Sleepers Of Mars
- Автор: Уиндем Джон Паркс Лукас Бейнон Харрис
- Год: 1977
- Язык: английский
- Год: Coronet Books/Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
- ISBN: 0340173262
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Sleepers Of Mars». Краткое содержание книги:
Of course, we are now well used to the idea of Man On The Moon, we have become blasé as to the possibilities of inter-planetary travel. But imagine two expeditions to Mars, one British, the other Russian, both in the process of discovering a mechanical race, invented and produced by the Martians as they believe their specie to be dying.
The other four novellas in this collection give further evidence of John Wyndham’s genius at invention, characterisation and sense of movement.
‘You lead the way, and show us exactly what happened,’ he suggested. David and Dirk both shook their heads emphatically.
‘I’ll be damned if I do,’ said the former. ‘I’ve told you how dangerous it is—and then you tell me to go ahead. That’s not good enough.’
The sergeant gave a contemptuous snort, and motioned his men on. They were halfway across the clearing when there came the sound of splintering, yielding metal. The two friends looked at each other and hesitated.
‘What’s that?’ asked the sergeant, sharply. ‘Somebody looting her, I’ll be bound. We’ll catch ’em in the act.’
A few yards from the break, he halted and began to give instructions in an undertone. After one sentence, he was interrupted by a further creaking and wrenching of metal plates; then they all swung about and gazed sternward. Incredulously, they saw that the side of the ship was bulging. One of the plates of solid steelium was slowly bending outward. Fascinated and speechless, they watched this toughest of metals bulge still farther. The sergeant gasped audibly, for he knew the well-nigh fabulous strength of the material.
The rivet heads stripped off with a rattle like a monster machine-gun in action, and the plate fell outside with a crash. The five men continued to stare nervously, but nothing emerged. Whatever had provided the tremendous force behind the plate remained unseen. The sergeant pulled himself together with an effort.
‘We’ll start there,’ he said. ‘Keep close to the hull as we work up, and we’ll take them by surprise.’
David and Dirk hung back, and did their best to dissuade him, but he was not to be put off. His manner held a curtness which covered no little misgiving. The party edged along beneath the overhanging side of the ship. Eight feet from the recent hole, their fears were justified. The foremost policeman gave a sudden bellow and leaped back.
‘What the-?’ the sergeant began, but his words dried up and his eyes widened in astonishment. Pain was ousted momentarily by surprise even in the injured man. He stood, with blood streaming from his severed wrist, gaping inanely at his lost hand as it floated slowly away in mid-air.
David snatched a handkerchief from his pocket, and sprang forward to make a tourniquet. The sergeant recovered rapidly from his first shock, hesitated and seemed about to advance.
‘Don’t be a fool,’ said Dirk, gripping his arm. ‘It’ll get you, too.’
The sergeant retreated a pace, his eyes still fixed on the moving hand. Without audible comment, he watched it drift into the dark opening. As he turned to the others, his face was pale.
‘I’ve got to apologise to you two gentlemen. I didn’t realise what you’d seen. And to think I sent poor Rankin-’
He broke off at the sound of creaking metal. The plates to either side of the original hole were bending and sagging ominously. The party beat a hasty retreat, carrying the injured man, now in a dead faint. In silence, they watched the contiguous steelium being torn slowly and relentlessly from its rivets, until there was a hole in the Hurakan’s side four times as large as before.
David, at a safe distance, circled round to catch a glimpse of the interior. He was looking, he knew, at approximately the spot where Toby had met his end, but the walls of the storeroom were now reduced to so much warped and mangled metal on the floor. Of the broad, wooden shelves and lockers which had lined it, there was no sign. Vaguely, he wondered what had become of them; they ought to have been lying crushed with the metal. The sergeant came up to him with all dignity cast aside. It was evident that he now felt well out of his depth.
‘I’ll have to get help. Will you take a message for me to the Police Station? And there’s Dawkins, too,’ he nodded towards the injured policeman. ‘He needs treatment as soon as he can get it. If you and your friend would take him in the car while we keep watch here …?’
David agreed. He waited while the sergeant scribbled a note; then he and Dirk, bearing the unconscious man between then, moved off towards the car.
At five o’clock, after they had dropped the unfortunate Dawkins at the hospital and reinforced themselves with a good meal, they returned to find that the force of police at the Hurakan had been considerably augmented. The sergeant greeted them with undisguised gloom. He pointed out that the hole was much enlarged, and that further plates had been wrenched off in other parts.
‘Hanged if I know what to do,’ he admitted. ‘The inspector ought to be along any time now, thank the Lord. Though I don’t know what he’ll be able to do about it, either. Just look at this.’
He picked up a stout branch some three inches in section, and holding it extended before him, advanced cautiously towards the gaping hole. A six-inch length was lopped off with a crunch. He retreated hurriedly and came back, pointing to deep, gouged grooves in the wood.
‘Teeth,’ he said; ‘not a doubt.’
David nodded. It reminded him, unpleasantly, of Toby’s shoulder. He looked quickly back at the ship, and remarked on the number of fresh breaches in her sides.
‘And that’s not all.’ The sergeant indicated a small bush which grew four or five yards away from the ship. ‘Watch that,’ he said.
The bush was cracking and bending towards them beneath invisible pressure. It gave way as they looked, and was crushed into a mass. Then it lifted slightly above the ground and began to drift in the wake of the piece of branch, on a slow journey to the ship.
‘It’s big, and it’s advancing,’ added the policeman. He picked up a stone and tossed it high into the air. Its curving flight towards the hull was uncannily interrupted. It hung for a moment, before rolling a yard down and sideways. Then it rested, to all appearances unsupported, and stationary save for a slight pulsating rise and fall. All the watching men felt a touch of that trepidation which is bred by the incomprehensible.
A startling shriek from the other side of the ship stung them into action. They rounded the stern, to collide with a group of men and women travelling at a surprising speed.
‘What’s wrong here?’ the sergeant demanded. One of the men pointed behind him and shouted something unintelligible as he ran on.
‘Damned sightseers,’ puffed the sergeant. ‘Just as well they’re scared. Can’t they run, though?’
With a full view of the other side, they stopped. The reason for the runners’ panic became plain. One sightseer would pry no more. His body, in dismembered sections, was drifting towards the ship.
David looked at Dirk, and then turned to the other. He was feeling sick with the sights of the day, and suggested that they might be allowed to leave. The sergeant nodded.
‘Yes. It wouldn’t do me much good to keep you here now, but I’d like you to be handy tomorrow—the inspector may want to have a word with you both.’ He produced a large handkerchief and mopped his face. ‘That is, he added, ‘if the inspector ever turns up.’
CHAPTER THREE
THE GROWING MENACE
The two succeeded in finding a passable hotel in Clidoe, and returned the next morning to find that the inspector had at last arrived and taken command. Little had been possible during the night beyond the posting of guards to warn off the curious, but with daylight, a phase of activity had set in. A judicious tossing of stones had determined roughly the extent of the danger area, and it had become apparent that it now extended all about the ship in an approximate oval. The actual verge, however, was by no means regular, since here and there, invisible extensions projected three or four feet in advance of the main substance.
Rows of sticks, planted at regular intervals, had enabled the average speed of advance to be estimated at something over a yard an hour. The sergeant, again on the scene, greeted them and expressed his doubts of the value of this calculation.