"Edmond Hamilton - Children of the Sun" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

BRILLIANT scientist Carlin had set
wholly different thing to dare approach the
out to study the mysteries of that strange Sun.
world inside Vulcan which the Futuremen The orbit of Mercury was a boundary, a
had discovered. He had hired a work-ship limit. Any ship that went inside it was
with heavy anti- heat equipment to take him challenging the awful power of the great
to Vulcan, arranging for it to come back solar orb. Only ships equipped with the
there for him in six months. anti-heat apparatus dared enter that zone of
But when the ship returned it had found terrible forceтАФand then only at great peril.
no trace of Carlin in the ruined city that Only the fourth of the Futuremen
had been his base of operations. It had, seemed unworried. He crossed to the
after a futile search, come back with the window, his towering metal bulk looming
news of his disappearance. over them all. The same scientific genius
All this had happened before the return that had created the android had shaped
of the Futuremen from their epoch-making also this manlike metal giant, endowing
voyage to Andromeda. And now Curt him with intelligence equal to the human
Newton was driving sunward, toward and with a strength far beyond anything
Vulcan, to solve the mystery of Carlin's human.
fate. GragтАЩs photoelectric eyes gazed steadily
Abruptly, from beyond the bulkhead from his strange metal face, into the wild
door of the bridge-room, two voices, one shaking glare. тАЬI don't know what youтАЩre
deep and booming, the other lighter and jumpy about,тАЭ he said. тАЬThe Sun doesnтАЩt
touched with an odd sibilance, were raised bother me a bit.тАЭ He flexed his great
in an outburst of argument. gleaming arms. тАЬIt feels good.тАЭ
Newton turned sharply. тАЬStop that тАЬStop showing off,тАЭ said Otho sourly.
wrangling ! You'd better get those anti- тАЬYou'll burn out your circuits and we've
heaters going or we'll all fry.тАЭ better things to do than trying to cram your
The door slid open and the remaining carcass out through the disposal lock.тАЭ
members of the unique quartet came in. The android turned to Captain Future.
One of them, at first glance, appeared тАЬYou haven't raised Vulcan yet ?тАЭ
wholly humanтАФwith a lithe lean figure Newton shook his head. тАЬNot yet.тАЭ
and finely-cut features. And yet in his Presently a faint aura of hazy force
pointed white face and bright ironic eyes surrounded the little ship as it sped onтАФthe
there lurked a disturbing strangeness. anti-heater unit building up full power.


2
The terrible heat of the Sun could reach dark dot closely pendant to the skyfilling
through space only as radiant vibrations. Sun.
The aura generated by the anti- heaters Newton drove the Comet forward
acted as a shield to refract and deflect most unrelentingly now. Every moment this
of that radiant heat. close to the Sun there was peril. Let the
Newton touched a button. Still another anti-heaters stop one minute and metal
filter-screen, this one the heaviest of all, would soften and fuse, flesh would blacken
slid across the window. Yet even through and die.
all the screens the Sun poured dazzling Otho suddenly raised his hand to point,
radiance. crying out, тАЬLook ! Sun-children !тАЭ
The temperature inside the ship was They had heard of the legendary тАЬSun-
steadily rising. The anti-heaters could not childrenтАЭ from the Vulcanian natives, had
deflect all the Sun's radiant heat. Only a once glimpsed one far off. But these two