"Aleksandr Abramov, Sergei Abramov. Horsemen from Nowhere ("ВСАДНИКИ НИОТКУДА", англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

were engaged close by, and a third group, that I couldn't see any more, was
operating deep inside the ice. Soon the second one and the one next to us
disappeared in the ice-like a Gulliver Travels circus. All of a sudden, it
pushed up into the air a perfectly blue parallelepiped of ice, a glass bar
nearly a kilometre in length, geometrically flawless. It rose slowly and
floated upwards lightly and without a thought, like a toy balloon. Only two
"clouds" participated in this operation. They contracted and turned dark,
converting into the familiar saucers, turned skywards not earth-wards-two
incredible red giant flowers on invisible expanding stems. They did not
appear to be supporting the floating bar, for it rose above them at a decent
distance and was in no way connected or fastened.
"How does it hold up?" Martin asked in surprise. "On a shock wave? What
force must the wind have?"
"That's not the wind," said Tolya picking out his English words
carefully. "That's a field. Antigravitation." He threw an imploring glance
at Zernov.
"A field of force," Zernov explained. "Remember the G-loading, Martin,
when you and I tried to approach the airplane? Then it strengthened
gravitation, now it is obviously neutralizing it."
At that moment yet another kilometre-long bar of ice rose from the
surface of the ice plateau, thrown into space by an invisible titan. It rose
much faster than its predecessor and soon caught up with them at the
altitude of ordinary polar flights. One could clearly see how the ice bars
approached in the air, docked alongside one another, and merged into one
broad bar that hung motionless in the air. This was immediately followed by
a third, that lay down on top, then a fourth, to balance the plate. It grew
thicker with every fresh bar: the "clouds" required three to four minutes to
cut it out of the thick continental ice and raise it into the sky. As new
bars came off, the ice wall receded into the distance, and with it the rose
clouds too, which appeared to dissolve and vanish in the snowy distance. As
before, two red roses hung in the sky and above them the enormous crystal
cube with bright sunlight filtering through.
We stood speechless, enchanted by this picture that was almost musical
in its tones. A peculiar kind of gracefulness and plasticity of the
rose-coloured disc-knives, their coordinated rhythmical motions, the upward
flight of the blue ice bars that formed a gigantic cube in the sky-all this
was music to our ears, a soundless music of the mysterious spheres. We did
not even notice -only my cine camera recorded it-how the diamond cube of
sunlight began to diminish in size as it rose higher and higher, and finally
vanished way up beyond the cirrus cloudlets. The two command "flowers" also
vanished.
"A thousand million cubic metres of ice," groaned Tolya.
I looked at Zernov. Our eyes met.
"That's your answer to the main question, Anokhin," he said. "Where did
the ice wall come from and why there is so little snow under foot. They are
removing the ice shield of the Antarctic."