"Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson - Dune 08 - House Harkonne" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

The elder Kynes scratched his sandy-gray beard. "A good storm like this can stretch across four
degrees of latitude." He powered up the dim screens of the pod's analytical devices. "It lifts
particles to an altitude of two thousand meters and suspends them in the atmosphere, so that long
after the storm passes, dust continues to fall from the sky."

Liet gave the hatch lock a final tug, satisfied that it would hold against the storm. "The Fremen
call that El-Sayal, the 'rain of sand.' "

"One day when you become Planetologist, you'll need to use more technical language," Pardot Kynes
said in a professorial tone. "I still send the Emperor occasional reports, though not as often as
I should. I doubt he ever reads them." He tapped one of the instruments. "Ah, I believe the
atmospheric front is almost upon us."

Liet removed a porthole cover to see the oncoming wall of white, tan, and static. "A
Planetologist must use his eyes, as well as scientific language. Just look out the window,
Father."

Kynes grinned at his son. "It's time to raise the pod." Operating long-dormant controls, he
managed to get the dual bank of suspensor engines functioning. The pod tugged against gravity,
heaving itself off the ground.

The mouth of the storm lunged toward them, and Liet closed the cover plate, hoping the ancient
meteorological apparatus would hold together. He trusted his father's intuition to a certain
extent, but not his practicality.

The egg-shaped pod rose smoothly on suspensors, buffeted by precursor breezes. "Ah, there we
are," Kynes said. "Now our work begins --"

The storm hit them like a blunt club, and vaulted them high into the maelstrom.



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DAYS EARLIER, on a trip into the deep desert, Pardot Kynes and his son had discovered the familiar
markings of a botanical testing station, abandoned thousands of years before. Fremen had
ransacked most of the research outposts, scavenging valuable items, but this isolated station in
an armpit of rock had gone undiscovered until Kynes spotted the signs.

He and Liet had cracked open the dust-encrusted hatch to peer inside like ghouls about to enter a
crypt. They were forced to wait in the hot sun for atmospheric exchange to clear out the deadly
stale air. Pardot Kynes paced in the loose sand, holding his breath and poking his head into the
darkness, waiting until they could enter and investigate.

These botanical testing stations had been built in the golden age of the old Empire. Back then,
Kynes knew, this desert planet had been nothing special, with no resources of note, no reason to
colonize. When the Zensunni Wanderers had come here after generations of slavery, they'd hoped to
build a world where they could be free.