"H. Beam Piper - Graveyard of Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

he was noticing it everywhere.

"Thirty minutes out of Litchfield, sir," the ship's officer repeated. "You'll go off by the midship gangway on
the starboard side."

"Yes, I know. Thank you."

The first mate held out the clipboard he was carrying. "Would you mind checking over this, Mr. Maxwell?
Your baggage list."




Graveyard of Dreams 1
 Graveyard of Dreams

"Certainly." He glanced at the slip of paper. Valises, eighteen and twenty−five kilos, two; trunks, seventy−five
and seventy kilos, two; microbook case, one−fifty kilos, one. The last item fanned up a little flicker of anger
in him, not at any person, even himself, but at the situation in which he found himself and the futility of the
whole thing.

"Yes, that's everything. I have no hand−luggage, just this stuff."

He noticed that this was the only baggage list under the clip; the other papers were all freight and express
manifests. "Not many passengers left aboard, are there?"

"You're the only one in first−class, sir," the mate replied. "About forty farm−laborers on the lower deck.
Everybody else got off at the other stops. Litchfield's the end of the run. You know anything about the place?"

"I was born there. I've been away at school for the last five years."

"On Baldur?"

"Terra. University of Montevideo." Once Conn would have said it almost boastfully.

The mate gave him a quick look of surprised respect, then grinned and nodded. "Of course; I should have
known. You're Rodney Maxwell's son, aren't you? Your father's one of our regular freight shippers. Been
sending out a lot of stuff lately." He looked as though he would have liked to continue the conversation, but
said: "Sorry, I've got to go. Lot of things to attend to before landing." He touched the visor of his cap and
turned away.

The mountains were closer when Conn looked forward again, and he glanced down. Five years and two space
voyages ago, seen from the afterdeck of this ship or one of her sisters, the woods had been green with new
foliage, and the wine−melon fields had been in pink blossom. He tried to picture the scene sliding away below
instead of drawing in toward him, as though to force himself back to a moment of the irretrievable past.

But the moment was gone, and with it the eager excitement and the half−formed anticipations of the things he
would learn and accomplish on Terra. The things he would learn−−microbook case, one−fifty kilos, one. One
of the steel trunks was full of things he had learned and accomplished, too. Maybe they, at least, had some
value....