"James Alan Gardner - League of Peoples 01 - Expendable" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

Then the light went on, and I would look around one last time, at the rainbow jacarandas, at Yarrun
counting the seconds until our ejaculation, and at the iris that waited, eyelike, ready to open.

I always faced that iris full on. No tail-operator ever saw me flinch. Only Yarrun knew that I closed my
eyes.




The Arrival


"Got it!" Harque cried with relief.

"About time," the captain growled. She twisted a knob on the console and spoke into a filament
microphone."Golden Cedar, this isJacaranda. We have established connection."

There was a pause of several seconds as our computer coded the captain's voice for transmission,
squirted it to theGolden Cedar 20,000 klicks away, received an answer, and decoded it into sound.
"Connection acknowledged. Prepare to receive."

As Yarrun and I moved to the observation window, the iris blinked open with the speed of a bubble
popping. The plastic in front of us, thick as it was, jerked slightly as the air on the other side exploded
into the tail, and one of the windows boomed like a drum. Harque and Prope ignored the sound, so
Yarrun and I did too.

"Mouth open and ready to receive," Prope said into the mike. She said it with a straight face. Pause.
"Acknowledged. Stand by." Harque stifled a yawn as Prope looked at her watch. She pursed her lips in
annoyance, then suddenly drew up into her most heroic stance, a calm smile taking possession of her
face. "Let's look alive, people," she intoned, her voice half an octave lower than when she was kibitzing
over Harque's shoulder.

Beyond the open Mouth, the milk white Sperm smeared itself over the black of space. Shimmering
distortions rippled through the tail's surface like heat waves. At the heart of the aperture, like a fly floating
on cream, lay the black gap through which the admiral would arrive.

A light flashed orange on the console and soft beeping filled the room. Harque murmured, "Five
seconds."
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The gap in the center of the hole suddenly expanded like a throat, vomiting out a figure in an impact suit
that shone a burnished gold. The suit shot half the length of the room before landing chest first on the floor
and skidding to a stop.

Harque leapt back to the console and spun some dials. The iris blinked shut soundlessly. "Pressurizing
now," Harque said in a loud voice that clearly wanted someone to pay attention. But the captain was too