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

through Ship.тАЭ

тАЬAnd the externalsтАж? BhatterjiтАЩs mate suggested a hardware fault.тАЭ

тАЬMy equipment is mounted on a different quadrant of the rim. ItтАЩs just coincidence, тАЩZizzy. The shipтАЩs
old. When was the last transit when we had no repairs to make?тАЭ

Corrigan grimaced. тАЬThe family still has my great-grandfatherтАЩs tent. We only replaced the ropes three
times, the poles twice, and patched every square inch of fabricтАж.тАЭ

тАЬBut itтАЩs still the original,тАЭ she finished for him. There was a subtext there. It lay not only in the glint of
her eye or the promise of her lips, but in that she could finish his jokes for him.

тАЬWell,тАЭ said Corrigan, тАЬkeep me informed.тАЭ

A request that the engineer would have found insulting The Lotus Jewel took as supertext to CorriganтАЩs
real needs. тАЬIтАЩll give you a personal report,тАЭ was all she answered, but it sent Corrigan from the room
with a glow. He would anticipate her visit the entire evening andтАФas she was chronically late for
appointmentsтАФthe pleasure of that anticipation would be all the more prolonged.

It was only as Corrigan was leaving that The Lotus Jewel noticed the chronometer. тАЬOh, no! The
captainтАЩs funeral! ItтАЩs almost over!тАЭ

тАЬNo one will be there,тАЭ Corrigan predicted. тАЬJust Doctor Wong. No one else reallyliked the captain.тАЭ

тАЬI did,тАЭ said The Lotus Jewel. тАЬHe helped me when I needed it most.тАЭ

тАЬThatтАЩs hardly a reason for liking.тАЭ

CorriganтАЩs insensitivity went beyond that of his obdurate skin. The Lotus JewelтАЩs did not. She watched
him go with an uneasy feeling in her heart, as if for just a moment she had glimpsed a stranger.

The Doctor

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 TheWreckofTheRiverofStars



WhenThe River of Stars was reconfigured as a tramp freighter most of her main deck became
superfluous, but the fitters and riggers at the Yards had been loathe to cut through pressure walls and
load-bearing structures or vital power and life-support conduits and so they had left the disk itself intact.
The cruel sentiment of the romantics held that her lovely lines could not be tampered with, and likely
any such tampering would have destroyed her integrity in both senses of the word. And so, opulent
staterooms that once housed the pampered rich (and, later and less splendidly, cohorts of emigrants)
became stockrooms or storage areas housing only inanimate shipping podsтАФor were simply shut up and
abandoned.

This was less the problem it might have been, for the ship was built largely of solid smokeтАФthat is, of
aerogelтАФand her mass was but a fraction of what her size suggested; but mass was still a problem at the