"Edward L. Ferman - Best From F&SF, 23rd Edition" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ferman Edward L)

antifreeze solution that was fifty per cent ethanol. It was good stuff, Captain Singh reflected as he drained
his third glass, and that was what he still couldn't understand.
He was having trouble framing the questions he wanted to ask, and he realized he'd had too much to
drink. The spirit of celebration, the rejoicing at finding these people here past any hope; one could hardly
stay aloof from it But he refused a fourth drink regretfully.
"I can understand the drink," he said, carefully. "Ethanol is a simple compound and could fit into many
different chemistries. But it's hard to believe that you've survived eating the food these plants produced
for you."
"Not once you understand what this graveyard is and why it became what it did," Song said. She was
sitting cross-legged on the floor nursing her youngest, Ethan.
"First you have to understand that all this you see"тАФshe waved around at the meters of hanging
soft-sculpture, causing Ethan to nearly lose the nippleтАФ"was designed to contain .beings who are no
more adapted to this Mars than we are. They need warmth, oxygen at fairly high pressures, and free
water. It isn't here now, but it can be created by properly designed plants. They engineered these plants
to be triggered by the first signs of free water and to start building places for them to live while they
waited for full summer to come. When it does, this whole planet will bloom. Then we can step outside
without wearing suits or carrying airberries."
"Yes, I see," Singh said. "And it's all very wonderful, almost too much to believe." He was distracted
for a moment, looking up to the ceiling where the airberriesтАФwhite spheres about the size of bowling
balls-hung in dusters from the pipes that supplied them with high-pressure oxygen.
тАЬIтАЩd like to see that process from the start," he said. "Where you suit up for the outside, I mean."
"We were suiting up when you got here. It takes about half an boor; so we couldn't get out hi time to
meet you."
"How long are those. . . suits good for?"
"About a day," Crawford said. "You have to destroy them to get out of them. The plastic strips don't
cut well, but there's another specialized animal that eats that type of plastic. It's recycled into the system.
If you want to suit up, you just grab a whirlibird and hold onto its tail and throw it. It starts spinning as it
flies, and wraps the end product around you. It takes some practice, but it works. The stuff sticks to
itself, but not to us. So you spin several layers, letting each one dry, then hook up an airberry, and you're
inflated and insulated,"
"Marvelous," Singh said, truly impressed. He had seen the tiny whirlibirds weaving the suits, and the
other ones, like small slugs, eating them away when the colonists saw they wouldn't need them. "But
without some sort of exhaust, you wouldn't last long. How is that accomplished?"
"We use the breather valves from our old suits," McKillian said. "Either the plants that grow valves
haven't come up yet, or we haven't been smart enough to recognize them. And the insulation isn't perfect.
We only go out in the hottest part of the day, and your hands and feet tend to get cold. But we manage."
Singh realized he had strayed from his original question.
"But what about the food? Surely it's too much to expect for these Martians to eat the same things
we do. Wouldn't you think so?"
"We sure did, and we were lucky to have Marty Ralston along. He kept telling us the fruits in the
graveyard were edible by humans. Fats, starches, proteins; all identical to the ones we brought along.
The clue was in the orrery, of course."
Lang pointed to the twin globes in the middle of the room, still keeping perfect Earth time.
"It was a beacon. We figured that out when we saw they grew only hi the graveyard. But what was it
telling us? We felt it meant that we were expected. Song felt that from the start, and we all came to agree
with her. But we didn't realize just how much they had prepared for us until Marty started analyzing the
fruits and nutrients here.
"Listen, these MartiansтАФand I can see from your look that you still don't really believe in them, but
you will if you stay here long enoughтАФthey know genetics. They really know it We have a thousand
theories about what they may be like, and I won't bore you with them yet, but this is one thing we do