"Norton, Andre - Solar Queen 03- Voodoo Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

red cutting into the general verdant carpet of treetops. Another chain of heights and then open land, swales
of tall grass already burnt yellow by the steady sun. There was a river here, a crazy, twisted stream coiling
nearly back upon itself at times.

Once more broken land, land so ravished by prehistoric volcanic action that it was a grotesque nightmare
of erosion-whittled outcrops and mesas. Asaki pointed to the east. There was a dark patch widening out
into a vast wedge.

"The swamp of Mygra. It has not yet been explored."

"You could air map it," Tau began.

The Chief Ranger was frowning. "Four flitters have been lost trying that. Com reports fail when they cross
that last mountain ridge eastward. There is some sort of interference which we do not yet understand.
Mygra is a place of death; later we may be able to travel along its fringe and then you shall see. Now--"
He spoke to the pilot in his own tongue and the flitter pointed up-nose at an angle as they climbed over the
highest peak they had yet seen in this mountainous land, to reach at last a country of open grass dotted with
small forest stands. Jellico nodded approvingly.

"Zoboru?"

"Zoboru," Asaki assented. "We shall go up to the northern end of the preserve. I wish to show you the
roosts of the fastals. This is their nesting season and the sight is one you will long remember. But we shall
take an eastern course; I have two Ranger stations to check on the way."

It was after they left the second station that the flitter swung farther out eastward, again climbing over the
chain of heights to sight one of the newly discovered wonders the staff at the last station had reported--a
crater lake.

And the flitter skimmed down across water which was a rich emerald in hue, filling the crater from one
rock wall to the other with no beach at the foot of those precipitant cliffs. As the machine arose to clear the
far wall, Dane tensed. One of his duties aboard the Queen was flitter pilot for planet-wise trips. And ever
since they had taken off that morning he had unconsciously flown with the Khatkan pilot, anticipating each
change or adjustment of the controls. Now he felt that sluggish response to the other's lift signal, and
instinctively his own hand went out to adjust a power feed lever.

They made the rise, were well above the danger of the cliff wall. But the machine was not responding
properly. Dane did not need to watch the pilot's swiftly moving hands to guess that they were in trouble.
And his slight concern deepened into something else as the flitter began to drop nose again. In front of him
Captain Jellico shifted uneasily, and Dane knew that he, too, was alerted.

Now the pilot had plunged the power adjuster to the head against the control board. But the nose of the
flitter acted as if it were overweighted or magnetically attracted by the rocks below. The best efforts of the
man flying it could not keep it level. They were being drawn earthward, and all the pilot could do only
delayed the inevitable crack-up. The Khatkan was turning the machine north to avoid what lay below, for
here a long arm of the Mygra swamp clasped about the foot of the mountain.

The Chief Ranger spoke into the mike of the com unit while the pilot continued to fight against the pull
which was bringing them down. Now the small machine was below the level of the volcanic peak which
cradled the lake, and the mountain lay between them and the preserve.