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

out to the ships. He flashed his card briskly to the guard at the gate and started to push
through the turnstile to the shuttle platform.
"Hold it, therel"
He stopped. The guard was staring at him suspiciously. "What's wrong?" Lars asked.
"You," said the guard. "Where do you think you're going?"
"To the Ganymede."
"The Ganymede is off limits to all personnel. That's straight from Security."
"But I'm on the crew of the Ganymede" Lars protested. "I can show you my orders."
Out of nowhere a gray-cloaked officer of the Security Police had appeared at Lars'
side. "Trouble here?"
The guard nodded vigorously. "Caught this man trying to board the Ganymede. You
know our special orders."
16 ROCKET TO LIMBO
"Of course." The Security man turned his eyes to Lars. "You have papers?"
"Look, I belong on the Ganymede" Lars said hotly. "What's all the trouble?"
"If what you say is so, you have papers to prove it. Let me see them."
Lars fumbled open his order sheets and handed them over. The officer scanned them.
"Sorry. This won't quite do. You'd better come along with me."
 "But it says right there-"
"I can see what it says. I see a robotyped order sheet carrying a robotyped authorization
to go aboard. But I don't see any countersignature."
Lars' jaw sagged and he felt his face flushing. "I-I forgot to get it. I was just starting my
leave when the orders came, and it slipped my mind in the rush of things-"
The Officer gave him a peculiar look. "That so? You'd better come along with me."
Lars followed the Security man down a side corridor and into an elevator. Moments later
they emerged into a long room one side of which was lined with cubicles. The officer
stopped at a desk, flipped the switch on a viewscreen. "Hardy here," he said. "Get Jackson
down here, and contact the Ganymede for me right away. We have a man here trying to
crash the gate. May be carrying forged orders, well soon know. Yes, yes, of course it's
urgent!"
He broke contact and turned to Lars. "Now, then. Let's see about those orders. In here."
He led Lars into a cubicle and strapped him into the seat -of an Identi-robot. Lars
pressed his palms against the charged metal plates, winced as the bright purple flash of the
retino-scope clicked in his eyes. His card and orders were placed in a photochamber.
"I don't see why you're making all this fuss," he said.
i
ROCKET TO LIMBO 17
"Suppose I weren't authorized to go aboard the Ganymede? So what? Would it be such
a crime?"
The officer just grunted and pulled the report sheet from the robot. "Okay," he said
finally. "You just wait here a while." He went out, closing the cubicle door behind him.
Lars stared about the room, his puzzlement giving way to apprehension. What had gone
wrong? Had there- been a slip-up somewhere in the issuing of his orders? Certainly he had
forgotten the countersignature from the port dispatching officer, but why should that bring
Colonial Security Police down on him so swiftly? Surely there was nothing about the
forthcoming voyage of the Ganymede that could interest Security so much-
Or was there? '
He shook his head in confusion and settled down on the bench by the wall to wait.
***
He did not know how long he waited in the tiny, featureless room. His wrist chrono and