"H. Beam Piper - Fuzzy Papers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

all laid eggs. This spring, it was even drier, so now theyhave land-prawns all over central Beta. And I
don't know that anything can be done about them."

"Well, did he think you were just guessing?"
 He shook his head in exasperation. "I don't know what he thinks. You're the psychologist, you try
to figure it. I sent him that report yesterday morning. He seemed quite satisfied with it at the time. Today,
just after noon, he sent for me and told me it wouldn't do at all. Tried to insist that the rainfall on Beta had
been normal. That was silly; I referred him to his meteorologists and climatologists, where I'd gotten my
information. He complained that the news services were after him for an explanation. I told him I'd given
him the only explanation there was. He said he simply couldn't use it. There had to be some other
explanation."

"If you don't like the facts, you ignore them, and if you need facts, dream up some you do like," she
said. "That's typical rejection of reality. Not psychotic, not even psychoneurotic. But certainly not sane."
She had finished her first drink and was sipping slowly at her second. "You know, this is interesting. Does
he have some theory that would disqualify yours?"

"Not that I know of. I got the impression that he just didn't want the subject of rainfall on Beta
discussed at all."

"That is odd. Has anything else peculiar been happening over on Beta lately?"

"No. Not that I know of," he repeated. "Of course, that swamp-drainage project over there was
what caused the dry weather, last year and this year, but I don't see . . ." His own glass was empty, and
when he tilted the jug over it, a few drops trickled out. He looked at his watch. "Think we could have
another cocktail before dinner?" he asked.




2

JACK HOLLOWAY landed the manipulator in front of the cluster of prefab huts. For a moment he
sat still, realizing that he was tired, and then he climbed down from the control cabin and crossed the
open grass to the door of the main living hut, opening it and reaching in to turn on the lights. Then he
hesitated, looking up at Darius.

There was a wide ring around it, and he remembered noticing the wisps of cirrus clouds gathering
overhead through the afternoon. Maybe it would rain tonight. This dry weather couldn't last forever. He'd
been letting the manipulator stand out overnight lately. He decided to put it in the hangar. He went and
opened the door of the vehicle shed, got back onto the machine and floated it inside. When he came
back to the living hut, he saw that he had left the door wide open.

"Damn fool!" he rebuked himself. "Place could be crawling with prawns by now."

He looked quickly around the living room-under the big combination desk and library table, under
the gunrack, under the chairs, back of the communication screen and the viewscreen, beyond the metal
cabinet of the microfilm library-and saw nothing. Then he hung up his hat, took off his pistol and laid it on
the table, and went back to the bathroom to wash his hands.