"Michael Flynn - Wreck of The Rivers of Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flynn Michael)

and a simple query with those of a demand. Bhatterji, who did not much care for demands, placed a
smile before his teeth and twisted to greet the intrusion.


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/WreckofTheRiversofStars,The.html (10 of 424)5-9-2007 13:26:52
 TheWreckofTheRiverofStars



Second Officer тАЩAbd al-Aziz Corrigan was a burnt cinder of a man, punk held too long in the fire.
Partly, that was the endless sun of the skyless void; partly too that was the artifice of the melanic
micromachines that guarded his flesh from the continual rain of cosmic radiation. His skin had a leathery
feel to it: hard, yet supple and with a mild, pungent odor, as if he had been fashioned from uncured
hides. Like the shipтАЩs doctor, he had the long, lanky body of the spaceborn, though he was a man of the
тАЩStroids, not of LEO. Bhatterji imagined him a snake, an image reinforced by his deep-set, reptilian eyes
and by the way his tongue would dart out and wet his lips. The termsnake was common enough in
reference to the spaceborn, but polite folk avoided it; at least when any snakes were present.

тАЬWe havenтАЩt located the source of the malf,тАЭ Bhatterji said. A grudging admission, pricked slowly off
his teeth.

CorriganтАЩs eyes darted from Bhatterji to Miko. He disliked the dirt and the grime of the engine room.
Even when everything was in place, it seemed cluttered and disorderly. Bhatterji himself was a squat
lump of a man: ugly, with blunt fingers and a nose once broken in a fight and only indifferently repaired.
Corrigan considered him not far removed from the brute engines he served.

The same could not be said of his mate. Elfin-featured, sallow-skinned, Mikoyan Hidei lay at the
aesthetic antipodes to the engineer: graceful and sweet-tempered, with a smile that Corrigan found
disturbingly alluring, and all the more mysterious for being seldom seen outside duty hours. The second
officer followed Miko with his eyes, even while he addressed the engineer. тАЬCoasting will stretch out
our transit time. WeтАЩre drifting off course with the current, so the sooner you get it fixed, the better.тАЭ

Bhatterji, who had entertained no notion that delay would be a good thing, resented the deck officer
pointing out the obvious. If there was anything Bhatterji did not know about the ship, it was not a thing
that Corrigan could tell him. тАЬIтАЩll fix it,тАЭ he growled. He didnтАЩt like, either, the way the other man tossed
antiquated magsail terms into his speech. No one called gravity тАЬthe currentтАЭ any more. The old magsail
hands never seemed to understand that history had passed them by.

тАЬIt might be a physical malf,тАЭ Miko said. тАЬWhat if something damaged the projectors outside? If a
projectorтАЩs out of alignment, wouldnтАЩt that wreck the timing?тАЭ

Bhatterji considered the suggestion. тАЬYes, it could be. There are a number of possibilities. Software.
Hardware.тАЭ He shook his head. тАЬItтАЩs difficult to say.тАЭ

тАЬYouтАЩre wasting time,тАЭ Corrigan growled. тАЬI donтАЩt carewhat the malf is. I want itfixed .тАЭ It was not
being тАЬenziggiedтАЭтАФin zero gтАФthat Corrigan minded. Being spaceborn, he found it more natural than
weight. What he minded was anything out of order.

тАЬI need more data,тАЭ Bhatterji insisted.