"Murray Leinster - The Corianis Disaster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

of overdrive. But the stars were visible now—more, there was an irregular blackness which shut out
many of them. It moved very slowly with relation to the ship. It was an object floating in emptiness. It
could be small and very near, or farther away and many times the size of theCorianis.

There was another object, jagged and irregular. There were others. TheCorianis was out of overdrive
and in very bad company, something like three light-years from port.

He swallowed, and then moved aside.

"There are the stars," he told the girl. He very carefully kept his voice steady. "They're all the colors there
are. Notice?"

She looked; and the firmament as seen from space is worth looking at. "Oh-h-h!" she cried. She forgot
to be shy. "And that blackness ..."

"It's the effect of the overdrive field," he said untruthfully.

She looked. She was carried away by the sight. Bedell figured she would probably find someone to tell
about it, and if there was an emergency—and there was— the fewer passengers who knew about it, the
better.

She asked eager questions, and then she turned and

looked at him and realized, that she had been talking; she was embarrassed.

"Look!" said Bedell uncomfortably. "I've done quite a lot of space-travel, but I—I find it hard to talk to
people, though it's perfectly proper for fellow-passengers to talk. I'd be grateful.. ."

She hesitated; but his diffidence was real. He'd spoken because she would not tell anyone that the ship
was out of overdrive. Maybe—maybe—something could be done about it. And people who are shy can
often talk together because they understand.

"Then we'll find a place to sit down," he suggested.

Presently, inconspicuously, he wiped sweat off his forehead. The ship would be about halfway on its
journey. If it made a signal, and if the signal could reach so far, it would reach the two nearest planets
some three years from now, when theCorianis was forgotten. There were other resources, but they
depended on the ship being missed right away. That wasn't likely.

So he talked to the girl. Her name was Kathy Sanders. She was secretary to an assistant to the
Secretary of Commerce.

When they separated, he thought of something.

"Now, why the hell didn't I remember that a passenger ship has to have a spare overdrive unit?" he
demanded of himself. "How silly can I get? Everything's all right. It must be!"

But it wasn't.

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