"Alan E. Nourse - Peacemaker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nourse Alan E)

the corridor below. The battle lamp swung back and forth before them, its flash pattern swinging weirdly
on the bulkheads and deck. Flicker waited. The aliens started up the ladder before him, their thoughts a
muddle, fear oozing from them, but carrying with it a curious overtone of incaution. "We can check the
lifeboat for supplies now," came a thought, "and be ready to blast in an hour." At the top of the ladder
they passed so close to Flicker that he nearly gagged, yet in his desperate hunger there was something
almost tasty—about that smell. They moved on, toward the lifeboat locks, and Flicker followed, trying
eagerly to separate their thoughts into a coherent pattern.
"He's behind us!" It came suddenly, like a knife through the air.
"Don't turn around." The first alien gripped his companion's sleeve. "Pretend you don't know it." They
moved along, with no outward sign of their sudden terrible awareness. Their minds were racing, fearful,
but they kept on. Flicker crouched along the bulkhead and followed.
The aliens came to the hatch. Flicker tensed, ready for them. He heard them undog the hatch, heard
its squeak as it opened, and he tensed, his muscles quivering eagerly.
Three beams of light stabbed down the passageway at him, brilliant, staggering him LL back against
the bulkhead. He grasped frantically at the closing hatch, but it clanged shut, the heavy dogs scraping into
place on the opposite side. And at the other end of the corridor
He was trapped! Of course they had been incautious, nonchalant! Of course they had led him on.
And now—
"There he is! GET HIM!"
A heat gun whined, its searing energy ricocheting in the closed end of the corridor. With a snarl
Flicker sprang, high up on the bulkhead, dragging himself onto a shelf carrying emergency spacesuits.
Blast after blast came from the alien guns, rebounding like furies, all missing. "I can't kill it!" a thought
pounded through. "It's moving too fast!"
Frantically Flicker trained his own pistol on the hatchway, blasted a steady stream until the metal
melted through. With an exultant snarl he dived through the opening, and without pausing sprang up onto
the lifeboat locks. He paused, breathing heavily, his burned side throbbing painfully. The two aliens inside
were swinging their battle lamp in wild arcs. One spotted him and blasted, but he was gone before the
alien triggered. With careful aim he blasted the battle lamp, resting easy for a moment in the ensuing
darkness. Then he was across the lock, tearing, ripping, scratching, snarling into the two aliens, roaring in
savage glee. One of them fell with a crushed skull, its body horribly mutilated. The other slipped from his
grasp and started running through the blackness for the hatch. Flicker was there before it.
He picked up the alien bodily and threw him across the lock. In an instant he was upon him, ripping
off an arm at the socket. The alien screamed in pain, and tried to wriggle away. Flicker let him wriggle
about three feet. Then he gave him a cuff that sent him sprawling, and ripped off the other arm. The alien
twisted and turned like a worm on a stick, but Flicker didn't kill him. Instead, he broke a leg, and twisted
off an ear.
The three aliens in the corridor threw open the hatch and flooded the dark lock with the beams of the
battle lamps. They saw blood on the deck, and nothing more.
"We know you're in here. Come out now, or we'll come get you." Flicker caught the thought clearly,
and snickered comfortably. He was much more comfortable, now that he wasn't so hungry. He picked
up a long white bone and threw it against the opposite bulkhead. It clanged, and the three lamps swung
instantly in the direction of the sound. "There he is! Blast him!"
Three heat guns spoke sharply, and dead stillness echoed the despairing thought, "That wasn't it—"
They moved across the room, and dragged the charred and mutilated body of their companion away
from the bulkhead. "Let's get out of here! We can't fight this thing!" Sha-Lee started for the hatch,
followed by the other two.
Only two of the three reached the control room. Flicker played with the third for quite a long while
before he killed him.
"We aren't going to get out of this alive," said Sha-Lee. "You know that, as well as I do, I guess."
Jock nodded. "I've been sure of it since he got Klock in the first place. He moves too fast, he thinks