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

"That was my ship going up. It took just a single shot from that damned thing.
Our guns couldn't touch it. Now it's turning in this direction. It must be
tracking my radio signal, heat radiation, something. No point in turning the
radio off now. It's coming this way—straight at me. I'm shooting now but it
doesn't seem to affect it. I can't see any ports or windows facing this way.
The crew must see by TV relay. I'm trying to shoot out some protrusions on the
thing's front. They may be pickups. Instrumentation of some kind. Doesn't seem
to slow it down—"

The sound of the explosion terminated abruptly as the radio broadcast ended.
In orbit, high above, the control center in the deep spacer began to search
automatically for the radio signal, but without any success. Then it tried all
of the other broadcast channels. There was nothing. With mechanical tenacity
it started over once again and searched with maximum gain, but detected
nothing other than atmospherics. After one hour it repeated the search, and
every hour after that for the next twenty-four. When this part of the program
had been completed it turned on the FTL radio as it had been instructed and
sent out the broadcast it had

18

PLANET OF NO RETURN

recorded from the man on the ground. When this had been accomplished it would
down the power on all of its circuits to minimum maintenance, then wait with
infinite patience for its next command.

TWO The Smell of Death

"What is it? What's wrong?" Lea asked. Her shoulder had felt the sudden
tensing of Brion's body where it touched him. They were lying back on the deep
lounge, completely relaxed, gazing out of the viewing port at the star-filled
darkness of interstellar space. His great arm was about her thin body and she
was very aware of its sudden rigidity.

"Nothing is wrong, nothing at all. Will you look at those colors ..."

"Listen, you darling big slab of muscle, you may be the best weightlifter in
the galaxy—but you are also the worst liar. Something has happened. Something
I don't know about."

Brion hesitated a moment, then nodded. "There's someone close by, someone who
hasn't been here before. Someone bringing trouble."

"I believe in your empathetic abilities, I've seen them at work. So I know
that you can sense other

19

20 PLANET OF NO RETURN