"George Zebrowski - Stranger Suns" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zebrowski George)

his parka closer around her head.

“We'll widen the dig from here,” Juan said.
****

“Juan, wake up!” Lena shouted, shaking him. He didn't remember coming inside to sleep, only that he
had suddenly been very tired. “There's an opening."

She hovered over him, and seemed to float back as he sat up on one elbow. Malachi was drinking
coffee at the table. His white cup resembled a huge tooth.

“What time is it?"

“You've slept five hours,” Malachi said.

Juan shivered, wishing for sunny beaches and simple pleasures, then wondered what lay under the ice,
and suddenly imagined a city locked in the cold, its cellars sunk deeply into the bedrock of the continent.

Lena was looking at him with concern. “Antarctic dryness affects some people strangely. You just about
collapsed. How do you feel now?"

He sat up on the edge of the bunk and slipped on his boots. “What did you say before?” he asked as he
got up and staggered to the table.

“They've found an opening,” Malachi said as Juan sat down and poured himself a cup of coffee.

He gulped down the coffee and stood up. “Let's go."
****

Blue light streamed from the excavation, as if a strange sun were rising from the ice. A frigid breeze cut
through the starry night as Juan followed Lena and Malachi down into the glowing pit. They found
Rassmussen staring into a circular opening set at a shallow angle in a rising black surface.

Juan came up at his left and peered into the blue glare. His pulse quickened; the curved surface
suggested a giant dome below the ice.

Rassmussen said, “The diggers say that the opening simply appeared. It was gone when I got here, then
showed itself. If these five square meters of exposed curvature hold true, it's maybe two or three
kilometers across, with this entrance somewhere near the top."

“So this is where the tachyons are coming from!” Lena exclaimed.

“It may well be,” Rassmussen said, “that they are tachyons."

Juan threw back his hood and stepped up close. “There's a floor,” he said, peering into the chamber.

“Wait!” Mal shouted as Juan entered an egg-shaped chamber filled with blue light. There seemed to be
no other exit. Mal came in next to him.
Juan grabbed his friend's arm, pulled him deeper into the chamber and shouted, “Stand well back. I
want to try something!"