"George Zebrowski - The Star Web" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zebrowski George)

struck it. One of the diggers came up to him and handed him a small geologist's hammer. Juan struck
once lightly. The only sound was a dull metallic thud. In a wild moment he had almost expected the beast
to move and shake the ice…

"We're going to try going through this," Malachi said kneeling down next to him. "I don't think this
belongs to anyone we know, old man."

"How big do you think it is?"

"No way to tell, yet. The first dig holes are two hundred feet apart and this is in the middle. We could drill
more holes and widen them out like this one."

"You pick the spot and give the orders," Juan said. "Then we had better get some sleep. Lena and
Magnus will wake us if anything new happens."

Juan stood up and led the way out of the crater. There was a faint hint of dawn light coming up from
behind the mountains. For a moment he wondered what he was doing here, what this crazy dig-ging was
all about, and what were all these unlikely theories he and Malachi had started coming up with. He
staggered toward the hut thinking of sleep.

Lena was shaking him awake, gently.

"Juan, there's an opening, wake up."

He opened his eyes and saw the high cheekbones and blue eyes of her face hovering over him. Behind
her Malachi was sitting in a chair drinking coffee. The white coffee cup seemed to match his teeth, and
for a moment before his vision cleared Juan thought it was a huge tooth. Through the small window in the
direction of his feet he could see it was evening again. Suddenly he resented Antarctica. Where were the
sunny beaches and the simple pleasures he had not known for so long? Where was the love affair he had
put off for so long now? What was this thing under the ice which was quickly becoming a nagging puzzle?
He imagined a city standing on the soil of a continent locked in ice. Whatever it turned out to be, he knew
he would resent it.

Slowly he got up and slipped into his insulated coverall which went on over the thermal indoor suits they
all wore. "What do you mean, Lena?" he asked as Malachi gave him a cup of coffee.

"We've found an opening into the thing," Malachi said, "she only repeated it nine times."

Obrion started pacing next to his bunk while sipping his coffee. "I expected that there would be one." He
put the cup on a chair. "Let's get out there."

Blue light was streaming upward from the crater. As Juan followed Malachi down into the new open-ing,
the light radiated upward as if cast by a blue sun below the horizon.

Magnus Rassmussen was standing over a circular opening, his profile thrown into a strange shadow cast
upward by the blue glare. Juan came up to the well of light and stood looking down as if into an oceanic
eye. Lena and Malachi walked around to his left and stared down silently.

"Mai, you come with me," Obrion said.