"Robert F. Young - When Time Was New" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

from an outside source, there's practically no limit to his field of operations."
The girl blinked once, and so did the boy. But that was all. "Well," Marcy said presently, "that much
is taken care of: you're from Earth Future and we're from Mars Present." She paused, looking at
Carpenter curiously. "Is there something you don't understand, Mr. Carpenter?"
Carpenter took a deep breath. He exhaled it. "In point of fact, yes. For one thing, there's the little
matter of the difference in gravity between the two planets. Here on Earth you weigh more than twice as
much as you weigh on Mars, and I can't quite figure out how you can move around so effortlessly, to say
nothing of how you could have shinned up the trunk of that ginkgo tree."
"Oh, I see what you mean. Mr. Carpenter," Marcy said. "And it's a very good point, too. But
obviously you're using Mars Future as a criterion, and just as obviously Mars Future is no longer quite
the same as Mars Present. I—I guess a lot can happen in 79,062,156 years. Well, anyway, Mr.
Carpenter," she continued, "the Mars of Skip's and my day has a gravity that approximates this planet's.
Centuries ago, you see, our engineers artificially increased the existent gravity in order that no more of
our atmosphere could escape into space, and successive generations have adapted themselves to the
stronger pull. Does that clarify matters for you, Mr. Carpenter?"
He had to admit that it did. "Do you kids have a last name?" he asked.
"No, we don't, Mr. Carpenter. At one time it was the custom for Martians to have last names, but
when desentimentalization was introduced, the custom was abolished. Before we proceed any further,
Mr. Carpenter, I would like to thank you for saving our lives. It — it was very noble of you."
"You're most welcome," Carpenter said, "but I'm afraid if we go on standing here in the open like
this, I'm going to have to save them all over again, and my own to hoot. So let's the three of us get inside
Sam where it's safe. All right?"
Leading the way over to the triceratank, he vaulted up on the snout and reached down for the girl's
hand. After pulling her up beside him, he helped her into the driver's compartment. "There's a small
doorway behind the driver's seat," he told her. "Crawl through it and make yourself at home in the cabin
just beyond. You'll find a table and chairs and a bunk, plus a cupboard filled with good things to eat. All
the comforts of home."
Before she could comply, a weird whistling sound came from above the plain. She glanced at the
sky, and her face went dead-white. "It's them!" she gasped. "They've found us already!"
Carpenter saw the dark winged-shapes of the pteranodons then.
There were two of them, and they were homing in on the triceratank like a pair of prehistoric
dive-bombers. Seizing Skip's hand, he pulled the boy up on the snout, set him in the compartment beside
his sister, and told them to get into the cabin fast. Then he jumped into the driver's seat and slammed
down the nacelle.
Just in time: the first pteranodon came so close that its right aileron scraped against Sam's frilled
head-shield, and the second came so close that its ventral fuselage brushed Sam's back. Their twin
tailjets left two double wakes of bluish smoke.

II

Carpenter sat up straight in the driver's seat. Ailerons? Fuselage? Tailjets?
Pteranodons?
He activated Sam's shield-field and extended it to a distance of two feet beyond the armor-plating.
then he threw the reptivehicle into gear. The pteranodons were circling high overhead. "Marcy," he
called, "come forward a minute, will you?"
Her buttercup-colored hair tickled his cheek as she leaned over his shoulder. "Yes, Mr. Carpenter?"
"When you saw the pteranodons, you said, 'They've found us already!' What did you mean by that?"
 "They're not pteranodons, Mr. Carpenter. Whatever pteranodons are. They're kidnapers, piloting
military-surplus flyabouts that probably look like pteranodons. They abducted Skip and me from the
preparatory school of the Greater Martian Technological Apotheosization Institute and are holding us for