"Steve White - Blood of the Heroes" - читать интересную книгу автора (White Steve)

Blood of the Heroes
by STEVE WHITE

Chapter One

Jason Thanou had never really cared for Earth all that much. Now, watching the blue-white-and-buff
globe wax in the observation lounge's wraparound viewscreen, he saw nothing in the spectacle to make
him forget his dislike.



So, he wondered, why am I reacting this way?



He knew he had no reason to be surprised. It was always the same, aboard a ship approaching
Earth—no other planet had the same effect, not even the planet of his birth. It came at the indefinable
moment when the mother planet, as sentimentalists called it, ceased to be away and became down—a
world and not an astronomical object. Nor did the feeling fade with familiarity; he still felt the excited
apprehension that caused the heart to race and the skin to tingle and the bowels to loosen. It never
changed. Nor was it unique to him. Most outworlders admitted to the same strange exhilaration, and
Jason had never found the others' denials convincing.



Still, he wondered why. Especially on this occasion, when he was here against his will and should by
rights have felt nothing but cold distaste.



He decided the animus and the shivers both had the same cause: the sheer, psychologically oppressive
ancientness of the place. It was a world—no, the world—that humans had not molded from barrenness
over the past few centuries (to use the Earth-standard units of time everyone still used, which was yet
another irritant). Here, the memory of billions of human lives across thousands of years permeated every
acre. History had soaked into the soil like blood—an apt simile, from what Jason knew of Earth's past,
which was quite a lot thanks to the job he'd once had. . . .



And to which he was now returning involuntarily. The resentment that had been simmering within him for
the entire voyage boiled up anew, banishing his philosophical musings and leaving only a flat dislike of
everything about this trip, especially this overripe fruit of a planet.



Jason heard a soft murmuring behind him as stewards moved among the passengers in the lounge. No
blaring announcement from an intercom—this was a pricey spaceline. That, at least, was one way he'd
been able to exact revenge. He had booked passage normally beyond his means, knowing he would
have to be reimbursed.