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

f doors opened on it, as home often does when
one's been away from it for a while. Jim stepped out,
nodded greeting at Uhura and Sulu, who gestured
or smiled hello at him. He waved them back
to what they were doing and glanced around to the Science station.
j Spook was bent over it, making some adjustment.
j "Readout now," he said, straightening and
looking over his shoulder at the large, shaggy-fringed
rock that was sitting in the center seat.
j Some of those glittering fringes stroked the open
circuitry of the communicator controls in the seat's
j arm. "Point nine nine three," said a
scratchy voice j from the voder box mounted on the
rock's back. "A nice triple sine."
was "Nice"?" said Spook. Jim raised an
eyebrow: you could have used Spook's tone of voice
to dry out a martini. "Within high-nominal
limits," said the rock, and there was a definite
smile in the voice, despite the fact that the voder
should not have been able to convey emotion. "A third-order
curve, sir. Skew no more x than a minus zero
point two two four six. No crystal j
infrequency, no parasitic vibrations, signal
loss within accepted IEEE and CCITT"
parameters, layback less than point zero two
percent, hyperbolic-was
"That should be sufficient, Mr. Naraht,"
Spook
said, looking over at the captain with a slight wry
expression. "Mr. Naraht," Jim said, stepping
down beside the helm. Lieutenant Naraht was a
Horta, a hatchling of the original Horta on
Janus VI: one of an intensely curious
species that could no more have stayed out of space, once
they came to understand it, than they could have stopped eating
rock. Jim had watched Naraht's career since
he was transferred to the Enterprise with both interest
and pleasure: the Horta had gone from eager, avid
"space cadet" to seasoned officer in a very short
time . . . no surprise, considering some of the things
he had been through, with the rest of the crew, since he
came aboard. Now Jim patted the back
of the center seat and said, "Trying her out for fit,
mister?"
There would have been a time when the remark would have made
Naraht wriggle all over, embarrassed--and the
sight of a quarter-ton of living stone, the shape and
color of a giant fringed asbestos pan pizza,
being embarrassed, had occasionally been memorable. But
now Naraht merely looked up-at least Jim