"Gordon R. Dickson - 8 Short Stories and Novellas" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

The land did not drop again, but swelled away in a gently rising plateau,
into distance. And on its far horizon, insubstantial as clouds, rose the blue
peaks of mountains.
"Base is over those mountains," said Chuck.
"Will we have to cross them?" The envoy's translator produced the words
evenly, like a casual and unimportant query.
"No." Chuck turned to the Tomah. "How far in from the coast have we
come so far?"
"I would estimate" тАУ the translator hesitated a second over the translation
of units тАУ "thirty-two and some fraction of a mile."
"Another sixty miles, then," said Chuck, "and we should be within the
range of the airfoils they'll have out looking for us." He looked again at the
mountains and they seemed to waver before his eyes. Reaching up in an
automatic gesture to brush the waveriness away, the back of his hand
touched his forehead; and, startled, he pressed the hand against it. It was
burning hot.
Feverish!thought Chuck. And his mind somersaulted at the impossibility
of the fact.
He could see the two others looking at him with the completely remote
and unempathetic curiosity of peoples who had nothing in common with
either his life or his death. A small rat's-jaw of fear gnawed at him suddenly.
It had never occurred to him since the crash that there could be any danger
that he would not make it safely back to Base. Now, for the first time, he
faced that possibility. If the worst came to the worst, it came home to him
suddenly, he could count on no help from either the Tomah, or the Lugh.
"What will they look like, these airfoils?" asked Binichi.
"Like a circle made out of bright material," said Chuck. "A round platform
about twelve feet across."
"And there will be others of your people in them?"
"On them. No," said Chuck. "Anyway, I don't think so. We're too short of
personnel. They operate on remote-beamed power from the ship and flash
back pictures of the ground they cover. Once they send back a picture of
us, Base'll know where to find us."
He levered himself painfully to his feet. "Let's travel," he said.
 They started out again. The walking was more level and easy now than it
had been coming up through the hills. Plodding along, Chuck's eyes were
suddenly attracted by a peculiarity of Binichi's back and sides. The Lugh
was completely covered by a short close hair, which was snow-white under
the belly, but shaded to a gray on the back. It seemed to Chuck, now,
however, that this gray back hair had taken on a slight hint of rosiness.
"Hey!" he said, stopping. "You're getting sunburned."
The other two halted also; and Binichi looked up at him, inquiringly. Chuck
repeated himself in simpler terms that his translator could handle.
"Let's go on," said Binichi, taking up the march again.
"Wait!" said Chuck, as he and the envoy moved to follow up the Lugh.
"Don't you know that can be dangerous? Here тАУ" He fumbled out of his own
jacket. "We humans get sunburned, too, but we evidently aren't as
susceptible as you. Now, I can tie the arms of this around your neck and
you'll have some protection тАУ"
Binichi halted suddenly and wheeled to face the human.