"Blish, James - Watershed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

time," Averdor said without preamble. "Something's got to be
done. Captain, before the crew gets so surly that we have to
start handing out brig sentences."
"I don't like know-it-alls any better than you do," Gorbel
said grimly. "Especially when they talk nonsenseand half of
what this one says about space flight is nonsense, that much
I'm sure of. But the man's a delegate of the Council. He's got
a right to be up here if he wants to."
"You can bar anybody from the greenhouse in an emer-
gencyeven the ship's officers."
"I fail to see any emergency," Gorbel said stiffly.
"This is a hazardous part of the galazypotentially, any-
how. It hasn't been visited for millennia. That star up ahead
has nine planets besides the one we're supposed to land on,
and I don't know how many satellites of planetary size. Sup-
pose somebody on one of them lost his head and took a crack
at us as we went by?"
Gorbel frowned. "That's reaching for trouble. Besides, the
area's been surveyed recently at least onceotherwise we
wouldn't be here."
"A sketch job. It's still sensible to take precautions. If there
should be any trouble, there's many a Board of Review that
would call it risky to have unreliable, second-class human
types in the greenhouse when it breaks out."
"You're talking nonsense."
"Dammit, Captain, read between the lines a minute," Aver-
dor said harshly. "I know as well as you do that there's
going to be no trouble that we can't handle. And that no
reviewing board would pull a complaint like that on you it
there were. I'm just trying to give you an excuse to use on
the seals."
"I'm listening."
"Good. The indefeasible is the tightest ship in the Rigellian
navy, her record's clean, and the crew's morale is almost a
legend. We can't afford to start gigging the men for their per-
sonal prejudiceswhich is what it will amount to, if those
seals drive them to breaking discipline. Besides, they've got a
right to do their work without a lot of seal snouts poking con-
tinually over their shoulders."
"I can hear myself explaining that to Hoqqueah."
"You don't need to," Averdor said doggedly. "You can tell
him, instead, that you're going to have to declare the ship on
emergency status until we land. That means that the pan-
trope team, as passengers, will have to stick to their quar-
ters. It's simple enough."
It was simple enough, all right. And decidedly tempting.
"I don't like it," Gorbel said. "Besides, Hoqqueah may be a
know-it-all, but he's not entirely a fool. He'll see through it
easily enough."
Averdor shrugged. "It's your command," he said. "But I