"Alan E. Nourse - Rocket to Limbo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nourse Alan E)

sign that Man had ever come there. All tile near stars had been reached and explored by
now-Altair and Vega, Alpha Centauri and Sirius and Arcturus and the rtst-and nowhere had
a sign been found. The Argonaut had become a legend, a brave gesture of the past, but die
thought of that hopeless voyage never failed to stir Lars Heldrigsson, to make him eager to
be off, impatient with the years of study that had been necessary to qualify him for the
Colonial Service Patrol. It was a legend of greatness, and there was still a challenge in the
stars that time and a changing world 4sould never destroy.
Pf this Lars Heldrigsson was very sure.
10 ROCKET TO LIMBO
 He shouldered his pack again, a tiny fifty-pound bundle, the weight limit allowed
crewmen on Colonial Service ships, and walked quickly up the long ramp into the main
Terminal Concourse. He was large for his eighteen years, standing a full six feet two, broad
shouldered, powerful. His height and weight had been something of an issue when he had
entered the Colonial Service Academy five years before; since then he had gained another
two inches, and barely passed the physical examination before graduation, not because of
any sign of ill health but because of sheer size. His shock of yellow-white hair, his blue eyes
and the flat, heavy features of his face revealed clearly his Nordic ancestry. He seemed to
move slowly and ponderously. Throughout his Me he had had to contend with smaller, faster
ones who made the unfortunate mistake of assuming that Lars Heldrigsson couldn't move
fast when he wanted to-to their enduring regret.
Now he stepped briskly out into the Concourse, felt himself picked up and carried by the
streams of travelers, crewmen, colonists and Security men riding the rolling strips to and
from the launching racks and loading platforms. Everywhere there was feverish activity and
bustle. Across the way he saw lines of colonists waiting for their final physicals and baggage
checks before boarding the Star Ships that would carry them out to new homes, rugged-
homes, perhaps, a far cry from the crowded mechanization of the cities of Earth, but homes
where they could have land and food and a place to raise their children, homes linked to
Earth by the strong bonds of Colonial Service ships that traveled to the stars and back in
months.
And down the Concourse were the flashing lights of the shuttles leading out to the ships
themselves.
Star Ship Tethys, now loading colonists and supplies for the fourth planet of Sirius, an
old Colony, well established, rich in land, rich in Earth-mutated wheat, a sub-tropical
paradise with room for many thousands of families to settle and
ROCKET TO LIMBO 11
grow, almost self-supporting now and soon to apply for in-' dependent elections and
representation in the Colonial Council.
Star Ship Danton, taking men and machinery to the newly opened colony on Aldebaran
III, a bitter place until Earth weather technicians and Earth civil engineers had carved a
foothold for hungry Earthmen to find homes. A weatherbeaten fisherman made his way onto
the shuttle, with a gold ring in his ear and a tiny Arcturian monkey-bear on his shoulder,
tossing three sparkling tele-dice in the air before him to amuse his pet and laughing as the
creature batted at them with a tawny paw. There were great seas and many fish on
Aldebaran III.
Star Ship Mercedes, exploratory to the far system of Morua, a double star with endless
summer on its seventh planet, a good prospect for a new colony in ten more years, after the
exploratory crews and the survey crews and the engineering jerews and the pilot colonies
had done their work in opening it; a new escape valve for Earthmen who no longer had room
enough at home.
Star Ship Ganymede-