"Tom Godwin - The Space barbarians" - читать интересную книгу автора (Godwin Tom)

universe by which they could overtake it

"I'll call Ragnarok," John said, turning to the hyperspace
communicator. "Athena must be warned, too, in case the Ghost veers over
that way. One of you have Commander Hayden notified, so he can take
care of that, himself."

He sent the message of warning to Ragnarok; specifically, to old Dan
Destry, who had the prime responsibility for the welfare of all the others.
He ended with the words: "If we had anywhere near the speed of the
Ghost, we would be on our way to Ragnarok at once. We may decide to do
that within the next two hours, anyway."

He turned back to face the other two men, glad that the communicator
he had just used transmitted at a velocity of ten thousand lightyears a day.
The message would cross the two hundred and sixty lightyears in
approximately thirty-seven minutes. The hyperspace transmitters known
to Terrans or Gerns two hundred years before had had a transmission
velocity of only five lightyears a day.

"I told Hayden," Dale said. "He sounded almost sober. He's having
Athena, and Earth, and all ships warned of what happened."

"The Ghost might be bound for a world hundreds of light-years beyond
Ragnarok," John answered. "After all, there's nothing on Ragnarok for
strangers but barren rocks and Hell Fever. But we'll see—we may decide to
drop our diplomatic mission and head straight for home, anyway."

"To me," Norman said, "this diplomatic business never made sense.
Why should we go on to Earth for a psuedo-friendly reception by a race
that hates us?"

"Not really hatred," John answered. "In a way, it's understandable. Two
thousand of us did in three years what hundreds of millions of Earthmen
hadn't been able to do in two centuries. We'll be on Earth for only a day or
two, then we'll go on."

"Gesture of respect," Dale said, smiling a little at Norman. "We want to
see Mother Earth again, home of our forefathers, before we go back to our
own world. This is to remind them that we're still brothers under the skin,
and all that."

"Brothers? Norman asked. His lip curled. "Muties—that's what they call
us behind our backs. We're mutants—accidental freaks—especially to the
Athenans. They can all go to hell so far as I'm concerned."

John was alone twenty minutes later when Earth's Grand Commander
Hayden came in. Hayden was a tall man, tanned and hard by Earth
standards, with a military bearing that was increased by his gray
mustache and steel-blue eyes. There would have been both strength and