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

тАЬWe haven't,тАЭ said Captain Future.
Future had the Comet hovering on keel-jets
тАЬThere's Vulcan ahead.тАЭ
above the yawning shaft. He eased on the
The planetoid, the strange lonely little
power-pedal and the little ship dropped
solar satellite, had come into view as a
straight down into the pit.


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 This shaft was the one way inside the monoliths. The Futuremen went out into
hollow solar satellite. At the planetoid's the steamy air.
birth gases trapped within it had caused it тАЬIt was here that Carlin was to meet the
to form as a hollow shell. Those gases, ship when it came,тАЭ said Captain Future.
finally bursting out as pressure increased, тАЬAnd he wasn't here.тАЭ He spoke in a
had torn open this way to the outer surface. lowered voice. The brooding silence of this
The ship sank steadily down the shaft. memorial of lost greatness laid a cold spell
Light was around them for this side of upon them all.
Vulcan was toward the Sun now and a These broken mighty stones were all
great beam entered. that remained of a city of the Old Empire,
Then, finally, the shaft debouched into a that mighty galactic civilization mankind
vast space vaguely lighted by that beamтАФ had attained to long ago. On worlds of
the interior of the hollow world. every star its cities and monuments had
тАЬWhew, I'm glad to be in here out of risen, then had passedтАФhad passed so
that solar radiance,тАЭ breathed Otho. тАЬNow completely that men had had no memory
where ?тАЭ of it until the Futuremen probed back into
Newton asked, тАЬThe ruins near Yellow cosmic history.
Lake, wasn't it ?тАЭ Long ago the mighty ships of the star-
тАЬYes,тАЭ answered the Brain's metallic conquering Empire had come to colonize
voice. тАЬIt was where the ship left Carlin even hollow Vulcan. Men and women with
and where it was to pick him up.тАЭ the powers of a brilliant science and with
The Futuremen had been here inside proud legends of victorious cosmic
Vulcan once before. Yet they felt again conquest had lived and loved and died
the wonder of this strangest world in the here. But the Empire had fallen and its
System as the Comet flew low over its cities had died and the descendants of its
inner surface. people here were barbarians now.
Beneath their flying ship stretched a тАЬThe first thing,тАЭ Newton was saying,
weird landscape of fern jungles. It ex- тАЬis to get in touch with the Vulcanians and
tended into a shrouding haze ahead, the find out what they know about Carlin.тАЭ
horizon fading away in an upward curve. Grag stood, his metal head swivelling as
Over their heads now was the hazy тАЬskyтАЭ he stared around the ruins. тАЬNo sign of
of the planetoid's central hollow, cut across them here. But those primitives always are
by the tremendous, glittering sword of the shy.тАЭ
giant beam of sunlight that gave light to тАЬWe'll look around first for some trace
this world. of Carlin here then,тАЭ Newton decided.
As their ship slanted down over the fern The quartet started through the ruinsтАФ
jungle toward their destination a feeling of the man and the mighty clanking robot, the
gray futility came upon Curt Newton. lithe android and the gliding Brain.
Months had passed since Philip Carlin had Newton felt more strongly the