"Joe Haldeman - We Were Very Happy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

again.”

“Once more before the real thing.”

“Mm-hm. Maybe.” She picked up a cup and blew into it. She looked worried, a tiny line bisecting the
space between her eyebrows. “Or maybe the Taurans had a ship ‘way out, waiting for us. I’ve
wondered why they don’t do it, like we do at Stargate.”

I shrugged. “Stargate’s a different thing. It takes seven or eight cruisers, moving all the time, to cover the
most probable exit angles. We can’t afford to do it for more than one collapsar, and neither can they.”

“I don’t know.” She didn’t say anything while she filled her cup. “Maybe we’ve stumbled on their version
of Stargate. Or maybe they have ten times as many ships. A hundred times. Who knows?”

I filled and sugared two cups, sealed one. “No way to tell.” We walked back to a table, careful with the
rapid sloshing of the soya in the high gravity.

“Maybe Singhe knows something,” she said.

“Maybe he does. But I’d have to get to him through Rogers and Cortez. Cortez would jump down my
throat if I tried to bother him now.”

“Oh, I can get to Singhe directly. We…” She looked at me very seriously and then dimpled a little bit.
“We’ve been friends.”

I sipped some scalding soya and tried to sound nonchalant. “That’s where you disappeared to
Wednesday night?”

“I’d have to check my roster,” she said and smiled. “I think it’s Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
during months with an ‘r’ in them. Why? You disapprove?”

“Well… damn it, no, of course not. But—but he’s an officer! A Navy officer!”

“He’s attached to us and that makes him part Army.” She twisted her ring and said, “Directory.” To me:
“What about you and cuddly little Miss Harmony?”

“That’s not the same thing.” She was whispering a directory code into the ring.

“Yes, it is. You just wanted to do it with an officer. Pervert.” The ring bleated twice. Busy. “How was
she?”

“Adequate.” I was recovering.

“Besides, Ensign Singhe is a perfect gentleman. And not the least bit jealous.”

“Neither am I,” I said. “If he ever hurts you, tell me and I’ll break his ass.”

She smiled at me across her cup. “If Lieutenant Harmony ever hurts you, tell me and I’ll break her ass.”

“It’s a deal.” We shook on it solemnly.