"Harry Harrison - Deathworld 1 " - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

Kerk nodded and started toward the ship. One of the locks opened as they came up but no one appeared. Instead a remote-
release folding ladder rattled down to the ground. Kerk swarmed up it and Jason followed glumly. Somehow, he felt, this was
overdoing the no-frills-and-nonsense attitude.
Jason was catching on to Pyrran ways, though. The reception aboard ship for the ambassador was just what he expected.
Nothing. Kerk closed the lock himself and they found couches as the takeoff horn sounded. The main jets roared and acceleration
smashed down on Jason.
It didn't stop. Instead it grew stronger, squeezing the air out of his lungs and the sight from his eyes. He screamed but couldn't
hear his own voice through the roaring in his ears. Mercifully he blacked out.
When consciousness returned the ship was at zero-G. Jason kept his eyes closed and let the pain seep out of his body. Kerk
spoke suddenly; he was standing next to the couch.
"My fault, Meta, I should have told you we had a one-C passenger aboard. You might have eased up a bit on your usual bone-
breaking takeoff."
"It doesn't seem to have harmed him much-but what's he doing here?"
Jason felt mild surprise that the second voice was a girl's. But he wasn't interested enough to go to the trouble of opening his
sore eyes.
"Going to Pyrrus. I tried to talk him out of it, of course, but I couldn't change his mind. It's a shame, too, I would like to have
done more for him. He's the one who got the money for us."
"Oh, that's awful," the girl said. Jason wondered why it was awful. It didn't make sense to his groggy mind. "It would have
been much better if he stayed on Darkhan," the girl continued. "He's very nice looking. I think it's a shame he has to die."
That was too much for Jason. He pried one eye open, then the other. The voice belonged to a girl of about twenty-one who
was standing next to the bed, gazing down at Jason. She was beautiful.
Jason's eyes opened wider as he realized she was very beautiful- with the kind of beauty he had never found on the planets in
the center of the galaxy. The women he had known all ran to pale skin, hollow shoulders, grey faces covered with tints and dyes.
They were the product of centuries of breeding weaknesses back into the race, as the advance of medicine kept alive more and
more non-survival types.
This girl was the direct opposite in every way. She was the product of survival on Pyrrus. The heavy gravity that produced
bulging muscles in men, brought out firm strength in strap-like female muscles. She had the taut figure of a goddess, tanned skin
and perfectly formed face. Her hair, which was cut short, circled her head with a golden crown. The only unfeminine thing about
her was the gun she wore in a bulky forearm holster. When she saw Jason's eyes open she smiled at him. Her teeth were as even
and as white as he had expected.
 "I'm Meta, pilot of this ship. And you must be-"
"Jason dinAlt. That was a lousy takeoff, Meta."
"I'm really very sorry," she laughed. "But being born on a two-C planet makes you a little immune to acceleration. I save fuel
too, with the synergy curve-"
Kerk gave a noncommittal grunt. "Come along, Meta, we'll take a look at the cargo. Some of the new stuff will plug the gaps
in the perimeter."
"Oh, yes," she said, almost clapping her hands with happiness. "I read the specs, they're simply wonderful."
Like a schoolgirl with a new dress. Or a box of candy. That's a great attitude to have toward bombs and flamethrowers. Jason
smiled wryly at the thought as he groaned off the couch. The two Pyrrans had gone and he pulled himself painfully through the
door after them.
It took him a long time to find his way to the hold. The ship was big and apparently empty of crew. Jason finally found a man
sleeping in one of the brightly lit cabins. He recognized him as the driver who had turned the car over to them on Cassylia. The
man, who had been sleeping soundly a moment before, opened his eyes as soon as Jason drifted into the room. He was wide
awake.
"How do I get to the cargo hold?" Jason asked.
The other told him, closed his eyes and went instantly back to sleep before Jason could even say thanks.
In the hold, Kerk and Meta had opened some of the crates and were chortling with joy over their lethal contents. Meta, a
pressure canister in her arms, turned to Jason as he came through the door.
"Just look at this," she said. "This powder in here-why you can eat it like dirt, with less harm. Yet it is instantly deadly to all
forms of vegetable life...." She stopped suddenly as she realized Jason didn't share her extreme pleasure. "I'm sorry. Only I forgot