"Harry Harrison - One Step From Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

seconds and was still.

Minutes passed and nothing more happened. The dust had long settled and the molten slag hardened
and cracked in the cold.

With sudden, sharp explosions the side of the cylinder blew away and landed on the ground some yards
distant. The capsule bobbed slightly in reaction to this but quickly came to rest. In the area uncovered by
the discarded plate were a number of small devices, all ringed about a gray plate, some two feet in
diameter, that resembled an obscured porthole.

Nothing else happened for quite a while, as though some hidden internal device were marking time. It
reached a decision because, with a distant humming, an antenna began to emerge from its opening. At
first it projected straight out from the side of the capsule, until a curved section emerged, then it began to
slowly rise until it towered into the air. Even as it was erecting itself a compact television camera moved
jerkily into view on the end of a jointed arm. It hesitantly changed directions until it was above the circular
plate and angled down toward it and the patch of ground below. Apparently satisfied it locked into this
position.

With a loudping the circular plate changed color and character. It was now a deep black and it seemed
to shift without moving. A moment later a transparent plastic container appeared, coming from the
surface of the plate as though emerging from a door, dropping forward and hitting the ground, rolling
over.

The white rat inside the container was terrified at first, knocked off its feet and dropped onto its side as
the tube struck the ground. The rat rolled onto its feet and scurried about trying to get a grip with its
claws on the slippery walls, climbing up then sliding back to the bottom again. In a few moments it settled
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down, blinking its pink eyes at the gray wastes outside. There was nothing moving, nothing to see. It sat
and began to smooth its long whiskers with its paws. The cold had not yet penetrated the thick walls.

**

The picture on the television screen was very blurred, but considering the fact that it had been broadcast
from the surface of Mars to a satellite in orbit, had then been relayed to the Lunar station and from there
sent to Earth, it wasn't really a bad picture. Through the interference and the snow the container could be
clearly seen, with the rat moving about inside of it.

"Success?" Ben Duncan asked. He was a wiry, compact man with close-cropped hair and tanned,
leathery skin. There were networks of wrinkles in the corners of his eyes as though he had squinted a lot
in very cold weather or before a glaring sun. He had done both. His complexion was in direct contrast to
that of the technicians and scientists manning the banks of instruments. Other than the few Negroes and
one Puerto Rican, all of them were the fishbelly white of city dwellers.

"It looks good so far," Dr. Thurmond said. His degree was in physics from MIT. He was quite proud of
it and insisted on its being used at all times. "Wave form fine, no attenuation, flat response, the trial
subject went through with a one point three on the co-ord which can't be bettered."