《Plaything 》作者：- Larry Niven 【EPUB】

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Plaything Larry Niven Produced by calibre 0.6.40 PLAYTHING Man is the meanest, toughest, orneriest creature in the Known Universe. Of course, the Known Universe isn't very extensive yet... Larry Niven THE children were playing six-point Overlord, hopping from point to point over a hexagonal diagram drawn in the sand, when the probe broke atmosphere over their heads. They might have sensed it then, for it was heating fast as it entered atmosphere; but nobody happened to look up. Seconds later the retrorocket tired. A gentle rain of infrared light bathed the limonite sands. Over hundreds of square miles of orange martian desert, wide-spaced clumps of black grass uncurled their leaves to catch and hoard the heat. Tiny sessile things buried beneath the sand raised fan-shaped probes. The children hadn't noticed yet, but their ears were stirring. Their ears sensed heat rather than sound; unless they were listening to some heat scource, they usually remained folded like silver flowers against the children's heads. Now they uncurled, flowers blooming, showing black centers; now they twitched and turned, seeking. One turned and saw it. A point of white light high in the east, slowly setting. The children talked to each other in coded pulses of heat, opening and closing their