"William Morrison - The Haters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

slender in build, and not at all humanoid in appearance. They looked like walking lizards, which they
were not. Their jaws protruded and their foreheads receded, as if they relied more upon their teeth than
upon their brains. And Grayson had learned that in an enemy you had to fear brains more than anything
else.
Completely sane or not, McGant was right. After an hour, Grayson gave the signal, and the ship
spiralled in for a landing. It settled down on a smooth grassy plot that was red and gray with small
growing plants.
They got out, their weapons ready, and looked around them. There was nothing startling, and
Grayson wondered why he couldn't shake off the feeling of danger. The plants were unusual, of course,
but no more unusual than those of a planet like Venus, for instance. Tall gray trees, red and gray bushes,
blue grass. They were fixed where they grew, as plants should be, and Grayson saw no reason to fear
them. Still, tests had to be made.
A couple of the men, directed by McGant, were already gathering samples to make them. They took
specimens of the air, the soil, they took the leaves and bark of different plants. In the ship itself, Stratton,
the biochemist, who was a very kindly and gentle person except when he took a notion that the Universe
was persecuting him, fed the materials through the electrono-chemical tester system. This read off their
important characteristics in no more than the time that a human analyst would have taken to focus a
microscope.
"No poisons and no very bad skin irritants," he reported, "except on one of the larger species of
trees, and I don't think there'll be much trouble, Captain, in getting an antitoxin to control that. Some of
the grasses produce mild allergens, but our drugs should handle them."
No danger from that source then. As for the animalsтАФGrayson heard the click of a gun going off,
and saw a blue animal leap out of the grass and lie still. Kerman and a couple of others were assembling
specimens of the larger species. Another crew was collecting the planetary equivalent of insects. Soon
they would get together numerous representative types of animal life, study how the creatures reacted,
find out how easy they were to kill. Another electronic analyzer would dissect them and report all their
important characteristics to the waiting men.
An hour later, the summarized reports began to come in. By the end of the afternoon, a hundred
small species and a dozen of the larger ones had been analyzed. There was nothing to be afraid of.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew had not been idle. Under Grayson's direct orders, a dozen of them
were scouting at low levels in their one-man helicopters. If the planet was as rich in the different metals as
it seemed to be, they should have located enough ores to make fortunes for the entire crew in a single
day of mining.
When the reports began to come in over the radio, Grayson knew that he was right. Their fortunes
would be made.
"We'll show them," grinned Kerman, almost drooling at the idea of the money he was going to have.
This time Grayson nodded. He dreamed of what the money would do for him, and the bitter smile he
habitually wore slowly hardened. What a showing that was going to be.
They operated on a twenty-four hour day, although the period of rotation of the planet was closer to
thirty. It was still dark when the morning wake-up bell out and began to get the mining sounded, and the
men tumbled machinery ready for operation. A technician, relatively sane but surly, tested the electron
filters in banks, replaced one that was faulty, gave the mechanical parts a quick once-over, and reported,
"Shipshape, Captain."
"Start mining." Grayson had made a map, showing the different ore-rich areas listed in the preceding
day's explorations. He pointed out Area 1 and said, "Try that first."
The man nodded. "Could use more equipment."
"We'll get along this trip. And next trip we'll have enough equipment to go ten times as fast."
The 'copter with the mining group flew into the surrounding darkness, its glowlights lighting up the
trees for a distance of a thousand feet ahead. Things were settling down to a routine, thought Grayson.
Everything quiet, everything in order. Absolutely no danger.