"Vonda N. McIntyre - Starfarers" - читать интересную книгу автора (McIntyre Vonda N)

at it."

J.D. thought about how it would feel to sit and stand and
lie stretched out in space, comparing it to her diving experi-
ence.

"Okay," she said. "I see. That makes sense." She grasped
the armrests. Fright tinged her excitement, not unpleasantly.
Her fingers trembled. Victoria noticed her nervousness and
patted her hand. The sound patterns changed as the space-
plane readied itself for takeoff. J.D. would have sworn that
like a bird or a dolphin she could fee! the increase in the
magnetic field, the shift and slide of it as il oriented itself to
thrust the spaceplane down the long rails. Of course that was
absurd.

Victoria finished transferring her own allowanc from the

4 Vonda N. Mclntyre

carrier to the compartment. She had several acceleration-
resistant packages, but most of her allowance consisted'of
fancy clothes, similar to what she was wearing.

"Victoria," J.D. said hesitantly, "do people dress, um,
more formally on board then they would back here?"

Victoria was wearing an embroidered shirt and wide suede
trousers caught at her ankles with feathered ties.

"Hmm?" Victoria closed the compartment and gave J.D.'s
satchel to the artificial stupid waiting to take them off the
plane. Getting out of earth's gravity well was too expensive
to spend the acceleration on suitcases. The AS buzzed away,

"I couldn't help but notice what you're wearing. I didn't
bring anything like that, if that's what's called for on the
ship."

Victoria glanced at her, then chuckled. J.D. shifted uncom-
fortably. She had thrown away most of her beat-up old clothes,
and ordered new ones that she packed without trying on. She
had not had time even to consider buying anything formal.

"I'm not laughing at you," Victoria said quickly. "Just
imagining going to the lab in this outfit. We're pretty casual
on campus. But sometimes I get tired of casual. I always fill
up the extra comers of my personal allowance with silly
clothes- You can get necessities back home. It's the things
you can do without that you start to miss."