"Andre Norton - Moon Singer 1 - Moon of Three Rings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

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Moon of Three Rings by
Andre Norton
KRIP VORLUND
I
What is space? It is a wilderness beyond any man's exploring, even if he
had a hundred, a thousand life spans in which to prowl the lanes between
solar systems and planets, to go questing, to seek ever new and newer
knowledge of what may lie beyond the next sun, the next system. Yet to
such seekers comes also the knowledge that there must be no boundaries
to man's belief, but rather an acceptance of wonders which would leave
the planet-bound, those who follow familiar trails, incredulous and
refusing to accept the evidence of their own senses.

Those who do venture ever into the unknown— the First-in Scouts of
Survey, the explorers, and not the least, the Free Traders who pluck a
living from the fringes of the galaxy—to these it is a commonplace thing to
discover that the legends and fantasies of one planet may be lightsome or
grim truth on another world. For each new planet-fall brings its own
mysteries and discoveries.

Which is perhaps too much of a pseudo-philosophic beginning for this
account—save I know of no better, not being used to making more than
trade reports for that repository of some very strange facts—the League of
Free Traders. When a man tries to deal with the unbelievable, he finds it a
fumbling business, in need of some introduction.

First-in Scouts, from their unending quest for new worlds and systems,
turn in many weird and strange reports to Survey. But even the planets
opened to human contact by their efforts can yield hidden secrets, after
they have been pronounced favorable ports for wandering ships, or even
for pioneer settlements .

The Free Traders who exist upon cross trade, having no fat plums to
sustain them as do the Combines of the inner planets with their
monopolies, face now and again things that even Survey does not know.
Thus it was on Yiktor—in the time of the Moon of Three Rings. And who
better can make this report than I, to whom this happened, though I was
only assistant cargomaster of the Lydis, the last-signed member of her
crew into the bargain.

Over the years the Free Traders, because of their way of life, have
become almost a separate race in the galaxy. They own no one world