"Andre Norton - Redline The Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

"Reincarnation?" Tau asked, curious as always about the magic and beliefs of others.

"Aye," she responded, still smiling, "but the reference was poetic. I think we humans are granted only one voyage in which to prove ourselves. — I like to imagine that Sinbad's kind might return more often, though, at least when and where they choose. Their life spans are so much shorter than ours that it's nice to feel we might be reunited with a friend of our youth at a later point in our lives."

She eyed them for a moment, as if waiting for some challenge, then flexed her shoulders again and glanced at the screen. "The fifth section's almost in. It's slow going, but complex enough to make the inputting fairly interesting work."

"Exhausting work," Jellico snapped. "You look burned down."

The Medic studied her. "You have some Soft-Tear, I presume?"

"Of course." The soothing drops were a widely used remedy for eyestrain throughout the Federation.

"Break off here and use it, then. This is a long-term project and won't be finished before we reach Canuche whether we kill ourselves on it or not."

"I know, Doctor," she agreed ruefully. "I just find it hard to stop sometimes once my navputer's programmed for a job like this, especially when things're moving well."

She came to her feet. "Mind if I see Queex first. Sir?" she asked Miceal. "I missed dropping in on him today, and ..."

"I know. I haven't enjoyed a moment's quiet since noon. — See him by all means, and from now on you are to spend at least thirty minutes every day entertaining him. I need some peace, at least in my own quarters."

"Thank you, Captain!"

"That was not meant as some sort of reward, Doctor Cofort," he told her severely.

"I know. Sir, but it is all the same."

The woman took her leave of them after that with a wave of her hand.

Jellico watched her disappear through the door. If she was tired there was no sign of it in her step, but he still fixed his comrade with a stern look. "I want to knock full value out other, Craig, not kill her. This isn't a slave ship."

Tau turned to the locker where he kept his implements and more common medications. "I can't see that one meekly submitting to abuse. — Roll up your sleeve. Captain. This won't hurt a bit."

"You say that every time."

"True, when I'm giving an immunization shot. It's medical tradition."

He stopped talking while he prepared the laser needle, then continued. "It also seems to be tradition that no ship's crew is ever on a nice, convenient, easily remembered schedule to receive them."

"You could drop this one for all the good it does," his commander grumbled. "No matter how many shots you get against Quandon Fever, a new mutation inevitably crops up, and if you're exposed you get sick despite them all." "Not as sick. We hope. Besides, why make a home for the old versions? None ofthem're good tenants."

By the time Jellico felt the spark of heat from the needle,

Tau had already deactivated it. He glanced briefly at the tiny red spot it had left then rolled his sleeve back into place. "How's your assistant doing?"

"Cofort? If I'd placed an order directly with the Spirit ruling space, I couldn't have gotten better, at least not for this study of mine."

"It's more or less in her line, isn't it? She's an epidemiologist."

"That title scarcely describes it. Rael Cofort knows just about every detail of every plague since premechanical Terra, and she's very nearly as knowledgeable about mostly every other major disaster as well. She's been even more help correlating data and interpreting it than she has been with the inputting."