"Baxter, Stephen - Raft" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baxter Stephen)

Raft, the tree, play over him like breezes ...
Then he launched the skitter into the air. The makeshift missile orbited
around the Raft's mass centre and curved downwards -
There was a soft thud. Hollerbach was glaring up, hands on hips, a skitter
on the deck beside him. Glover's face popped out of the foliage. "I nearly
got him, didn't I?"
"But -" Rees found himself growling with rage. Glover had dropped his
skitter straight down. Where was the skill in that? With dismay he watched
his own projectile loop to the deck. If not for Glover he would have got
Hollerbach right on the bald spot.
"And what do you think you're doing? Officers! Officers!"
Automatically the boys climbed along their branches and slid to the
ground. Rees wondered whether apologising would get him out of this -
Hollerbach was only a Scientist, after all ...
The party of three Officers who had passed earlier came running. "Mr
Hollerbach. I hope you're not hurt -"
Rees recognised the voice and felt sickened. Could they be so unlucky? But
it was indeed Captain Smith himself; Rees saw huge arms folded across an
officer's belt, and he felt the tug of a belly covered by a ragged shirt.
"I know this one. You're Bob Rees' boy. Michael, isn't it?"
Rees nodded, filled with shame.
"Bob's one of my best men. And you've let him down. What were you thinking
of? Don't you realise you could have killed Mr Hollerbach, here?"
"What, with a squashed skitter?" Glover sneered. The Captain scuffed his
head; Glover started to cry.
"How old are you two?"
"Twelve," Rees said.
"Twelve, and you don't know yet how important the Scientists are? Without
the Scientists we'd all have died off generations ago. It's the Scientists
who guide us when we have to move the Raft to avoid falling stars. Did you
know that? No?
"Well, this is obviously a serious matter. Do you propose a punishment, Mr
Hollerbach?"
Glover stopped crying. His eyes narrowed. "He made me do it," he said
rapidly.
Rees bit his lip.
Hollerbach eyed Glover. "I've no wish to punish the innocent, he said in
his thin voice. "Let him go." Glover scampered away.
The Captain scratched his tangle of beard. "You don't believe that, do
you?"
Hollerbach didn't answer. "And as for this ignorant scoundrel - I propose
to take him on as an apprentice at the Laboratories and teach him a few
lessons."
Rees gasped.
The Captain said, "I know you're short of apprentices, and I suppose it's
just ... but for how long?"
Hollerbach smiled, his eyes invisible behind his spectacles. "Shall we say
- six years?"
"You can't do that!" Rees felt tears prickle his eyes.
The Captain drew Hollerbach aside. "Look, Hollerbach, don't you think