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

hangars, and needed to be, since anything too big
to
ship up any other way, from warp-engine parts
to container cargo, wound up here. The place tended
to be noisy and busy any tine the ship was near a
planet: at the moment, it was a vast happy
racket, boxed and crated and force-shielded
materiel being carried in all directions on
gravflats of varying sizes. Jim got down off
the pads in a hurry to avoid being run over by a
couple of G-flats the size of shuttlecraft,
and then paused on the loading floor, seeing who was
maneuvering the flats by him-two Earth-human
crewmen, a small wiry auburn-haired man and a
tall dark-haired woman with a Valkyrie's
figure under a cargoloader's coverall.
"Mr. Matejas," he said, "Mz.
Tei," and as they heard his greeting and realized with
surprise who he was, they started to come to attention.
He waved them off it. "As you were. How was the
engagement party?" The two of them looked at each
other, and Jorg Matejas blushed, and Lala
Tei chuckled. "It was terrific," she said, shaking
her red hair back. "Everybody had a great time,
especially the Sulamids . . . Rahere and Athene
got into the sugar, and you know how Sulamids are about
sugar, it was a riot, their tentacles got all
knotted, and it took us about an hour to get them
undone. Sir, thank you so much for the 'gram!
Jorg's mom nearly went to pieces when Fleet
called and read it in the middle of the party, she was so
excited . . . ."
Jim smiled, for that had been his intention. One of
his more reliable sources of gossip had let him know
that Mr. Matejas's mother was very uncomfortable about her
son marrying someone holding higher rank than his.
Jim had responded by studying Jorg's record very
carefully, noting that he was somewhat overdue for
promotion, and then correcting the matter . . .
making sure that the news of his promotion hit him
during the party, via the addressing of the congratula
tory telegram. The source-of-gossip,
also present at the party, had let Jim know later
that the name signed j at the bottom of the 'gram had
counted for almost as much as Jorg's jump in grade
to quartermaster's mate. Jim had been
gratified-there were apparently times when being a
galactic hero could be turned to some use. "You're
very welcome."
"Sir," Jorg said, "I'm glad we had the