Lensman 01 Smith, E E 'Doc' Triplanetary

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.""And the Nevians are afraid of them, and want to kill them all, as fastas theypossibly can," guessed Clio.""That would be the logical thing, of course," commented Bradley."Gotprettynearly enough distance now, Costigan?""There isn't enough distance on the planet to suit me," Costigan replied."We'llneed all we can get.A full diameter away from that crew of amphibians is tooclose forcomfort their detectors are keen.""Then they can detect us?" Clio asked."Oh, I wish they hadn't hit us -we'd havebeen away from here long ago.""So do I," Costigan agreed, feelingly."But they did - no use squawking.We canrivet and weld Those seams, and things could be a lot worse - we are stillbreathing air!"In silence the lifeboat flashed onward, and half of Nevia's mighty globewastraversed before it was brought to a halt.Then in furious haste the twoofficers set towork, again to make their small craft sound and spaceworthy.Page 211ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlCHAPTER 12WORM, SUBMARINE, AND FREEDOMSince both Costigan and Bradley often watched their captors at workduring thelong voyage from the Solar System to Nevia, they were quite familiar with themachinetools of the amphibians.Their stolen lifeboat, being an emergency craft, ofcoursecarried full repair equipment; and to such good purpose did the two officerslabor thateven before their air-tanks were fully charged, all the damage had beenrepaired.The lifeboat lay motionless upon the mirror-smooth surface of the ocean.Captain Bradley had opened the upper port and the three stood in the opening,gazingin silence toward the incredibly distant horizon, while powerful pumps wereforcing thelast possible ounces of air into the storage cylinders.Mile upon strangelyflat milestretched that waveless, unbroken expanse of water, merging finally into theviolentredness of the Nevian sky.The sun was setting; a vast ball of purple flamedroppingrapidly toward the horizon.Darkness came suddenly as that seething balldisappeared,and the air became bitterly cold, in sharp contrast to the pleasant warmth ofa momentbefore.And as suddenly clouds appeared in blackly banked masses and a cold,drivingrain began to beat down."Br-r-r, it's cold! Let's go in - Oh! Shut the door!" Clio shrieked, andleaped wildlydown into the compartment below, out of Costigan's way, for he and Bradley hadalsoseen slithering toward them the frightful arm of the Thing.Page 212ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlAlmost before the girl had spoken Costigan had leaped to the controls,and notan instant too soon; for the tip of that horrible tentacle flashed into therapidly narrowingcrack just before the door clanged shut.As the powerful toggles forced theheavywedges into engagement and drove the massive disk home, that grisly tip fellseveredto the floor of the compartment and lay there, twitching and writhing with aloathsomeand unearthly vigor.Two feet long the piece was, and larger than a strongman's leg.Itwas armed with spiked and jointed metallic scales, and instead of suckingdisks it wasequipped with a series of mouths - mouths filled with sharp metallic teethwhichgnashed and ground together furiously, even though sundered from the horribleorganism which they were designed to feed.The little submarine shuddered in every plate and member as monstrouscoilsencircled her and tightened inexorably in terrific, rippling surges eloquentof mastodonicpower; and a strident vibration smote sickeningly upon Terrestrial eardrums asthemetal spikes of the monstrosity crunched and ground upon the outer plating oftheirsmall vessel.Costigan stood unmoved at the plate, watching intently; , handsreadyupon the controls.Due to the artificial gravity of the lifeboat it seemedperfectlystationary to its occupants.Only the weird gyrations of the pictures upon thelookoutscreens showed that the craft was being shaken and thrown about like a rat inthe jawsof a terrier; only the gauges revealed that they were almost a mile below thesurface ofthe ocean already, and were still going downward at an appalling rate.FinallyClio couldstand no more.Page 213ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Aren't you going to do something, Conway?" she cried."Not unless I have to," he replied, composedly."I don't believe that hecan reallyhurt us, and if I use force of any kind I'm afraid that it will kick up enoughdisturbance tobring Nerado down on us like a hawk onto a chicken.However, if he takes usmuchdeeper I'll have to go to work on him.We're getting down pretty close to ourlimit, andthe bottom's a long ways down yet [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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