"Gordon R. Dickson & Harry Harrision - Lifeship" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

source of the air current that was moving it, now that the shipside airlock
door was closed. A loudspeaker over the closed door echoed suddenly to the
sound of distant coughing.

"Sir," said the voice of Groce, unexpectedly behind him, "there isn't any
Albenareth in the lifeship yet."

"Get back inside. Wait there!" he snapped at the arbite, without turning his
head. The sound of coughing from the loudspeaker was louder now, echoed by
the clang of stumbling feet approaching. One of those coming, Giles thought,
had better be the Albenareth officer. Giles could pilot his own yacht around
the Solar System, but as for handling an alien lifeship...

He punched the "open" button. The inner lock door swung wide. Dim figures
were stumbling toward him in the smoke. Giles swore. They were all human,
dressed alike in the dusty gray of their arbite shipsuits. There were five of
them, he counted as they came closer, clinging to one another's clothing,
several of them whimpering when they were not coughing. The one in front was
an angular, gray-haired woman who dipped her head briefly in an automatic
gesture of respect when she saw him. He opened the inner door and motioned
them inside, moving aside so they would not brush against him as they went.
Before the last one was in, the

corridor lights flickered, went out, came back on againтАФthen died completely.

Giles closed the door behind the five and touched the glow button on his
watch. Under normal conditions the light from the dial was normally quite
strong, but now it only lit up the rolling smoke, let in from the corridor.
The air holding the smoke was hotter too; the fire could not be far away. He
was coughing again, and could not control it, his head aching from the fumes.

With a sharp clang a section of the airlock wall fell away and Giles turned
in that direction. The air current from a hidden source was suddenly
stronger, and there was an elongated opening in what had appeared to be solid
metal. The smoke was being sucked into it strongly. In the partially clear
air a tall, thin form appeared, stooping with its head to pass through the
opening.
"About timel" Giles said, coughing. The Albenareth did not answer him, moving
quickly in a typical broken-kneed gait to the lock, with Giles close behind.
Once they were both inside, the Albenareth turned and dogged shut the inner
lock door. The action spoke for itself; the clash of the dogged lock echoed
on Giles' ears like the closing of a coffin lid.

The voices of the arbites had dropped into silence as the Albenareth and
Giles entered, and those already there moved warily aside from the alien.
Still silent, the gaunt figure reached down into a slot in the soft flooring
and pulled up a metal frame laced with flexible plastic. It was an
acceleration cot, and a good deal of dust came up with it.

"Open the cots like this," the Albenareth ordered, the human words coming out