"Keith Fenwick - Skid 03 - Skid 3" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fenwick Keith)

President Mitchell seemed to have settled down for the moment and sat in
on the side of the corner of the room with his head in his hands. Sue sat
further away with little Bruce suckling at her breast and Raele was headed for
another wall where Bruce thought the accommodation area must be. Bruce looked
at the three dogs that lay together not too far from his feet. Can and Punch
had the usual expectant grins on their faces while Cop just looked at him
expectantly.
"They are stupid," he seemed to say.
"Are you really talking to me?"
"You bet your black arse." Cop still hadn't quite got to grips with the
English language yet but he was working on it.
"How come?" Bruce asked squatting in front of the dog.
"Dunno really," Cop replied.
"Hmmp." Bruce didn't really know how to handle the idea of a dog being
able to communicate telepathically with him, especially one as cocky as Cop
appeared to be. True to form the Skidians seemed to have done something
carefully and precisely that made no sense at all.
"What are they going to do with us son?" President Mitchell asked tiredly
from where he sat against the wall.
"Dunno mate, dunno at all." Bruce was well used to the oblique way that
the Skidians operated. It had always frustrated him. Now that he had got his
memory back, Bruce took a more benign view of those events.
"Has whatshisface said anything to you?"
"He muttered something about how I was a leader of men and he would be
interested in talking to me some more about the development of self governing
communities. I may be a politician but I don't know much about that sort of
stuff. I'm a businessman doing my best to uphold the expectations of others
and get some sanity back into our economy."
"Well it's not actually a bad place to stay, apart from the fact that you
don't want to be there in the first place." Bruce realised for the first time
that it was the fact that he was on Skid against his will that had made his
stay so unpalatable, that and being told that he'd never return home. That he
had actually got back home was an additional complication that Bruce didn't
want to bother himself with for the moment. "And if you get comfortable with
the idea that despite what they say they want you to do, the Skidians will do
their best to make sure you fail."
"Sounds like what experience I have as a politician will stand me in good
stead then, is this place really called Skid?"
"Yep really."
"You say that you have been there before?" Mitchell asked.
"I reckon so, Skid is a really weird place," added Bruce, without
elaborating much to the disgust of Mitchell. "Didn't remember until I stuffed
that little plastic ball in my ear though."
"You mean you didn't know until then?" Mitchell asked incredulously.
"Well I dreamt about things that I couldn't understand, "Sue piped up.
Like Bruce now that she actually remembered everything she felt much happier.
Finding herself on a Skidian space ship again didn't really trouble her unduly
now that she and little Bruce, she and big Bruce for that matter were
reunited.
Mitchell shook his head sadly and withdrew into his corner wondering how