"John Dalmas - Return to Fanglith" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

I scrambled out of the scrub onto the open, moonlit
crest and straightened, gasping for breath. Then I
heard hooves and turned. A rider had been coming
along the crest in my direction and, seeing me, had
spurred his horse into galloping attack. Ignoring his
lance, he drew his sword, leaning sideways to strike.
My hand seemed to move in slow motion - drawing my
stunner, raising it, pointing, thumbing. His horse
nose-dived, hitting the ground so heavily I swear I
could feel it through my feet. The Saracen hurtled
over its head in a billow of robe, moonlight flashing
on sword. I zapped him too, as he skidded. He stopped
not ten feet from me.
He was dead of course. On high intensity at such
close range, I'd really curdled his synapses. I took
his shield; I'd need one when daylight came.

PART ONE

ESCAPE FROM EVDASH

ONE

I wasn't actually undernourished, but we'd been on
tight rations, and more or less hungry, for
fifty-seven days. Which is something you can get used
to, but not what I think of as ideal. In space you
can't stop off at a friendly nearby restaurant or
food store. The nearest planets are likely to be
parsecs* away, and have a couple of Imperial frigates
flying sentry around them, with chase craft ready for
launch. We'd had more than enough of those.

Now Fanglith lay beautifully blue and white,
primitive and savage, only 40,000 miles off our
starboard window with, so far no sign of a picket
ship on our instruments. Which were good ones, as
you'd expect on a stolen naval patrol scout.

I wasn't sure what we could hope to accomplish there;
we had no plans. But just then, food was what I was
mainly interested in.
"I never expected to see this place again," I said,
more to myself than to Deneen or Bubba or Tarel. We'd
been lucky to get away alive the first time. But
sometimes fate-whatever "fate" is-hits you when
you're least prepared. And when it does, it can be
with three or four punches, one after another.

We'd been 646 parsecs* from Fanglith, on a wilderness