标题: 《Artifact The Last Citizen》作者： - A. Bertram Chandler【EPUB】 [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2013-3-29 19:12 标题: 《Artifact The Last Citizen》作者： - A. Bertram Chandler【EPUB】 ARTIFACT She came screaming in from the black sky, her wide wings eclipsing the bright stars as she skimmed over the Polar wastes, lower, lower, until her long landing skids touched in a flurry of snow and powdered ice, touched, rebounded, and touched again. From her needle sharp prow there was the brief, blinding flare of braking jets and she slowed abruptly to a halt. Lights came on inside her body, and the slowly settling ice crystals scintillated in the hard radiance from the ports like microscopic diamonds. After a long while — there were tests to be made, measurements of atmospheric pressure and temperature to be taken — a door in her side opened. A dark figure, bulky in protective clothing, jumped down to the snow, followed by a second, similar figure, and a third, and a fourth. The leader carried a long staff with a pointed ferrule, drove it, with a single, decisive action, deep into the snow. There was enough wind briefly to unfurl the flag at the head of the staff, to flaunt the gaily coloured silk in the beam of the searchlight that had been directed upon it from the ship. The four men stood stiffly to attention, their right hands raised