with visible light, infrared, and radar. If anything moved for miles,
it would sound an alarm in the lander and in the Aries.
His sleep the rest of the night was untroubled. The alarm, triggered by a
radio wave from the Aries, awoke him with a, start. It was still dark outside, but
the sky was paling above the top of the canyon. After the necessary reports,
checking the equipment, and breakfast, he and Bronski climbed down on to the
ground. On the way to the base of the cliff, he looked at the grey curve sticking
out of the rubble. If they ran into a dead end in the tunnels, they would start
removing the rocks from around the spaceship. Or, if they didn't find a port or
some means of easy entrance, after so many days of labour, they would try to
cut into it with a laser.
On Earth, removing the rocks, some of which were rather large, would
have been impossible without a crane or much blasting powder. Here, two men
should be able to lift any boulder he'd seen in the pile. But Shirazi and Danton
might have to come down, too, to help.
As he went past the rover, he waved at it. Though it looked like a science
fiction version of a Martian, it was familiar, and hence friendly. Another reminder
of the home planet.
A moment later he looked back. The rover was following him as a dog
follows its master. Danton, on duty now, had ordered it to accompany them.
When he and Bronski descended into the tunnel through the hole they had made
the day before, the rover extended a flexible arm at the end of which was a light
and a camera. It would keep an eye on them so that the two in the Barsoom and
the whole world could watch their progress - or lack of it.
Orme shook his head. It wasn't like him to be having such pessimistic
thoughts. He was as optimistic as a person could be and still be sane. But there
was in everyone a layer of darkness that no amount of psychological testing
could reveal. It was too deep. It was unknown even to its possessor unless
certain situations occurred to reveal it. This was one of them. But he wasn't going
to let it overcome him. Once he got busy, he'd forget it.
Orme, in the lead, was almost within reach of the door, which should give
entrance to another section of tunnel. If he had been a step closer, he would
have been knocked down, perhaps badly crippled or killed, when it shot open.
It was as if a charge of TNT had gone off in the section beyond. He was
lifted up and half-turned over by the explosion of air from the tunnel behind it. He
glimpsed light there, had a vague impression of some kind of domed machine,
and then he struck the ground.
Half-stunned, he lay helpless for a minute or perhaps more. He was not
really aware of where he was or even who he was. Before his senses rallied, he
was seized by people in spacesuits, the dark faceplates of their helmets masking