"Timothy Zahn - Manta's Gift" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Manta's%20Gift.htm (7 of 298) [10/18/2004 3:39:27 PM]
Manta's Gift

"Unless you'd rather ask it to take us to their leader," Chippawa said. "Emscan's running... man, this
thing's got one complicated internal structure."

"How complicated?" Faraday asked, starting to become interested in spite of himself.

"At least as complex as ours," Chippawa said. "I'd love to see the biochemistry of something that
swims around in hydrogen and methane all day. You hear that?"

"Yes," Faraday said, frowning. It was a scraping sound, coming from somewhere beneath them.

"It's checking us out," Chippawa said. "Running a flipper or something along the hull."

"Is that why we've stopped falling?" Faraday asked. "It's holding us up?"

"Yes and no," Chippawa said, peering at the displays. "We are still going down, only not as fast."

"But it is intelligent," Faraday said, staring back at that unblinking eye. "And it's figured out that we
are, too."

"Well, maybe," Chippawa said cautiously. "I'd definitely say it's curious. But then, so is a kitten."

"It is intelligent," Faraday insisted. "Something that big has to be."

"Yeah, well, as the clich├й says, size doesn't really matter," Chippawa said with a grunt. "The last
rhino I saw wasn't giving lectures on quark theory. Anyway, it may all be academic."

"What do you mean?" Faraday demanded. If the creature was intelligent, surely it realized they
didn't belong here. It could just carry them back up to the top of the atmosphereтАФ

"One, we're still falling," Chippawa said. "That implies even with one float working we're too heavy
for him to hold up. And twoтАФ"

He gestured to the emscan display. "We've got more company."

Faraday felt his mouth drop open. At eight meters long, the creature staring in at them was already
pretty big. The suburban starter houses that the little guys had been clustering around had been even
bigger.

But the two radar blips now moving up from below and to their right were another order of
magnitude entirely. Like a pair of incoming grocery warehouses...

Abruptly, the armrest dropped out from under him again. He looked up, catching just a glimpse of
their Peeping Tom as he scooted upward into the swirling air.

And the Skydiver was again falling free.