"Harry Harrison - Planet Of The Damned (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

die soon after I get to Dis--and long before the work there is finished. I
know the job to be done there, and I know the men who have already failed at
it. I also know you are the only person who can possibly complete the work I
have started. Do you agree now? Will you come with me?"

"Yes, of course," Brion said. "I'll go with you."
IV




Tve never seen anyone quite as angry as that doctor," Brion said.

"Can't blame him." Ihjel shifted his immense weight and grunted from the
console, where he was having a coded conversation with the ship's brain. He
hit the keys quickly, and read the answer from the screen. "You took away his
medical moment of glory. How many times in his Me will he have a chance to
nurse back to rugged smiling health the triumphantly exhausted Winner of the
Twenties?"

"Not many, I imagine. The wonder of it is how you managed to convince him that
you and the ship here could take care of me as well as his hospital could."

"I could never convince him of that," Ihjel said. "But I and the Cultural
Relationships Foundation have some powerful friends on Anvhar. I'm forced to
admit I brought a little pressure to bear." He leaned back and read the course
tape as it streamed out of the printer. "We have a little time to spare, but I
would rather spend it waiting at the other end. We'll blast as soon as I have
you tied down in a stasis field."

The completeness of the stasis field leaves no impressions on the body or
mind. In it there is no weight, no pressure, no pain--no sensation of any
kind. Except for a stasis of very long duration, there is no sensation of
time. To Brion's consciousness, Ihjel flipped the switch off with a
continuation of the same motion that had turned it on. The ship was unchanged,
only outside of the port was the red-shot blankness of jump-space.

"How do you feel?" Ihjel asked.

Apparently the ship was wondering the same thing. Its detector unit, hovering
impatiently just outside of Brion's stasis field, darted down and settled

on his bare forearm. The doctor back on Anvhar had given the medical section
of the ship's brain a complete briefing. A quick check of a dozen factors of
Brion's metabolism was compared to the expected norm. Apparently everything
was going well, because the only reaction was the expected injection of
vitamins and glucose.

"I can't say I'm feeling wonderful yet," Brion answered, levering himself
higher on the pillows. "But every day it's a bit better--steady progress."