"Blish, James - Earth of Hours" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

This Earth of Hours
THE ADVANCE squadron was coming into line as Master
Sergeant Oberholzer came onto the bridge of the Novae
Washingtongrad, saluted, and stood stiffly to the left of Lieu-
tenant Campion, the exec, to wait for orders. The bridge
was crowded and crackling with tension, but after twenty
years in the Marines it was all old stuff to Oberholzer. The
Hobo (as most of the enlisted men called her, out of earshot
of the brass) was at the point of the formation, as befitted
a virtually indestructible battleship already surfeited with
these petty conquests. The rest of the cone was sweeping
on ahead, in the swift enveloping maneuver which had
reduced so many previous planets before they had been able
to understand what was happening to them.
This time, the planet at the focus of all those shifting
conic sections of raw naval power was a place called Calle.
It was showing now on a screen that Oberholzer could see,
turning as placidly as any planet turned when you were too far
away from it to see what guns it might be pointing at you.
Lieutenant Campion was watching it too, though he had to
look out of the very corners of his eyes to see it at all.
If the exec were caught watching the screen instead of
the meter board assigned to him, Captain Hammer would
probably reduce him to an ensign. Nevertheless, Campion
never took his eyes off the image of Calle. This one was
going to be rough.
Captain Hammer was watching, too. After a moment he
said, "Sound!" in a voice like sandpaper.
"By the pulse six, sir," Lieutenant Spring's voice murmured
from the direction of the 'scope. His junior, a very raw
youngster named Rover, passed him a chit from the plotting
table. "For that read: By the birefs five eight nine, sir,"
the invisible navigator corrected.
Oberholzer listened without moving while Captain Ham-
mer muttered under his breath to Flo-Mar 12-Upjohn, the
only civilian allowed on the bridgeand small wonder,
since he was the Consort of State of the Matriarchy itself.
Hammer had long ago become accustomed enough to his
own bridge to be able to control who overheard him, but
12-Upjohn's answering whisper must have been audible to
every man there.
'The briefing said nothing about a second inhabited
planet," the Consort said, a little peevishly. "But then
there's very little we do know about this systemthat's
part of our trouble. What makes you think it's a colony?"
"A colony from Calle, not one of ours," Hammer said,
in more or less normal tones; evidently he had decided
against trying to keep only half of the discussion private.
"The electromagnetic 'noise' from both planets has the same