"A. E. Van Vogt - The Rull" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

machine. As the door clanged behind him, the boat shook as if it had
been struck by a giant. Part of the ceiling sagged; the floor heaved
under him, and the air grew hot and suffocating. Gasping, Jamieson
slid into the control chair and struck the main emergency switch. The
rapid-fire blasters huzzaed into automatic firing positions and let go
with a hum and a deepthroated ping. The refrigerators whined with
power; a cold blast of air blew at his body. The relief was so quick that
a second passed before Jamieson realized that the atomic engines had
failed to respond. And that the lifeboat, which should have already
been sliding into the air, was still lying inert in an exposed position.
Tense, he stared into the visiplates. It took a moment to locate the
Rull ship. It was at the lower edge of one plate, tumbling slowly out of
sight beyond a clump of trees a quarter of a mile away. As he watched,
it disappeared; and then the crash of the landing came clear and
unmistakable from the sound board in front of him.
The relief that came was weighted with an awful reaction.
Jamieson sank into the cushions of the control chair, weak from the
narrowness of his escape. The weakness ended abruptly as a thought
struck him. There had been a sedateness about the way the enemy
ship fell. The crash hadnтАЩt killed the Rulls aboard. He was alone in a
damaged lifeboat on an impassable mountain with one or more of the
most remorseless creatures ever spawned. For ten days he must fight
in the hope that man would still be able to seize the most valuable
planet discovered in half a century.
Jamieson opened the door and went out onto the tableland. He
was still trembling with reaction, but it was rapidly growing darker and
there was no time to waste. He walked quickly to the top of the nearest
hillock a hundred feet away, taking the last few feet on his hands and
knees. Cautiously, he peered over the rim. Most of the mountaintop
was visible. It was a rough oval some eight hundred yards wide at its
narrowest, a wilderness of scraggly brush and upjutting rock,
dominated here and there by clumps of trees. There was not a
movement to be seen, and not a sign of the Rull ship. Over everything
lay an atmosphere of desolation, and the utter silence of an
uninhabited wasteland.
The twilight was deeper now that the sun had sunk below the
southwest precipice. And the deadly part was that, to the Rulls, with
their wider vision and more complete equipment, the darkness would
mean nothing. All night long he would have to be on the defensive
against beings whose nervous systems outmatched his in every
function except, possibly, intelligence. On that level, and that alone,
human beings claimed equality. The very comparison made him realize
how desperate his situation was. He needed an advantage. If he could
get to the Rull wreck and cause them some kind of damage before it
got pitch-dark, before they recovered from the shock of the crash, that
alone might make the difference between life and death for him.
It was a chance he had to take. Hurriedly, Jamieson backed down
the hillock and, climbing to his feet, started along a shallow wash. The
ground was rough with stone and projecting edges of rock and the
gnarled roots and tangle of hardy growth. Twice he fell, the first time