"Eric Frank Russel - Mechanistria" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

somebody yelled bloody murder, choked, gurgled.
Alien monstrosities surged full pelt into the airlock as perforce we turned to face this assault
from a new direction. The pom-pom gunner stuck to his post and--ignoring what was taking place
behind his back-concentrated on shooting a clear way through the outer door-gap. But via the
mutilated stern, the passages and catwalks, a metallic zoo poured upon us.
The next two minutes fled like two seconds. I saw a wheeled globe whirl into the room,
followed by a nightmarish assortment of metal things, some with jointed legs and pincer-armed
front limbs; some with tentacles, some with a grotesque assortment of outlandish tools.
A grabbing pincer glowed red-hot and seized-up at the hinge when a well-aimed needle-ray
found its weak spot. But its coffin-shaped owner pressed on as if nothing had happened, its
projecting lenses staring glassily. In the hazy throw-back from the searchlight I saw Wilson burn
away a lens-collar and deprive it of an eye before it snatched him up and held him.
The pom-pom suddenly ceased its rabid yammering and fell onto its side. Something cold, hard
and slippery coiled around my waist, lifted me bodily. I went over backward through the lock,
borne high in the unrelenting grip of my captor. I saw a many-tooled object grab the skipperтАЩs
struggling form and bear him from the fray in like manner.
My last view of the melee showed a wildly gesticulating metal globe apparently floating toward
the ceiling. It was fighting at the end of a thick, sucker-surfaced rope that would not let it go.
McNulty and his captor blotted out the rest, but I guessed that one of the Martians had stuck him-
self to the roof and was blandly fishing in the mob below.
At a fast jog-trot the thing holding me set off toward the dimly glowing horizon. Dawn was
breaking, with sunup due in twenty minutes. The landscape cleared rapidly. My bearer was holding
me down upon the flat of his long, level back, a taut cable around my chest, another around my
waist, a many-jointed arm holding my legs. My feet were free to waggle around and my right hand
still gripped a heavy needle-ray, but I was held far too tightly to bring the weapon to bear where it
could do any good.
A dozen yards behind, McNulty was being lugged along like a bag of meal. His carrier differed
from mine, being bigger, heavier, with eight multiple-jointed legs, no tentacles, but a dozen arms of
various lengths. Four of its arms were holding down the writhing skipper, the two front ones were
extended in imitation of a praying mantis, the rest were folded at its sides. I noticed that every now
and again the contraptionтАЩs grotesque copper curl would flip out straight, quiver questioningly; then
abruptly coil like a watch-spring.
We passed other machines. A large group of them hung around the MarathonтАЩs damaged stern,
big ones, small ones, squat ones, tall ones. Among them loomed the monstrous automaton with the
steam-shovel hand. It squatted imperturbably at the end of a deep channel scooped from the ground
below the shipтАЩs stern tubes. Half a dozen machines were extracting the bottom tubes. The top ones
already were out and lying on the ground like so many drawn teeth.
тАЬWell,тАЭ I thought, with a deal of bitterness,тАЭ so much for Herr Flettner and his genius. If that
bigbrain had never been born IтАЩd now be sitting pretty aboard the good old Upsydaisy.тАЭ
The thing on which I was having an unwanted ride began to increase pace, building up to a
lumbering gallop. I couldnтАЩt twist round far enough to make an examination of it. The grips upon
me were firm, unyielding and painfully tight. I could hear the metal pads of its feet clattering with
noisy energy on the semi-metallic ground, but all I could glimpse was a rocking leg-socket that
oozed a strong-smelling mineral oil.
Behind, McNultyтАЩs mount also accelerated. The light grew stronger. I raised my head as much
as I could, saw a veritable procession of burdened machines stretching back to the ship. It was not
possible to identify the various victims from my point of disadvantage.
A thrumming in the hazy sky drew my attention. Night had not sufficiently withdrawn her
darkening hand and I failed to see the rocketships though I could follow their progress as steadily
they blasted from north to south. After more than an hour, my captor stopped and put me down.