"Zach Hughes - Mother Lode" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

Mop. Once she saw Denton Gale come out of his office and look over
toward the Mother, but he did not put in an appearance. She lifted ship
without saying good-bye to the only person on New Earth other than a
lawyer whom she knew by name.

Once out of the planet's gravity well she set multiple blinks into the
Mule's big and powerful generator and within a half hour Mother had
traversed the most traveled routes within U.P. territory, putting parsecs
behind her.

Each time the ship blinked, making for that funny little feeling in the
stomach, Mop looked up, lifted one ear, and yawned. During recharging,
when there was nothing to do but wait while old Mr. Blink's miracle
accumulated energy from the stars, she slept, read, sampled the
holo-pictures, and wondered if, after all, her mother had had any children
that lived.
 "You," she said accusingly to the Mop dog. "It's all your fault. You're
always so damned eager to go. "

Mop's good ear lifted. His tongue came out and he panted excitedly as
if to say, "Where, where, go where?"




CHAPTER THREE

Dressed in athletic shorts and shirt, breasts bound to prevent soreness
from bouncing, Erin ran down a New Earth country lane between rows of
flowering trees. The sun was warm on her back. The sky overhead was
pellucid blue. She'd done half a mile, had a mile and a half to go.

Beside the moving track a long-haired little dog sat watching with
puzzled interest. He rose, yawned, and stretched, went to lift one leg
against a roadside tree.

"No, no," Erin said.

The dog was confused. The holo images looked real, but when he tried
to go into the woods to find bigger and better trees to irrigate, he bumped
into the wall. He came back to cock his head and look up at Erin as she
ran lightly on the moving belt. He apparently decided that it looked like
fun and jumped onto the belt, lost his footing, and went rolling back past
Erin's feet.

"You just have to get the hang of it," Erin said. She slowed the belt,
picked Mop up, put him directly in front of her. The belt carried him
backward, but he began running, fell back between Erin's legs and almost
tripped her. He finally got the hang of it and, as she increased the speed of
the exercise track, ran ahead of her, looking back over his shoulder once