"Peter Freewheel - Argol the Barbarian" - читать интересную книгу автора (Freewheel Peter)

mariner's tales of the Ytrew's incredible powers.

"You will show us where the spaceship landed?" the alien asked.

Argol nodded. "Have you a hovercar or some such similar flying machine?" he asked. "And plenty of
weapons. This is a harsh planet."
"We have both," the creature replied. "Wait." A minute or so later, a hovercar landed by Kr, the alien,
and he motioned Argol aboard. He climbed up the steps and once inside, settled in a luxurious chair. The
alien took another seat, and as the door closed, the machine rose silently in the air. Argol noted with
some wonder that there were no visible controls. He had heard that the Ytrew guided their smaller
machines by thought impulses, but had never believed it.

"That way," Argol pointed. "About a mile. It should be quite obvious. It's all dense forest, and a
spaceship landing in it, should have caused a considerable amount of damage."

"Ah yes," the alien murmured, "I see."

"Already," Argol exclaimed.

"Yes," the alien confirmed. "I'm surprised I didn't see it before." He pondered silently. "Perhaps my ship
came down first," he continued. "It's difficult to work out exactly what happened in that magnetic storm.
It was of an unusual violence."

"I must admit that I only saw one ship come down," Argol replied, "and on reflection, I'm certain that it
wasn't yours."

"That could explain a lot," the alien replied. "You are proving to be very helpful. 1 think you have earned
your return to your home planet."

Argol glanced out of the window and saw that the ship was hovering over the other ship, which appeared
to have created even more chaos when landing than the alien's ship.

"I think I have located the life source," the alien decided. "I'm just out of range. I'll have to go a little
lower. For some reason, I can't quite make contact -"

Suddenly the ship lurched, and began to spin towards the ground. The alien was convulsing in pain,
frantically twiddling with the dials on the helmet of his spacesuit.

"What's the matter?'' Argol asked, as the alien went limp in his seat. Any further questions were silenced,
as the impact of the crash threw Argol out of his seat, and brutally tossed him across the floor of the ship
and out of the door that was smashed off on impact. He squelched down into a clump of twisted vines
that had entwined around each other on the marshy surface. Cursing, he staggered to his feet and looked
at the crumpled wreckage of the hovercar. He heard a gasp of surprise from behind. He looked round
and saw a girl aged about twenty, dressed in white, spattered with mud and slime. She had long blonde
hair, and intense looking black eyes that stared at him in amazement.

"A human," she gasped. "Where's the alien?"

Argol was lost for words and gaped at her speechless.