"Harry Harrison - Planet Of No Return" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

shuffled forward, pushing between them with some effort.

"This has gone far enough," he said. "Now I must intervene before the
situation gets out of hand. Brandd, please join Dr. Morees. Now "

Brion took a deep breath and forced his muscles to relax. Carver was right—but
he was still sorry that the Captain hadn't started a little trouble for him to
finish. He spun on his heel and walked over to Lea, who was sitting on a bench
against the bulkhead As soon as the two men had been separated, Carver dug
into his side pocket with his good hand and extracted a piece of paper,
glanced at it briefly and put it away again.

"We had hoped for your voluntary cooperation, Captain M'Luta. But voluntary or
not you will help us . .

"Officer of the watch," the Captain said into the microphone on his collar.
"To the bridge at once with three ratings. Armed."

"Cancel that order at once," Carver said, angry himself now. "Get on the FTL
communicator and call your base. Ask for Code Dp-L."
34

PLANET OF NO RETURN

The Captain spun about sharply and loomed over the thin figure of the wounded
man. "Where did you get that code?" he snapped the order. "Who are you?"

"No more questions if you please. Make that call and tell them that my name is
Carver. Tell them that I am with you now."

The Captain did not answer, but they heard him cancelling his last command for
armed assistance as he stamped across the bridge and into the communication
compartment.

"What magic is that?" Brion asked as Carver dropped wearily onto the bench at
his side.

"That's clout, not magic. The Captain's home world, Roodepoort, is one of
those that owes a lot to the Cultural Relationships Foundation. The people on
the planet may not know it—but the government does. They pay us a very large
and completely voluntary contribution each year."

Brion nodded. "That means that Roodepoort is one of those worlds that Culrel
aided in the past. We helped them out of trouble?"

"Perfectly correct. We can ask them for assistance, any amount—at any time.
But it is the kind of debt that we collect only in an emergency. The director
of their space agency has been informed of my presence here, and he has been
told that his agency may expect a message about me. The director is a very
busy executive and I don't think that she will enjoy being disturbed in this