"Duane, Diane - Tos - Spock's World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duane Diane)

j tonight," he said. "Even the ferries from Wales
have all been canceled."...."
j "Doesn't surprise me. I wouldn't
want to be out on that water. Eight-foot swells,
at least."
j "If you wouldn't, then the rest of us had better
stay home! Chess later?"
"Sounds good."
"You're on, then." And Ronan got up and went
off to see to one of the desperate cases, who was
j bringing a brace of empty pint glasses
back to the bar. Jim sighed and put his head back
against the
j padded wall behind him. That was the way it had
been for a couple of weeks now. A friendly inquiry
or two, then he was left alone if he wanted
to be . . . but there was always the promise of
companionship if he wanted it. He couldn't have
found a better place for a vaca tion.
He had certainly needed one. That business with the
Romulans, and right after it the interminable fam ine
runs for gamma Muscae V, and after that, the
intervention at 1210 Circini, with the Enterprise
caught in the middle and everybody on the four
planets in the neighborhood shooting at her: it was
enough to turn f your hair gray. When it was their turn
in the Fleet j heavy-cruisers' rotation to come
back to Earth, Jim had been cranky enough to pull a
little rank on his E crew's and his own behalf.
Within an hour of their arrival in Earth orbit, he
had informed Fleet (as was his right) that he was taking his
last two years' accu mulated leave all at
once. Then he had mentally braced himself for a fight.
But Fleet had responded blandly that the
Enterprise was badly overdue for retrofit, which
would involve at least a month's worth of equip
were' ment testing and resupply. So for now, they told
him, he and his crew were on indefinite paid liberty
unless they specifically requested reassignment
to other 13
ships. Jim smiled, knowing about how likely that
was. Be packed a couple of bags, said
goodbye-for-now to his crew, and set about getting himself
lost. Technology had made Earth smaller than
it had ever been, but you could still get pretty lost if
you worked at it. It had been a matter of only
three hours' travel, and Jim did it the
tourist's way, on purposeafter all, there was no
point in simply beaming down to where you were going on
Earth, as if it was any other world you had business with