"Mike Resnick - Tales Of The Galactic Midway 03 - The Wild Alien Tamer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

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Copyright ©1983 by Mike Resnick
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Thaddeus Flint stopped two of the alien crewmen as they hauled the rectangular slab of granite down the
cargo ship's gangplank.
“ What the hell isthat supposed to be?” he demanded.
“ Check the manifest,” was the bored reply, filtered through a translating mechanism.
“ Just lay the damned thing down and let me take a look at it.”
They shrugged and did as he ordered, and he stood, hands on hips, cigarette dangling from his lips, staring
at it.
“ Strictly speaking,” commented Flint dryly, “ he was a son of a bear.”
The two crewmen stared at him blankly.
“ Don't know what I'm talking about, do you?” he said.
“ No, sir.”
He sighed. “ Well, why the hell should I expect a pink lizard with a goiter condition to know what a bear is?”
he muttered. He turned his eyes to the distant horizon, found a moon that didn't belong there, looked up, and
spotted six more of varying sizes and colors.
“ What the hell kind of a world has seven moons out at noon?” he asked.
“ This is Girodus II,” said one of the crewmen.
BRUNO Born 1973, Earth Died 1984, Pollux IV THE MEANEST, DUMBEST, UGLIEST SON OF A BITCH
EVER TO COME OUT OF THE KLONDIKE R.I.P.


Chapter 1
“ Spare me the details,” said Flint sardonically. He took a salt tablet to help him cope with the heat and
humidity, and an adrenaline capsule to ease the feeling of strain caused by the planet's somewhat higher
gravity. Now, he thought, if only I could take a pill to get rid of idiot cargo hands, alien tank towns, brown
grass and yellow water and too goddamned many moons....
He turned back to the unloading area and looked around until he saw a tall, cadaverous, hairless being with
blue skin, orange eyes, and oddly jointed limbs.
“ Mr. Ahasuerus!” he bellowed.
“ Yes, Mr. Flint?” said the blue man, walking over.
“ What's the story on this thing?” asked Flint, gesturing toward the headstone.
“ Ah! It arrived!” said Mr. Ahasuerus happily.
“ Yes, it arrived,” repeated Flint. “ My Ferris wheel didn't arrive. My replacement part for the cotton candy
machine didn't arrive. But someone, somewhere, has seen fit to sendThe Ahasuerus and Flint Traveling
Carnival and Sideshow a goddamned tombstone for a dead animal. You wouldn't happen to know why, would
you?”
“ Bruno was the last of the original animals from Earth,” replied the blue man. “ It seemed a fitting memorial.”
“ It did, did it?”
“ Yes,” said the blue man, nodding. “ Mr. Monk himself suggested the inscription after explaining that such
memorials are common on Earth.”
“ Did Mr. Monk also explain that such memorials, on those very rare occasions when they are given to