"Arthur Tofte - Crash Landing on Iduna" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tofte Arthur)

have been above this sea during these last few minutes of our descent.
Apparently father had struggled and fought in every way he could to get
the ship to land on something other than water. If so, however, the rear
section was undoubtedly lost to usтАФsomehow broken off and dropped
during that mad crash landing.

I looked down. The area where the ship had plowed into a landing was
a wet-muck swamp. Strange-looking plants with waving tendrils grew in
patches to the height of a tall man. It was impossible to see how firm the
footing was.

"Here goes," I cried out to Inga as I lowered myself to the spongy
surface. A muddy, black substance oozed up over my ankles. I took a step
and sank even deeper.

I quickly discovered that where the plants grew thickest the ground
provided somewhat firmer footing. Accustomed to the pavements of
Earth, in all my life I had never had to walk on anything like this.
 Slowly I made my way around the body of the torn ship to the front
control section. Even though I had feared to find disaster, it was a shock to
see what really had happened. The whole control section of our craft had
been crushed and mangled into a tangled, twisted mass.

Shaking inwardly with dread at what I would find, I climbed up into
the jumble of beams and girders and metal strips. I worked frantically,
almost blindly, to pull away obstructing barriers. Somewhere in that heap
of twisted pieces of the ship's frame were my mother and father.

It was my mother I found first. She was lying on her side, her body at
an unnatural angle. I tried to move her. With horror I saw that a steel bar
had pierced her upper body. I felt for a pulse. I put my face close to her
lips. She was not breathing. I could see then that the rod had gone into her
heart. She had probably died instantly in the crash.

I heard a groan. Turning away from my mother's still body, I pulled at
the debris that blocked further passage. I found my father lying in a pool
of blood a short distance beyond.

Struggling with a girder that had fallen across him, I finally wrenched
it away. I leaned over my father's body. The only sign that he was still alive
was a faint groan. His head was red-stained. At least he was not dead.

He needed a bandage! What could I use? I ripped a strip of my tunic
and wound it around his head, although I could see that the bleeding had
stopped. That I hoped was a good sign. But how to get him out of the
wrecked section? I would need Inga's help.

I crawled back the way I had come. Dejectedly I headed back around
the ship to where the others were waiting for me. I wondered how I was
going to be able to tell Inga and the two youngsters that their mother was