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

can pay well."
"Might prove difficult, sir," said Torrance. "Our ship is
identifiably human-built, but chances are that the only hu-
mans they've ever met are Adderkops.
"Well, so if it makes needful, we can board them and
force them to transport us, nie? Hurry up, for Satan's?
sake! If we wait too long here, like bebobbled snoozers,
we'll get caught.
Torrance was about to point out they were safe enough.
The Adderkops were far behind the swifter Terrestrial
ship. They could have no idea that her hyperdrive was
now cut off; when they began to suspect it, they could
have no measurable probiblity of finding her. Then he
remembered that the case was not so simple. If the par-
leying with these strangers took unduly long-more than a
week, at best-Adderkop squadrons would have pene-
trated this general region and gone beyond. They would
probably remain on picket for months: which the humans
could not do for lack of food. When a hyper drive did start
up, they'd detect it and run down this awkward merchant-
man with ease. The only hope was to hitch a ride to Val-
halla soon, using the head start already gained to offset the
disadvantage of reduced speed.
"We're trying all bands, sir," he said. "No response so
far." He frowned worriedly. "I don't understand. They
must know we've got them cold, and they must have
picked up our calls and realize we want to talk. Why don't
they respond? Wouldn't cost them anything."
"Maybe they abandoned ship," suggested the communi-
cations officer. "They might have hyperdriven lifeboats."
"No." Torrance shook his head. "We'd have spotted
that.. . . Keep trying, Freeman Betancourt. If we haven't
gotten an answer in an hour, we'll lay alongside and
board."
The receiver screens remained blank. But at the end of
the grace period, when Torrance was issuing space armor,
Yamamura reported something new. Neutrino output
had increased from a source near the stem of the alien.
Some process involving moderate amounts of energy was
being carried out.
Torrance clamped down his helmet. "We'll have a look
at that."
He posted a skeleton crew-Van Rijn himself, loudly
protesting, took over the bridge-and led his boarding
party to the main air lock. Smooth as a glidIng shark (the
old swine was a blue-ribbon spaceman after all, the cap-
tain realized in some astonishment), the Hebe G.B.
clamped on a tractor beam and hauled herself toward the
bigger vessel.
It disappeared. Recoil sent the yacht staggering.