"Will Hubbell - Cretaceous Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hubbell Will)

AS EVENING BEGAN, Rick finished up helping Pandit load provisions into the time machine. Most of
the items con-sisted of cookware, foodstuffs, wine, and liquor in ad-dition to a large tent and a set of
folding cots. Joe kept a running tally of the weight of everything that went into the machine. He also was
very particular where the items were loaded in order to distribute the weight evenly.

Each time Rick entered the machine, he took an op-portunity to examine it. His first impression was how
finely constructed the machine looked. It lacked the makeshift appearance of a prototype. Only the
partitions around the control center looked to be last-minute addi-tions. The rest had the level of finish
superior to any car or plane he had ever ridden in.

The stairway into the saucer-shaped machine led to a single room. Except where the control center was
walled off, the room was a perfect hemisphere. The outer walls of the room featured various-sized
hatches to the storage bays and what appeared to be several evenly spaced win-dows. These puzzled
Rick at first because no windows were evident from the outside of the machine. Upon closer
examination, Rick realized that they were actually viewscreens of incredibly high resolution. Set back
from the wall was a circle of seats, all facing the center of the room. This was dominated by a thick,
transparent column containing a cylinder that seemed disturbingly immate-rial. Rick found it hard to look
at, and tried squinting to focus his vision. The squinting did little good, for he could neither identify the
cylinder's shifting colors nor determine its precise diameter. Trying only gave him a headache.

When Joe and Pandit were finishing up outside the sau-cer, Rick cracked the door to the control center
and sneaked a quick peek. A single chair faced a viewscreen in the outer wall. Below the viewscreen
was a large con-trol console. The console had a bewildering array of switches, gauges, and knobs, and a
bank of monitors showing puzzlingly complex displays. Plastic tape labels affixed beneath the switches
and the monitors reminded him that this machine was, indeed, a prototype. Although this area was strictly
off-limits, Rick was tempted to ex-amine it more closely, but he heard footsteps on the stair-way. He
quickly shut the door and tried to appear busy. Joe looked at him suspiciously when he ascended the
stairs, but he all said was, "Loading's done. We're to go to the meeting room and wait for the guests to
arrive."

Rick followed Joe back to the meeting room. Peter Green and James Neville were engaged in a
conversation concerning the guests. Joe commenced to pace about in a preoccupied manner. Pandit sat
calmly by himself. Rick sat next to him.

"We're the only two that haven't been downwhen yet," said Rick. "You excited?"

"I am most pleased to be working with Mr. Neville again," replied Pandit. "Otherwise, for me, it will be
like any other safari camp."

"But it's a whole different world downwhen, so much to discover."

"You are the guide, so that is true. I am the chef. Cook-ing doesn't change."

"Isn't there something that stirs your sense of adven-ture?"

"Did they show you the datavision of the island? The one with the creature that swam? You know, the
one with the long neck?"

"Yes," replied Rick, "that was a plesiosaur."