"Donald E. Wollheim - The Secret of the ninth Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wollheim Donald A)

down, put it in motion, and left. There was no evidence of any provisions for a
garrison or a director.
They studied the machines but could make nothing of them. They found what looked
like controls, but although they pushed and pulled the levers and knobs, the
humming did not cease. It seemed as if the controls were either dummies or had
to be specially motivated.
"What do we do now?" asked Burl, after they had tried pulling all the levers on
one particular switchboard without any results. "Do you have enough powder left
to blow up the machinery?"


file:///F|/rah/David%20A.%20Wollheim/Wolheim,%...20The%20Secret%20of%20the%20Ninth%20Planet.txt (7 of 64) [2/3/03 12:38:37 AM]
 file:///F|/rah/David%20A.%20Wollheim/Wolheim,%20David%20A%20-%20The%20Secret%20of%20the%20Ninth%20Planet.txt

His father shook his head. "I had only those two cans with me. We could try
shooting into the machinery." Leveling his rifle, he fired at a glassy globe
perched upon the central sphere. The bullet pinged off it, and they saw that it
had failed even to dent the glistening surface.
"It won't work," said the elder Denning, after several more shots had produced
the same result and the concussion reverberating from the enclosed walls had
nearly deafened them.
They continued to hunt for a clue, but found none. Dejected, Burl kicked a loose
pebble and watched it rattle against a column near the main control board. A
small metallic ball rested on top of the column, apparently unattached. A
replacement part, he thought to himself, wandering over to it. It was about the
level of his head.
With the thought that if he examined it he might learn something of the nature
of the working machines, he reached out with both hands to pick it up.
As his hands touched the metallic ball, there was a sudden terrible flash of
power. He felt himself grasped by forces beyond his control, paralyzed
momentarily like one who has laid hold of an electrically charged wire. He
opened his mouth to scream in agony, but he could say nothing. A great force
surged through his body, radiating, charging every cell and atom of his being.
He felt as if he were being lifted from the floor. Then the globe seemed to
dissolve in his hands. It became a glare of light, grew misty, and then
vanished.
For a moment he stood there on tiptoe, arced with the potent violence of the
force, glowing from within with energies, and then he felt as if the supercharge
were dissolving itself, slipping into him, sliding into the ground, then
disappearing.
He stood before the column, swaying, but still conscious and alive. His hands
were still raised, but there was no ball between them, neither of metal nor of
power.
He let them fall to his side and took a step. He was whole, he was sound, he was
unharmed. He heard his father's footsteps running to him, and murmured weakly,
"I'm all right."
And he was. He could see no sign of damage. "I must have absorbed an awful lot
of that energy-- or whatever it was," he said.
After resting a moment, he decided to try the useless controls again. Going over
to one small board, he idly shoved a lever. This time he felt resistance. The