"Dragons Dawn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

»Screening probe reports, sir,« Sallah confirmed, »on two and
five.« Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Admiral Benden smile slightly.
»This is sort of anticlimactic, isnґt it?« Paul murmured to Emily
Boll as the latest reports flashed onto the screens.
Arms folded across her chest, she hadnґt moved since the probes had
been launched, except for an occasional twiddling of fingers along her
upper arms. She lifted her right eyebrow in a cynical twitch and kept her
eyes on the screen.
»Oh, I donґt know. Itґs one more procedure which gets us nearer the
surface. Of course,« she added dryly, »weґre sort of stuck with whateverґs
reported, but I expect we can cope.«
»Weґll have to, wonґt we?« Paul Benden replied a trifle grimly.
The Trip was one-way -- it had to be, considering the cost of
getting over six thousand colonists and supplies to such an out-of-the-way
sector of the galaxy. Once they reached Pern the fuel left in the great
transport ships would be enough only to achieve and maintain synchronous
orbit above their destination while people and cargo were shuttled down to
the surface. To be sure, they had homing capsules that would reach the
headquarters of the Federated Sentient Planets in a mere five years, but to
a retired naval tactician like Paul Benden, a fragile homing capsule did
not offer much in the way of an effective backup. The Pern expedition was
composed of committed and resourceful people who had chosen to eschew the
high-tech societies of the Federated Sentient Planets. They expected to
manage on their own. And though their destination in the Rukbat system was
rich enough in ores and minerals to support an agriculturally based
society, it was poor enough and far enough from the center of the galaxy
that it should escape the greed of the technocrats.
»Only a little while longer, Paul,« Emily murmured, her voice
reaching his ears alone, »and weґll both be able to lay down the weary
load.«
He grinned up at her, knowing that it had been as difficult for her
as it had been for him to escape the blandishments of technocrats who had
not wished to lose two such charismatic war heroes: the admiral who had
prevailed in the Cygni Space Battle, and the governor-heroine of First
Centauri. But no one could deny that the two were the ideal leaders for the
Pern expedition.
»Speaking of loads,« she went on more loudly, »Iґd better be there
to referee my team now the reports are coming in. I suppose specialists
have to consider their own disciplines the most important ones, but such
contentiousness!« She stifled a groan, then grinned, her blue eyes
twinkling in her rather homely face. »Just a few more days of talking, and
itґll be action stations, Admiral.«
She knew him well. He hated the interminable debate over minor
points that seemed to obsess those in charge of the landing operation. He
preferred to make quick decisions and implement them immediately, instead
of talking them to death.
»Youґre more patient with your teams than I am,« the admiral said
quietly. The last two months, as the three ships had decelerated into the
Rukbat system, had been made tedious with meetings and discussions which
seemed to Paul to be nit-picking over procedures that had been thoroughly