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

he was going to survive this latest crisis in his life.

two


Bruce spent much of the journey wondering where the rest of the crew was
only to be told by Raele that there were none. Bruce had been looking forward
to seeing some of his old friends, Cyprus and Mulgoon, maybe even Toytoo.
Raele said maybe.
To Bruce's surprise Raele also showed him how to operate the patrol
ship's flight controls. He was so absorbed with learning that it never
occurred to him as to why Raele might be providing him with a possible escape
route.
Apart from that, the trip to Skid was uneventful. Mitchell kept himself
to himself apart from venting his fury at losing his clothes to a large robot
as he had a shower and grumbling about the standard of food.
Bruce thought that the man had a truly bemused look about him and was
about to make a disparaging remark about the intellectual calibre of the
American President when Sue reminded him that he had worn a similar bemused
look himself for much of the first few weeks that he had spent on Skid.
"It's just shock that's all," she said, "culture shock they call it."
"I seem to recall that you weren't too happy either," Bruce retorted. But
he was also uncomfortable in his new knowledge that at times Sue had handled
their previous sojourn on Skid better than he had. This time it will be
different he assured himself without having any idea how different it would
be.
Immediately they stepped off the patrol craft at the space port in
Sietnuoc Bruce realised that something was different, sensed as Raele had,
that something was definitely wrong.
The space port was empty for one thing, their own patrol craft was the
only one evident in the vast open space and the subdued murmur that Bruce
later associated with the hustle and bustle of an incredibly large city was
gone. The only sound was that of their own footsteps on the cobbles as they
made their way from the patrol craft to the port buildings. The dogs were
subdued also sensing there was something wrong and stayed close to Bruce,
dogging his heels.
"There's nobody here at all," Cop told him.
"There must be!" Bruce thought back. On the trip to Skid he had found
that Cop could read his thoughts just as readily as he could hear them. Bruce
was thankful for that because he felt a little silly talking to the dog and
the sidelong looks he got from Mitch and Sue made him feel even sillier.
"There's nobody here you halfwit!"
Bruce aimed a kick at the cheeky dog but Cop easily skipped out of his
reach.
"Don't you ever leave those dogs alone?" Sue protested on their behalf.
"Only when they're not having me on," he replied ambiguously.
"What happened here?" Sue asked. To her the city looked the same. It took
her a while to put a finger on what was nagging at her. It wasn't just the
lack of people it was that the city looked more ordered than she remembered,
as if the lack of people somehow made the place tidier, or if it was new like