《Aberrant》作者： - Sydney J. Van Scyoc【EPUB】

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It was past planet-noon when the hoverscooter lofted from the green hollow, where the scoutcraft nested and moved buoyantly across the landscape, maintaining a twelve-inch air cushion between the boots of its two passengers and the black soil of this world. In their heavy shieldsuits and clearplas head-bubbles, the two men for once achieved a near-uniformity of detail and proportion. It was not a uniformity that would bear close inspection. Render guided the hoverscooter around a giant stalk that resembled a towering broccoli. Bright blooms spilled violently from the top of its head. At ground level, vines fought for space. Mingled with clusters of dull green leaves were others of such high metallic gloss that they mirrored sunlight in painful flashes. Springing through the vinyl carpet were waist-high plants with large, heavily-bearded leaves. Intermingled were many species that would have looked at home on Earth in any uncultivated field. Yute Vantz took no bucolic pleasure from the tangle of leaf, stalk and vine. He was too aware of his people in orbit above, anxious to learn if they could claim this world or if they must pass deeper into the void to establish their place. Yute glanced at Render. Like any spacebound Normal, Render had come aboard at Earthport already shieldsuited, and he had never shed or changed the suit over the months of the journey. Nor had he ever removed the headbubble. The air he breathed was scrupulously filtered before entering his tank. Technology had extended itself fully to protect his chaste genetic material from the warping rays and mutagenic gases that lay beyond Earth's solar system. Technology had extended itself less enthusiastically in the direction of comfort