"Smith, E E Doc - Lensman 4 - Gray Lensman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

battleships, called "maulers", the Patrol gained a temporary advantage over Boskonia, but a
stalemate soon ensued. Kinnison developed a plan of action whereby he hoped to locate
Helmuth's Grand Base; and asked Port Admiral Haynes for permission to follow it In lieu of that
however, Haynes told him that he had been given his Release; that he was an Unattached
Lensman—a "Gray" Lens-man, popularly so called, from the color of the plain leather uniforms
they wear. Thus he earned the highest honor which the Patrol can give, for the Gray-Lensman
works under no supervision or direction whatever. He is as absolutely a free agent as it is
possible to be. He is responsible to no one; to nothing save his own conscience. He is no longer
of Tellus, nor of the Solarian System, but of Civilization as a whole. He is no longer a cog in the
immense machine of the Patrol: wherever he may go he is the Patrol!
In quest of a second line upon Grand Base, Kinnison scouted a pirate stronghold upon
Aldebaran I. Its personnel, however, were not even near-human, but were wheelmen, possessed
of the sense of perception; hence Kinnison was discovered before he could accomplish anything
and was very seriously wounded. He managed to get back to his speedster and to send a thought
to Port Admiral Haynes, who rushed ships to his aid. In Base Hospital Surgeon-Marshal Lacy
put him back together; and, during a long and quarrelsome convalescence, Nurse Clarrissa
MacDougall held him together. And Lacy and Haynes connived to promote a romance between
nurse and Lensman.
As soon as he could leave the hospital he went to Arisia in the hope that he might be
given advanced training—a theretofore unthought-of idea. Much to his surprise he learned that
he had been expected to return for exactly such training. Getting it almost killed him, but he
emerged from the ordeal infinitely stronger of mind than any man had ever been before; and
possessed of a new sense as well—the sense of perception, a sense somewhat analogous to sight,
but of vastly greater power, depth, and scope, and not dependent upon light.
After trying out his new mental equipment by solving a murder mystery upon Radelix, he
succeeded in entering an enemy base upon Boyssia II. There he took over the mind of a
communications officer and waited for the opportunity of getting the second, all-important line
to Boskonia's Grand Base. An enemy ship captured a hospital ship of the Patrol and brought it in
to Boyssia Base. Nurse MacDougall, head nurse of the captured vessel, working under
Kinnison's instructions, stirred up trouble which soon became mutiny. Helmuth, from Grand
Base, took a hand; thus enabling Kinnison to get his second line.
The hospital ship, undetectable by virtue of the Lensman's nullifier, escaped from
Boyssia II and headed for Earth at full blast. Kinnison, convinced that Helmuth was really
Boskone himself, found that the intersection of his two fines— and therefore the pirates' Grand
Base—lay in star cluster AC 257-4736, well outside the galaxy. Pausing only long enough to
destroy the Wheelmen of Aldebaran I, the project in which his first attempt had failed so
dismally, he set out to investigate Helmuth's headquarters. He found a stronghold impregnable to
any massed attack the Patrol could throw against it, manned by beings each wearing a thought-
screen. His sense of perception was suddenly cut off—the pirates had thrown a thought-screen
around the entire planet He then returned to Prime Base, deciding en route that boring from
within was the only possible way in which that stupendous fortress could be taken.
In consultation with Port Admiral Haynes, the zero hour was set, at which time the
massed Grand Fleet of the Patrol was to attack Helmuth's base with every projector that could be
brought to bear.
Pursuant to his plan, Kinnison again visited Trenco, where the Patrol forces extracted for
him fifty kilograms of thionite, the noxious drug which, in microgram inhalations, makes the
addict experience all the sensations of doing whatever it is that he wishes most ardently to do.
The larger the dose, the more intense the sensations; the slightest overdose resulting in an
ecstatic death. Thence to Helmuth's planet; where, working through the unshielded brain of a
dog, he let himself into the central dome. Here, just before the zero minute, he released his