"Gordon Dickson & Harry Harrision - Lifeship Lp Ebook Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

"What're you afraid of, Groce?" The girl's voice had an edge to it. "You act as if you don't dare breathe without permission from her! Do you want to stay here and choke to death?"

"It's all right for you..." muttered the male voice. "I've never been mixed up in anything. My record's perfect."

"If you think that matters—"

Giles 'head was clear now. He rolled to his feet in one quick motion, stepped around the open door, and joined the two smaller

gray-suited figures beyond it.

"All right," he said, crisply. "You're correct, girl. The lifeship's just down the corridor, here. You—what's your name? Groce? Lead off!"

The male arbite turned without a word and obeyed, responding instinctively to the note of command he would have heard from Adelbom all the days of his life. He was a short, round-headed, stocky man in early middle age. For a second, before following. Giles glanced curiously at the girl arbite. She was small, as all those of the lower class were, but good-looking for an arbite. Under her light-brown, close-cropped hair, her pale, narrow face was composed and unafraid. No doubt some high-caste blood in her ancestry somewhere, Giles thought.

"Good girl," he said more gently. "You follow me, now. Hang on to my jacket if the smoke gets too thick to see."

He patted her on the head before stepping out in front of her. He had turned away and did not see the sudden wild flash of indignation and anger that twisted her features as his hand touched her head. But the look was gone almost as soon as it had appeared. She followed him with the normal calmness of arbite expression on her face.

Giles reached out ahead to close his hand on the right shoulder of Groce. The man flinched at the touch.

"Steady, there!" snapped Giles. "All you have to do is obey. Move, nowl"

"Yes, Honor," muttered Groce, doubtfully. But his shoulder squared under Giles' fingers. His step became firmer, and he led the way into the smoky corridor.

The smoke thickened. They all coughed. Giles felt the hand of the girl, Mara, grope for the slack of his jacket in back and take hold of it.

"Keep moving!" said Giles, between coughs. "It can't be much further."

Suddenly they came up against a barrier.

"A door," said Groce.

"Open it. Go on through!" snapped Giles, impatiently. The arbite obeyed—and suddenly they were all in a small area where the smoke was less dense. Mara pushed closed behind them the door by which they had just entered.

There was another door directly in front of them, also closed. A heavy airlock door. Stepping past Groce, Giles pushed at it without being able to open it, then pounded on its activating button with his fist. The door opened slowly, swinging inward, away from them. Beyond was an airlock space and a further airlock door, open.

"Go," said Giles briefly to the two arbites, pointing to the other open lock. Mara obeyed, but Groce hesitated.

"Honor, sir?" he asked. "Please—what happened to the Spacehner?"

"An explosion somewhere aft. I don't know what caused it/' answered Giles, shortly. "Go ahead, now. The lifeship's through the further lock, there.*' Groce still hesitated. "What if there's others coming?" he asked. "Anyone coming will be here soon," Giles said. "With this smoke already in the corridors, there isn't much time. This lifeship is going to have to be launched soon." "But what if, when I get inside—"

"When you get inside," Giles said, "there'll be an Albenareth there to tell you what to do. There's an alien officer in charge of any lifeship. Now, movel"

Groce went. Giles turned back to make sure that the airlock door behind him was closed. The smoke was eddying around him, although he could not see the source of the air current that was moving it, now that the shipside airlock door was closed. A loudspeaker over the closed door echoed suddenly to the sound of distant coughing.

"Sir," said the voice of Groce, unexpectedly behind him, "there isn't any Albenareth in the lifeship yet."

"Get back inside. Wait there!" he snapped at the arbite, without turning his head. The sound of coughing from the loudspeaker was louder now, echoed by the clang of stumbling feet approaching. One of those coming, Giles thought, had better be the Albenareth officer. Giles could pilot his own yacht around the Solar System, but as for handling an alien lifeship...