"Andrew J. Offutt - Spaceways 07 - The Manhuntress" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

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THEY HAD BREAKFAST IN BED, SERVED BY A CYBERBUTLER. Chane ate ravenously while
listening to Lizina's plan for revenge. "You're a total lunatic," he said.
"Mad as a rabid grat. But you'll try it whether I'm here or not." Before she
could protest, Chane continued. "No point sitting around while you get
yourself killed-so I might as well help you." Lizina shrieked with joy and
flung her arms around him, upsetting the breakfast tray Chane returned the
embrace-and more. "Is this the way I'm supposed to earn that exorbitantly high
salary you've promised me?" Lizina matched his motion with her own. "This is
just a (uh!) fringe benefit, guaranteed to promote a better employee/employer
relationship. Oh SPACEWAYS #1 OF ALIEN BONDAGE #2 CORUNDUM'S WOMAN #3
ESCAPE FROM MACHO #4 SATANA ENSLAVED #5 MASTER OF MISFIT #6 PURRFECT
PLUNDER #7 THE MANHUNTRESS PLAYBOY PAPERBACKS SPACEWAYS #7: THE
MANHUNTRESS Copyright (c) 1982 by John Cleve Cover illustration copyright (c)
1982 by PBJ Books, Inc., formerly PE! Books, Inc. All rights reserved. No part
of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
any form by an electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording means or
otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher. Published
simultaneously in the United States and Canada by PBJ Books, Inc., formerly
PEI Books, Inc., New York, New York. Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 82-81380. The poem Scarlet Hills
copyright (c) 1982 by Ann Morris; used by permission of the author. ISBN:
0-867-21175-X First printing October 1982. A: All planets are not shown. B:
Map is not to scale, because of the vast distances between stars. SCARLET
HILLS Alas, fair ones, my time has come. I must depart your lovely home- Seek
the bounds of this galaxy To find what lies beyond. (chorus) Scarlet hills and
amber skies, Gentlebeings with loving eyes; All these I leave to search for a
dream That will cure the wand'rer in me. You say it must be glamorous For
those who travel out through space. You know not the dark, endless night Nor
the solitude we face. (reprise chorus) I know not of my journey's end Nor the
time nor toll it will have me spend. But I must see what I've never seen And
know what I've never known. Scarlet hills and amber skies, Gentlebeings with
loving eyes; All these I leave to search for a dream That will cure the
wand'rer in me. -Ann Morris A shark circled in space. To be certain, this
shark's lineage could not be traced to the flesh- and blood-eating machine
that swam the oceans of now forgotten Homeworld. Nor was it biological. It was
a shark, just the same. And it was an eating machine. An eater of other
machines-and of men. A sleek, finless shark, it was designed to slice through
the infinitely stretching light-years of space. A shark of gleaming naked
metal that bore the single marking Lung T'ou emblazoned in crimson along its
prow. Shark and spacer-both predators. Both preyed on the weak, the injured,
and the crippled. In an earlier age, millennia in humankind's past, Lung T'ou
would have been constructed of wood and pitch. Its bow would have cut through
the waves of Homeworld's neglected seas. Sails, hung from strong masts, would
have billowed in the wind. Atop the highest of those masts would have flown a
flag-skull and crossed bones on a field of jet. Lung T'ou was a direct