"Anderson, Poul - 1964 Nicholas Van Rijn 02 - Trader to the Stars 1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Poul)

Van Rijn munched his onion and tugged his goatee.
"Pestish big, this panel," he said. "Must be a race of
bloody-bedamned octopussies, ha? Look how complicated.
He waved the salami around the half circle. The console,
which seemed to be of some fluorocarbon polymer, held
very few switches or buttons, but scores of flat luminous
plates, each about twenty centimeters square. Some of
them were depressed. Evidently these were the controls.
Cautious experiment had shown that a stiff push was
needed to budge them. The experiment had ended then
and there, for the ship's cargo lock had opened and a
good deal of air was lost before Torrance slapped the
plate he had been testing hard enough to make the hull
reseal itself. One should not tinker with the atomic-pow-
ered unknown; most especially not in galactic space.
"They must be strong like horses, to steer by this
system without getting exhhausted went on Van Rijn.
"The size of everything tells likewise, nei?"
"
Well, not exactly,sir," said Torrance. "The viewscreens
seem made for dwarfs. The meters even more so." He
pointed to a bank of instruments" no larger than buttons.
on each of which a single number glowed. (Or Ietter, or
ideogram, or what? They looked vaguely Old Chinese )
Occasionally a Symbol changed value. "A humnan couldn't
use these long without severe eyestrain. Of course, having
eyes better adapted to close work than ours doesn't prove
they are not giants. Certainly that switch couldn't be
reached from here without long arms, and it seems
meant for big bands. "By standing on tiptoe, he touched
it himself: an outsize double-poIe affair set overhead just
above the piolet's hypothetical seat.
The switch fell open.
A roar came from aft. Tonance lurcheded backward un-
der a sudden force. He caught at a shelf on the after
bulkhead to steady himself. Its thin metal buckeled as
he clutched. "Devilfish and dunderheads cried Van
Rijn. Bracing his columnar legs, he :reached up and shoved
the switch back into position. The noise ended. Normal-
ity returned. Torrance hastened to the bridge doorway,
a tall arch., and shouted down the corrider. beyond: "It's
okay! Don't worry! We've got it under control!"
"What the blue blinking bIazes happened?" demanded
Van Rijn. in somewhat more highpowered words.
Torrance mastered a slight case of shakes. "Emer-
gency switch, I'd say." His tone wavered. Turns on the
gravitic field full speed ahead, not wasting any force on
acceleration compensators. Of course, being in hyper-
drive, it wasn't very effective. Only gave us a--uh-less
than one G push, intrinsic. In normal state we'd have ac-