"Alan Dean Foster - With friends like these." - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

them in advance?"
The native smiled. "Sorry, hon, but these, um, gentlemen, just sort of dropped in on us. I
promised them some ice cream."
"I hope they like chocolate," she said.
When they had been seated around the room, each being curling up according to the style fitting to
its own physiognomy, Commander Rappan decided to break into the cheerful dialogue and get down to
business. Fraternizing with the natives was all very well and good. No doubt the Xeno Department
would approve. However, he was not so sure that his colleagues, hard-pressed to hold oft" the Yop
waves, would see things in the same way.
Unfortunately, this thing called ice cream got quite a grip on one's attention.
Zinin was one of the few present to whom the concoction had pfoved unappealing. He leaned over and
whispered to Phrnnx, "These are the deadly fighters we are supposed to enlist? Conquerors of the
Veen fleets? Stuff of horror tales? Why, they look positively soft! I could crush that male under
one paw. He hardly comes up to my eyes!"
"Few of us do, oh hulking one," replied Phrnnx, adding a gesture indicative of second-degree
ironic humor. "But that is hardly an indication one way or the other. Although I admit they do
seem a bit on the pastoral side."
Zinin snorted.
"What star system are you folks from?' Not all from the same, surelyl"
"Indeed," said the Professor. It occurred to him what had troubled his thoughts ever since they
had met these natives. For a race that had not had extra-planetary contact for umpti-thousand Ipas
they were treating the crew of the Tpin like next-door neighbors who popped over for a visit every
time-period. Even the siblingтАФwhere had he disappeared to?тАФhad been fully self-possessed when
confronted by what must be to him utterly strange beings. It was just a touch unnerving. "You
might be interested to know that the Veen have been extinct for some 450,000 of your time-
revolutions."
The biped nodded understandingly. "We guessed as much. When so much time passed and nothing


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happened, one way or the other, friendly or hostile... we assumed that we'd been forgotten and
filed away somewhere."
"Not forgotten," said the Professor. "Legends persist longer than their creators, sometimes. There
was a period of... confusion... at the end of the Veen-Terran wars." Was that a twitch of reaction
in the native's face? Yes? No? "When the bureaucracy set up by the Veen was submerged by a wave of
would-be empire-builders, interstellar government pretty well collapsed. It took a while for
things to straighten themselves out. Which is why we have not contacted you till now." Could he
read the lie? "Another problem has arisen."
The biped sighed again. "I was afraid this mightn't be a social call. What is your problem,
Professor?"
Backed at certain intervals by succinct comments from Rappan, he began to outline the present
desperate situation with respect to the Yops, ending with a plea to forget any past differences
and come to the aid of the Federation.
The Terran had listened quietly to their arguments, unmoving. Now he sat in an attitude of intense
concentration, seeming to listen to voices and thoughts outside their ken. When he at last raised
his face to them again he wore a serious smile.
"I must, of course, consult with and deliver your message to my... 'superiors.' Such a decision
would be difficult for us to make. As you can see for yourselves"тАФhe made an all-encompassing