"Joseph Green - Forgotten Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Joseph)

"Space Explorers are part of my Space Research Department, of course," the scientist
said. "But they come and go as they please. We leave them alone most of the time. When
they have something to report, they come to me."
"What was he working on?" Jim asked.
"A very strange project. He sensed that there was intelligent life in the Solar System.
Besides ours, I mean. He was very sure of it."
"Why do you say he sensed it?" Ken asked. "That's a strange way of putting it, isn't it?"
"Most Space Explorers are what we call sensitives," Dr. Barry explained. "They have a
feeling about things--you might call it a hunch--and they go exploring for it."
"And Captain Allen went looking for this mysterious form of life?" said Ken.
"Yes, and he vanished!"
The Cat was rolling along the road at a good speed. The walls of the crater Copernicus
loomed ahead. Off to their right they could see the peaks of the Carpathian mountains. A dirt
road branched away from the main highway.
"That goes to the mountains," Keith Barry said. "On the way, it passes the Graveyard of
Space."
"We heard about that place from Dig," Ken said.
Ten minutes later the Cat was rolling up a steep grade into a tunnel that had been cut
through the side of the crater.
When they emerged from the tunnel, they were inside the crater, coming down a winding
road to the flat, circular floor of the bowl.
"That's the observatory and the main Labs," the scientist said, pointing out a great
domed building close to the center of the crater.
Beside the domed building stood the massive radio-telescope, capable of probing the
farthest reaches of outer space.
"The rest is underground," their father said as he turned the Cat toward an open airlock.
When they had gone through the airlock and put the machine away, the scientist showed
them the elevator.
"Cuts right through the rock," he said. "Took years to make."
They stepped into the elevator compartment and within seconds were carried several
thousand feet upward. When they reached their floor, the boys were surprised to find that the
building resembled a typical apartment house back on Earth.
"I know," said Mrs. Barry. "You expected something very different. Well, boys, our
apartment is quite ordinary ... and comfortable."
The rooms were large, carpeted from wall to wall and furnished with simple plastex
furniture. Except for the view of the Moon's weird landscape through the glassteel window,
Jim and Ken could easily have believed they were back on Earth.
"All the comforts of home," Jim said.
"This is home," his mother corrected him. "You mean the comforts of Earth."
"Well, while you get settled, I'll run back to the Lab," Dr. Barry said. "This is just the
middle of my working day."
"Don't be late for dinner," Jane Barry reminded him.
"I won't. Good-by, boys."
When he had gone, Mrs. Barry took the boys on a tour of the rooms. They ended up in
the bedroom Jim and Ken were to share.
"Well, how do you like our home?"
"I like it fine," Ken said.
Suddenly a new voice broke in.
"May I come in?"
A boy with bushy blond hair was poking his head into the room.