"Harry Harrison - Bill, The Galactic Hero" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

protesting: call any other trooper bow b and he would hit you in the face. Bill
and Eager and the other troopers from X squad sitting around the table all
clapped and cheered, as they always did when Bowb said something.
"Tell, us more, Bowb!"
"It can still talk-I thought it was dead!"
"Go on-why is the body a wonderful thing?"
They waited in expectant silence, while Bowb managed to tear a bite from his
sausage and, after ineffectual chewing, swallowed it with an effort that
brought tears to his eyes. He eased the pain with a mouthful of beer and spoke.
"The human body is a wonderful thing, because if it doesn't die it lives."
They waited for more until they realized that he was finished, then they
sneered.
"Boy, are you full of bowb!"
"Sign up for OCS!"
"Yeah-but what does it mean?"
Bill knew what it meant but didn't tell them. There were only half as many
men in the squad as there had been the first day. One man had been transferred,
but all the others were in the hospital, or in the mental hospital, or
discharged for the convenience of tire government as being too crippled for
active service. Or dead. The survivors, after losing every ounce of weight not
made up of bone or essential connective tissue, had put back the lost weight in
the form of muscle and were now completely adapted to the rigors of Camp Leon
Trotsky, though they still loathed it. Bill marveled at the efficiency of the
system. Civilians had to fool around with examinations, grades, retirement
benefits, seniority, and a thousand other factors that limited the efficiency
of the workers. But how easily the troopers did it! They simply killed off
the weaker ones and used the survivors. He respected the system. Though he
still loathed it.
"You know what I need, I need a woman," Ugly Ugglesway said.
"Don't talk dirty," Bill told him promptly, since he had been correctly
brought up.
"I'm not talking dirty!-" Ugly whined. "It's not like I said I wanted to
re-enlist or that I thought Deathwish was human or anything like that. I just
said I need a woman. Don't we all?"
"I need a drink," Bowb Brown said as he took a long swig from his glass of
dehydrated reconstituted beer, shuddered, then squirted it out through his
teeth in a long stream onto the concrete, where it instantly evaporated.
"Affirm, affirm," Ugly agreed, bobbing his mat haired, warty head up and
down. "I need a woman and a drink." His whine became almost plaintive. "After
all, what else is there to want in the troopers outside of out?"
They thought about that a long time, but could think of nothing else that
anyone really wanted. Eager Beager looked out from under the table, where he
was surreptitiously polishing a boot and said that he wanted more polish, but
they ignored him. Even Bill, now that he put his mind to it, could think of
nothing he really wanted other than this inextricably linked pair. He tried
hard to think of something else, since he had vague memories of wanting other
things when he had been a civilian, but nothing else came to mind.
"Gee, it's only seven weeks more until we get our first pass," Eager said
from under the table, then screamed a little as everyone kicked him at once.
But slow as subjective time crawled by, the objective clocks were still