"David Wingrove & Rand Miller - Myst 01 - The Book of Ti'ana" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wingrove David)

One that could also be sealed oi-fwith gates and defended.

The rumbling grew, slowly but steadily. You could hear the sound of the
turbine
engines now.

Slowly but surely they had burrowed through the rock, surveying each
one
-hundred-span section carefully before they drilled, coating the surfaces with
a
half-span thickness of special D'ni rock, more durable than marble Last, but
not
least, they fitted heavy stone brackets into the ceiling of each
section
-brackets that carried air from the pumping stations back in D'ni.

Between each straight-line section was one of these spherical
"nodes"-these
resting places where they could carry on experiments while Master Geran and
his
assistants charted the next stage of their journey through the earth-each
node
fitted with an airtight gate that could be sealed in an instant.

The rumbling grew to a roar. For a moment the sound of it filled the node,
then
the engines cut out and there was the downward whine of the turbines as
the
Messenger slowed.

Aitrus turned and stood, watching as the metal snout of the machine emerged
from
the entry tunnel, passing through the thick collar of the node-gate, its
pilot
clearly visible through the transparent front debris shield

It was a large, tracked vehicle, its three long segments making it seem
clumsy
in comparison to the sleek excavators, but as ever Aitrus was glad to see
it,
for besides bringing them much-needed supplies-it being impossible to
"link"
supplies direct from D'ni into the tunnels-it also brought letters from home

"Aitrus? What time is it?"
Aitrus turned. His friend Jemr had woken and was sitting up.

"Ninth bell," he answered, bending down to retrieve his boots and pull them
on