"Edmond Hamilton - The Three Planeteers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

"You've heard of Philip Blaine, our famous Earth physicist?тАЭ he asked.

Sual Av's bald head bobbed. тАЬI have, sir. He disappeared, a year ago. No one knows where he is now."

"Blaine,тАЭ said the Chairman, тАЬis in Earth's moon. For a year, he's been working in secret laboratories in
the lunar caverns. He's developed a radical, revolutionary new weapon. I dare not tell even you the
nature of that weapon. But it will enable us to defeat an overpowering attack of the League fleet-if we
can use it!"

"If we can use it, sir?тАЭ puzzled Gunner Welk.

"Yes. For Blaine's weapon is useless, as it stands now. To operate the thing requires concentrated power
of incredible volume. Atomic energy from ordinary fuels is insufficient. The only fuel that will furnish
enough atomic energy to operate this thing is radite, that rare isotope of radium. To make use of Blaine's
great weapon, we must have a ton of pure radite."

"A ton of pure radite?тАЭ exclaimed Thorn incredulously. тАЬWhy, not one of the eight worlds has more than
a few pounds of the stuff! It takes thousands of tons of ore to yield an ounce!"

"There is a ton of pure radite in the system,тАЭ the Chairman affirmed. тАЬBut it's not on any of the eight
inhabited worlds."

"It can't be on Pluto, surely,тАЭ protested Sual Av. тАЬThe League mining bases there would have found it
long ago.

"It's farther than Pluto,тАЭ the Chairman said.

John Thorn stared. тАЬYou mean, it's on Erebus?"

The Chairman nodded slowly. тАЬYes, it's on Erebus, the tenth and outermost planet, that mysterious,
unexplored world that swings out there in space a billion miles beyond even Pluto's orbit."

"How can anyone know the radite's there?тАЭ Gunner Welk demanded unbelievingly. тАЬWhy, no one knows
what's on Erebus! Not one of the expeditions that sailed for that planet ever came back. For centuries,
no one has even tried to explore that mystery world!"

"Years ago,тАЭ the Chairman said тАЬastronomers detected the presence of a mass of pure radite on Erebus,
through their spectroscopes. Supervaluable as radite is, no one has tried to go after it, for all know it's
suicide to try to visit Erebus."

The Chairman's lined face quivered.

"But now we've got to have that radite! It alone will operate Blaine's new secret weapon. It alone will
enable us to resist the League's attack, and preserve the liberty of these four inner worlds."

He looked at the three comrades solemnly. тАЬWe have sent five big secret expeditions to Erebus during
the last year, in desperate hope of getting, the radite. Not one ship, not one man, not one message has
ever come back from them. The sinister mystery there swallowed them up, as it has swallowed all who
tried to visit Erebus.