"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 24 - Nectar of Heaven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

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Nectar of Heaven
E.C Tubb

Chapter One

All night the wind had droned over the workings dying at
dawn when a pale yellow sun had illuminated a world
transfigured by cold. Ice coated the mounds and gullies, frosted
the humped buildings, gave a transient beauty to the harsh lines
of functional machines. A thin, white blanket covered the torn
and ravaged soil, snow filling hollows and softening peaks, a dry
powder which held treachery.

"Dangerous." Hart Vardoon kicked at the accumulation, a
white dust flying from his boot. "Be careless and you could slip,
break a leg, maybe." He glanced at the humped machines.
"Worse, even."

Dumarest glanced at the mechanisms; tall, their fronts set
with curved teeth, the whole moving on wide treads. The
operators sat back and to one side guiding the tearing action of
the grabs which tore into the dirt and sent it in massed lumps to
one side. If a worker should slip and fall the chances were high
he would be unnoticed, his body joining the dirt in a red-stained
mass.

"A freak." Wiess had joined them. He stood shivering, his face
pinched beneath the surrounding fabric of his hood. "It's too
early for snow. Once the sun gets high it'll thaw the stuff to
water. Dry it out too," he added quickly. Sodden ground was
impossible to work. "A couple of hours should do it."

"You sure about that?"

"Take my word for it, Earl." Wiess shivered again and beat
patched gloves against his chest. "This is my third season and
I've seen freak storms before. We've got weeks yet, a month at
least."

Vardoon shook his head as the man walked off toward his
position. Behind him one of the machines woke to strident life,
others following, metal grating as treads joined grabs in