"John DeChancie - Skyway 2 - Red Limit Freeway" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dechancie John)

"Well, for one..." John slapped the table. "We can try to find the planet where the Ryxx launch those
starships. We may be able to get back to Terran Maze that way."
The second way to get back from a supposedly one-way portal: go through normal space. Back in
Terran Maze, nobody knew of this, and the Ryxx must have taken great pains not to let on, probably in
order to protect their monopoly on trade with the Outworlds, though they could have had other reasons.
I knew of no other race who bothered to build starships; the Skyway made them superfluous. The Ryxx
would probably hold their monopoly even if everyone knew they were doing it.
"That may be worth exploring," I put in, "just to satisfy your curiosity and cover all bets, but I wouldn't
hold out any great hopes for it. How much money have you got?"
John gave me a dour look. "Jake."
"Sorry. Just trying to point out that passage on a sublightspeed starship has to run high. Even if they do
take passengers, which I somehow doubt, there could be a long waiting list. From the little I know of
starship design, weight and space would be critical."
"Didn't Wilkes say he was going?" John asked.
"I wouldn't take anything Wilkes said without a truckload of salt. He may have been lying, maybe not.
Keep this in mind. He was, or is still, for all I know, a very well-connected man. He may have cut a
special deal."
"Maybe. . ." John drummed the table with spidery fingers. "Well, I don't know, maybe we could get jobs,
work up our passage money, approach the Ryxx and make a deal ourselves. Plead our case."
The corner of Susan's lips curled sourly. "We have a great sob story."
"I'm simply outlining the alternatives, Susan."
"Oh, go ahead, John. Don't mind me."
"Bear with me, please. Now, back on Splash---"
"I wouldn't go back there," I said.
"Maybe not Splash. Some other place. Hero, for instance. There's always the option of settling here, or
on some world where we can get a community going."
"The three of us?" Roland said skeptically.
"Three, or two, or even one, Roland. lsn't that what Teleological Pantheism is all about?"
Roland acknowledged the point with a tilt of his head. John ruminated for a moment, then went on, "I see
what you're saying. We'd be cut off. No funds, no communication with our group on Khadija, or with the
organization back on Terra. It would be difficult."
"Rather. No money, no immediate prospects of getting any, no place to stay, except with Jake. We need
supplies and literature to stock a reading center-"
John turned to me. "I think I told you we do no proselytizing. But one of our chief functions is to open up
and run a reading room and consultation center. That's what we were about to do when we had the
mishap with the Militia back on Goliath. After visiting our colleague in the hospital, we were going to see
about renting a little storefront in town."
Susan had been thinking. "What about sending a message back by starship? If we could only let Sten or
somebody know what happened to us."
"Yes," John said, the idea dawning on him, "yes, that's a marvelous thought! Don't know why I didn't
think of it. We simply must get word back somehow. If we could let our community know that there's
something here on the other side..."
"Again," I said, "you can try, but again I doubt it would work. The Ryxx don't seem to want anyone to
know about the Outworlds. They may have been willing .to take Wilkes back, but that might only have
been because they were in on the drug operation. Anyway, i seriously doubt whether they're in the mail
business."
John and Susan looked deflated.
"I wouldn't give up hope," I hastened to add. I didn't want to be too hard on them because what I had to
tell them next would be pretty rough. "We know nothing for sure. And the most important thing we're not
clear on is whether any of us are safe anywhere in the Outworlds."