"Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future's Worlds of Tomorrow 17 - Futuria" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

The use of gravity screens prevents it from disturbing
the stable orbits of Mars and Earth.
Futuria itself is smaller than Earth, but has much more
available living space. Its surface is mostly dry land. Only
two small artificial oceans have been created to serve as
planetary reservoirs, and from these, a network of canals
radiate over the entire surface.
However, the planet does not show all the regularities
of design some government officials hoped it would.
Planet Still Shrinks
The reason lies below the surface. Though previously
packed down under high pressure, the materials used in its
construction have undergone further shrinkage that is still
continuing. Great folds in the surface have formed the
beginnings of mountain ranges, wide-spread depressions
indicate the beds of new, natural oceans. Already the
Rising Hills promise to put the Himalayas of Earth in the
shade, and the Vanishing Lake has a water level a thousand
feet below that of the neighboring dry land ... when it has a
water level at all. It dries up during the summer, to
reappear during the fall.
In addition to the expected inhabitants, Futuria has had
a great many unwanted immigrants.
These have been smuggled in on unfumigated space
1
Despite a Few Unwelcome Immigrants, Such as Jovian
Fire-Men and Carnivorous Plants, the Futuremen's
Strange World Still Remains the Ideal Place to Live!
ships, in a gigantic System-wide racket that has only
recently been broken up by the Planet Patrol.
Serpent-Men Under Control
As a result, one large area is in the hands of Martian
Serpent Men, a semi-humanoid race whose fierce
murderous habits had set the other inhabitants of their
native planet against them. Of the thousand or so survivors
of this almost extinct species of Mars, almost half
succeeded in reaching Futuria.
Here conditions of life have proved so favorable for the
development of their eggs, that their numbers have
increased tenfold. But the planet government has now
limited their expansion, and they offer no threat to the
planet's future.
The Jovian fire-men, flame-breathers who had been
threatened with extinction by the gradual cooling of their
native planet, also emigrated without Government consent,
and settled near the giant volcano which had formed in
Futuria's southern hemisphere. They too gained a new
lease on life.
The shrinking of the new planet's surface had naturally
led to the evolution of considerable internal heat. This heat