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

"Turtles," snorted Van Rijn. "Armadillos at most."
"There can't be any harm in le.tting Jer-Miss Kofoed
check their environment too," said Torrance.
"It can waste time."
"I wonder what they eat. I don't see any mouths."
"Those tentacles look like capillary suckers. I bet they
are parasites, or overgrown leeches, or something else like
one of my competitors. Come along."
"What do we do after we've established which species
could possibly be the crew?" asked Torrance. 'Try to com-
municate with each in turn?"
"Not much use, that. They hide because they don't want
to communicate. Unless we can prove to them we are not
Adderkops. . . . But hard to see how."
"Wait! Why'd they conceal themselves at all, if they've
had contact with the Adderkops? It wouldn't work."
"I think I tell you that, by damn," said Van Rijn. "To
give them a name, let us call this unknown race the Ek-
SeTS. So. The Eksers been traveling space for some time,
but space is so big they never bumped into humans. Then
the Adderkop nation arises, in this sector where humans
never was before. The Eksers hear about this awful new
species which has gotten into space ~so. They land on
primitive planets where Adderkops have made raids, talk
to natives, maybe plant automatic cameras where they
think raids will soon come, maybe spy on Adderkop
camps from afar or capture a lone Adderkop ship. So
they know what humans look like, but not much else.
They do not want humans to know about them, so they
shun contact; they are not looking for trouble. Not before
they are all prepared to fight a war, at least. Hell's sput-
tering griddles! Torrance, we have got to establish our
bona fides with this crew, so they take us to Freya and
afterward go tell their leaders all humans are not so bad
as the slime--begotten Adderkops. Otherwise, maybe we
wake up one day with some planets attacked by Eksers,
and before the fighting ends, we have spent billions of
credits!" He shook his fists in the air and bellowed like a
wounded bull. "It is our duty to prevent this!"
"Our first duty is to get home alive, I'd say," Torrance
answered curtly. "I have a wife and kids."
"Then stop throwing sheepish eyes at J eri Kofoed. I
saw her first."
The search turned up one more possibility. Four organ-
isms the length of a man and the build of thick-legged
caterpillars dwelt under greenish light. Their bodies were
dark blue, spotted with silver. A torso akin to that of the
tentacled centauroids, but stockier, carried two true arms.
The hands lacked thumbs, but six fingers arranged around
a three-quarter circle could accomplish much the same