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.
‘Hullo! What’s wrong with you two?’ he asked.
‘Surrounded,’ answered David curtly. The casual air of the newcomer irritated him considerably.
‘Uncomfortable,’ commented the young man. ‘Never mind. We’ll soon have you out of that.’
He thrust with his rod until he encountered the snapping barrier. Snatching a stick from his bundle, he held out the knobbed end. Immediately it had been broken off, he held out other little sticks to left and right to suffer the same fate.
‘Who are you?’ he asked. The sergeant told him.
‘They thought you were done for,’ he said, pointing back over his shoulder. ‘Most of your lot were.’
Curiosity got the better of David’s disapproval of the nonchalant young man.
‘What are you doing? Poisoning them?’
‘No, we haven’t found a suitable poison for them yet. Watch.’
He pointed to the recently swallowed white knob, and they saw that it had turned to a bright blue.
‘Methylene blue wrapped in soluble paper,’ he explained. ‘Away goes the paper and, presto ! visibility. My boss, Cadnam, the biologist, had some hundreds of these pills made up. A man called Dirk Robbins came to him in a fearful state, yesterday. Cadnam saw that we’d have to make the brute visible before anything else could be done.’
‘Good old Dirk! ’ enthused David.
The other nodded. ‘He had a bit more sense than the rest of you,’ he said, ungracefully. ‘Unfortunately, by the time we got here, some fool had been feeding fireworks to the brute.’
The blue stain, growing less intense as it dissolved, rapidly spread throughout the creature. They could see, now, not only the domed outline which they had expected, but could look right into it as though it were a stained specimen on a slide. It became easy to trace the many throats to their common stomach, and also to observe a kind of vascular system. At the root of each of the many ‘heads,’ a kind of valve could be seen rhythmically contracting and expanding. The young man pointed to one of these organs, and shook his head.
‘That’s what caused most of the trouble,’ he explained. But neither David nor the sergeant felt in the mood for a lecture. More than four feet of the creature blocked their way to freedom, and visibility had not interfered in the least with its appetite. They said as much.
‘Oh, that’s all right,’ said the young man cheerfully. He drew a rapier-like instrument from among his bundle of sticks, and set himself to piercing the contractile organs with care and accuracy. As he worked, he continued to explain.
‘A very interesting arrangement, not unlike a heart—but the thing only needs one heart really, and it’s got scores. It’s a kind of composite animal, and when it was blown to bits, every part with a pulse like that became a separate individual. It quickly re-formed, and began to live on its own. When two of them press closely together, they merge again—I expect that that’s how you got surrounded. A very primitive form, really. So far as we know at present, the only way of killing them seems to be to put every pulse out of action—as long as there’s one left going, it can rebuild itself.’
When he had finished off all the heads he could reach from his side, he tossed the spike over to David. After a few minutes’ work, the erstwhile danger became no more than an inert lump of bluish jelly over which they could climb.
‘Thank God for that! ’ said David as they reached the far side in safety. The sergeant grunted, and mopped his brow again. The young man led them back over the way he had come.
‘What about the original creature? Was that entirely shattered?’ David asked.
‘Most of it was, but it’s building up again. However, we’ll be able to deal with it, now that we can see it. Even I felt it was a bit creepy, at first. Transparency is one thing—invisibility, quite another.’
They came at length to irregular rows of the creatures, already stained. They were still gnawing the trees, but seemed almost harmless when deprived of their armour of invisibility. In the distance was a group of men diligently disposing of the monsters with sharp probes. The young man bade them goodbye.
‘Keep straight ahead,’ he directed. ‘It’s clear there. And it would please me if you would tell Captain Forbes what I think of him, when you see him.’
‘He’s safe?’
‘Sure to be. That kind always comes out of it all right.’
He was correct. When they reached a group which seemed to be at the centre of operations, the captain was among it. He seemed to be explaining that the failure of his attack was due to the premature explosion of two of the bombs. Dirk detached himself from the others and greeted them heartily.
‘Let’s clear out,’ he said, a few minutes later. ‘The gallant captain now has a theory that it would be quicker to gas the brutes. We’ll be safer a few miles away.’
THE MAN FROM EARTH
CHAPTER ONE
CREATURES OF THE VALLEY
One of the greatest sights in Takon these days was the exhibition of discoveries made in the Valley of Dur.* In the building erected specially to house them, Takonians and visitors from other cities crowded through the corridors, peering into the barred or glass-fronted cages, observing the contents with awe, interest or amusement, according to their natures.
The crowd was formed, for the most part, of those persons who will flock to any unusual sight, provided it is free or cheap; their eyes dwelt upon the exhibits, their minds were ready to marvel and be superficially impressed, but they had come to be amused and they faintly resented the efforts of the guides to stir them into intelligent interest. One or two, perhaps, studied the cases with real appreciation.
But if the adults were superficial, the same could not truthfully be said of the children. Every day saw teachers bringing their classes for a practical demonstration of the planet’s prehistoric condition. Even now, Magon, a biology teacher in one of Takon’s leading schools, was having difficulty in restraining his twenty pupils for the arrival of a guide. He had marshalled them beside the entrance, and to keep them from straying, was talking of the Valley of Dur.
The condition of the Valley was purely fortuitous, and it is unique here upon Venus. Nothing remotely resembling it has been found, and it is the opinion of the experts that nothing like it exists anywhere. This exhibition you are going to see is neither a museum nor a zoo; yet it is both.’
His pupils only half-attended. They were fidgeting to and fro, casting expectant glances down the row of cage-fronts, and craning to see over one another’s backs, the more excitable among them occasionally rising on their hind-legs for a better view. The passing Takonian citizens regarded their youthful enthusiasm with a mild amusement. Magon smoothed back the silver fur on his head with one hand, and continued to talk : ‘The creatures you will see belong to all ages of our world. * All Venusian terms are rendered in their closest English equivalents.
Some are so old that they roamed Venus long before our race appeared. Others are later, contemporaries of those ancestors of ours who, in a terrible world, were for ever scuttling to cover as fast as their six legs could carry them….’
‘Six legs, sir?’ asked a surprised voice. Some of the youths in the group sniggered, but Magon explained considerately:
‘Yes, Sadul, six legs. Did you not know that our remote ancestors used all six of their limbs to get them along? It took them many thousands of years to turn themselves into quadrupeds, but until they did that, no progress was possible. The ‘ fore-limbs could not develop such sensitive hands as ours until they were carried clear of the ground.’