"Robert Reed - Night Calls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

for killing the only explorers to ever set foot on itтАФand then the worldтАЩs
shadow fell over that wasteland, a rainbow flash marking the sunlight as it
passed through the same air he was now breathing in gulps.

тАЬDid you hear?тАЭ Ocher asked. тАЬIt is raining at home.тАЭ

He looked up from the eyepiece. тАЬNow?тАЭ
 тАЬA colleague called me with the sad news,тАЭ his companion allowed.
тАЬA squall line is sweeping out of the west. Probably gone before sunrise,
but thereтАЩs going to be a lot of angry souls in its wake.тАЭ

Ferrum imagined hundreds of novice astronomers standing beside
that expensive, useless telescope, faces glistening with the rain, every
sorry voice screaming at the profoundly unfair sky.

His personal gloom began to lift, just a little.

The moon was soon immersed in the night.

Ocher pulled a small timepiece from his shirt pocket, adjusted his
telescopeтАЩs aim and then stepped back again. тАЬIf you wish, watch the
Sisters vanish.тАЭ

тАЬDonтАЩt you want to?тАЭ

тАЬOh, IтАЩm not being generous,тАЭ said Ocher. тАЬI just want my eyes kept in
the dark, to help them adapt.тАЭ

Those distant suns looked like twin gemstones, brilliant but cold.
FerrumтАЩs vision blurred, but he watched carefully as the lightless bulk of
another world rose to meet them. Then thin dry atmosphere made one
flicker, then the other, and then the first Sister touched the rim of a crater,
and it vanished.

тАЬI hope sheтАЩs watching,тАЭ Ferrum muttered.

тАЬI am sure she is,тАЭ Ocher promised. Then he made a low sound, as if
intending to say something else ... or ask his own question, perhaps ... but
thatтАЩs when the final Sister plunged out of sight, and the lightless air was
filled with gasps and exclamations, old prayers and inarticulate screams as
old as their species.

The Night had come.

Ferrum jumped back from the telescope.

Like a startled animal, he looked up. His eyes chose a random line,
and after wiping the eyes dry, he stared as hard as he could into the new
sky. But what was he seeing? Somehow his mind had forgotten a thousand
lessons of science, and for that delicious moment, he felt scared and