"Carver, Jeffrey A - Star Rigger 02 - Star Rigger's Way" - читать интересную книгу автора (Carver Jeffrey A)

Cephean. Singlehandedly, he could manage the ship in the easy current of
the Reld. But the Flume would hit them like a cycloneЧand if he and the
shipwrecked cynthian did not function as a team, the Flume was going to
be the end of Sedora, and of them.
He glanced around to the stern. You there? he asked.
Hyiss.
He released the stabilizers and reached his steely, spidery, sensory arms
outward and down into the Flux. Slowly he coaxed the ship downward
toward the Reld; and he hoped that Cephean would assist him.
As Sedora reached the streamers at the edge of the Reld, Carlyle cursed
the cynthianТs clumsiness. His anger rang in echoes round the net and
vanished to the winds of space. Somewhere astern, the cynthian homhummТd
to himself and responded late to CarlyleТs guiding actions. The
ship bucked and plunged like an angry whale.
Gently, Cephean! Do you see the river?
Whass? Whass?
A Уriver,Ф yesЧthat would be a good functional image, and it was
consistent with the actual flux-currents they were riding. Carlyle settled
the image in his mind. The misty lanes of the Reld congealed beneath
Sedora and darkened to the color of molasses, then flattened to water
swirling downstream between low-profile river-banks. The sky overhead

turned to night, glittering with fairyland stars. SedoraТs net shimmered
and passed into the dark surface of the river, and Carlyle eased the ship
down until her hull settled in its waters.
Carried by the flow, Sedora moved downstream in the night.
Somewhere, lost in the distance ahead, was the Flume. It did not yet
betray itself, but Carlyle knew it was there. As he studied the horizon
where the meandering Reld vanished into darkness, he detected a dim
streamer rising, almost imperceptible against the stars. Above the riverТs
end, in the night sky, the streamer met Cunnilus Banks, a faintly gleaming
cloud of particles above the horizon. The sight gave him the first surge of
hope heТd felt in many days. Regardless of how distant his goal lay, it was
reassuring to glimpse it.
He plunged his УhandsФ deep into the river, just to feel the cool slipstream.
The ship lurched, and yawed to one side. Cephean had bumped the stern.
Cephean! Follow!
Ff-hollow-hing, Caharleel!
No rapport, he thought, despairing. He strained against the current to bring
the ship into line. What was it his old friend and crewmate Janofer had
once told him? That a crew neednТt necessarily understand one anotherЕ
that the crux of teamwork was congruence, simple congruence of vision.
And his friend SkanЧthat without unity none of the rest was worth a
mote in the Kryst Nebula. Indeed, that was why they had asked him to go
and to train for a time on Sedora. It had been their hope, and his, that on
Sedora he could learn something which they had been unable to teach;
and perhaps later, with more experience behind him, he might return to rig
again with his friends.
It seemed as though he would learn now, or he would never learn at all.
This Cephean was an enigmaЧa bit like Legroeder, so alone with his