"Daniel F. Galouye - Dark Universe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Galouye Daniel F)

textural impression of leathery wings or soft, furry body.
"The soubat?" Owen asked anxiously.
"It's hiding," Jared said between _clicks_. Then, to take his friend's
mind off the danger, "How good are you? What do you hear?'
"A Radiation of a big world."
"Right. Go on."
"In the space just ahead--softness. A clump or two of--"
"Manna plants. Growing close around a single hot spring. I can hear
scores of empty pits too--pits where boiling water used to feed the energy
hunger of _thousands_ of plants. But, go ahead."
"Over there on the left, a pool--a big one."
"Good!" Jared complimented. "Fed by a stream. What else?"
"I-- Radiation! Something queer. A lot of queer things."
Jared advanced. "Those are living quarters--stretched all around the
wall."
"But I don't understand." Owen, confused-, followed along. "They're out
in the open!"
"When the people lived here they didn't have to find their privacy in
grottoes. They _built_ walls around spaces out in the open."
"_Square_ walls?"
"They had a flair for geometry, I suppose."
Owen pulled back. "Let's get out of here! They say Radiation isn't too
far from the Original World!"
"Maybe they say that just to keep us out."
"I'm beginning to think that you don't believe _anything_."
"Of course I do-whatever I can hear, feel, taste, or smell." Jared
changed position and the echoes from his stones aligned themselves with an
opening in one of the living quarters.
"Soubat!" he whispered as the stream of _clicks_ brought back an
impression of the thing hanging inside the cubicle. "You take the spear. We'll
be ready for it this time!"
Cautiously, he approached within arrow range of the structure, securing
his stones. He didn't need them now--not with the sound of the thing's
breathing as clear as the snorting of an angry bull.
He strung an arrow and wedged a second under his belt where it would be
within convenient reach. Behind him, he heard Owen dig the spear shaft into
the ground. Then he asked, "Ready?"
"Let it fly," Owen urged. And there was no quaver in his voice. The last
_click_ had sounded. The lines were drawn.
Aiming at the hissing breath, he released the bowstring.
The arrow screamed through the air and thudded into something solid--too
solid to be animal flesh. Screeching its rage, the soubat hurtled toward them.
Jared strung the second arrow, taking his lead in advance of the winged fury.
He let it fly and ducked.
The beast shrieked in agony as it zipped by overhead. Then there was a
_thud_ and a final rush of air from the great lungs.
"For Light's sake!" came the familiar exclamation. "Get this stinking
thing off me!"
Grinning, Jared tapped his bow on the solid rock underfoot and, in
return, picked up the sonic effects of a disheveled heap--soubat, human,