"Thomas A. Easton - Alien Resonance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Easton Thomas A)

 file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Alien%20Resonance.txt

Ellen stretched and poured.
"But there are so many lights--pass the rum, please--and people."
"For how long?" Ybarra's voice went flat.
"Famines, wars, plagues..." Ellen echoed his tone.
"International paranoia." So did Franklin.
"Don't forget the dread specter of academic unemployment." Alec tried to
chuckle, but the specter was hardly academic. Each of them had friends who had
failed to keep their toeholds.
Di shook her head. "No bread lines for us, now."
"Chablis lines, maybe." Ellen laughed.
"Dip lines, chip lines," offered Alec.
"Hip lines, bust lines." That was Franklin.
"Fly lines and tag lines," said Ybarra, snorting. Franklin lacked, he thought, a
sense of the appropriate. It was no wonder that Ellen kept rejecting the
graceless fellow. Then why had they ever let him join their group? They were all
of an age and they all loved the outdoors, but... He looked at his friends, his
gaze settling on Ellen. She met his eye. He smiled. Franklin was a relative
outsider, but he was one of them. He was not merely tolerated.
No one picked up the line of banter Ybarra had dropped. Night surrounded them,
not silent, broken by the insistent bellows of tiny frogs, the scream of some
predator's hapless victim, the splash of a fish in the pond. Finally, Ybarra
sighed. "And pass the rum."
Eventually, they ran down. "Man~ana," said Ellen, yawning. "We'll have to paddle
for miles."
"And drive for hours," said Ybarra.
Alec groaned theatrically. "Teaching! Students! Deans!"
"Paychecks," said Di. "Go to bed!"
They left the warmth of the fire and hurried to their separate tents. Sleeping
bags beckoned them past a flurry of good-nights, and there was silence.



Alec woke at dawn, knowing he had dreamed. He recalled nothing of the dream
itself, but he felt better, more cheerful, warmer, than he could remember ever
having felt before. He stretched in his sleeping bag, smiling gently despite his
awareness that today they would return to civilization. It was only a dream, and
already the feeling was evaporating.
He crawled from his bag, unzipped his tent, and headed toward the crescent horn
they had dubbed the "men's." As he relieved himself on the beach, he watched a
loon floating on the sheet of silver that was the pond, saw it dive and
resurface, fed, a hundred feet beyond. There were no noises until a startled
"Hey!" broke the silence behind him.
The voice was Franklin's. Alec didn't hurry back. He thought perhaps his friend
had found a garter snake sharing his bed, or a red squirrel in the potato chips.
He was surprised to see Ellen standing by the blue tent and two sets of legs
poking from the narrow portal. Ellen was saying, "What is it?"
"Damn!" came Ybarra's voice.
"It's broken," said Di.