"Robert A. Heinlein - Red Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

CHAPTER ONE

Willis

THE THIN AIR of Mars was chill but not really cold. It
was not yet winter in southern latitudes and the daytime tem-
perature was usually above freezing.

The queer creature standing outside the door of a dome-
shaped building was generally manlike in appearance, but no
human being ever had a head like that. A thing like a coxcomb
jutted out above the skull, the eye lenses were wide and star-
ing, and the front of the face stuck out in a snout. The un-
earthly appearance was increased by a pattern of black and
yellow tiger stripes covering the entire head.

The creature was armed with a pistol-type hand weapon
slung at its belt and was carrying, crooked in its right arm, a
ball, larger than a basketball, smaller than a medicine ball. It
moved the ball to its left arm, opened the outer door of the
building and stepped inside.

Inside was a very small anteroom and an inner door. As
soon as the outer door was closed the air pressure in the ante-
room began to rise, accompanied by a soft sighing sound. A
loudspeaker over the inner door shouted in a booming bass,
"Well? Who is it? Speak up! Speak up!"

Robert A. Heinlein

The visitor placed the ball carefully on the floor, then with
both hands grasped its ugly face and pushed and lifted it to the
top of its head. Underneath was disclosed the face of an
Earth-human boy. "It's Jim Marlowe, Doc," he answered.

"Well, come in. Come in! Don't stand out there chewing
your nails."

"Coming." When the air pressure in the anteroom had
equalized with the pressure in the rest of the house the inner
door opened automatically. Jim said, "Come along, Willis,"
and went on in.

The ball developed three spaced bumps on its lower side
and followed after him, in a gait which combined spinning,
walking, and rolling. "More correctly, it careened, like a barrel
being manhandled along a dock. They went down a passage
and entered a large room that occupied half the floorspace of
the circular house plan. Doctor MacRae looked up but did not
get up. "Howdy, Jim. Skin yourself. Coffee on the bench.