"James Alan Gardner - League of Peoples 04 - Hunted" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

moonbase for twenty whole years, so I felt way out of my depth when a dozen women wanted to make
conversation with me.

"You're so cute for an Explorer!"

"And you don't smell bad!"

"Do you have a funny voice? I bet you have a funny voice. Say something."

"Um," I said. "Um."

"Look, he'sshy!" One of the women giggled. "Can they stick you in the Explorer Corps just because
you're shy? With a guy this built, I could cure his shyness real fast. Overnight!"

"He must be one of thenew Explorers," another woman said. "The volunteers. The ones who don't have
anything wrong with them."

"Anyone who volunteers to be an Explorer has something wrong with them. Him. Whatever." A
bald-headed woman laid both hands on my wrist and stared straight into my eyes. "Come on, handsome,
you can be honest with us. You're an Explorer, and Explorers are never normal. What's wrong with
you?"

I took a deep breath and told them all, "I'm stupid, okay? I'm stupid." Then I went back to my cabin and
locked myself in.



The whole next day I kept getting comm-messages saying, "Sorry," or "We were just teasing," or "That
invitation is still on for getting together in the service tunnels." Three women actually came to apologize at
my door... and later, a man who said, "The women here are such bitches, aren't they? Forget 'em. Why
don't you come down to my cabin for some sudsy VR?" I said thanks anyway, but maybe another time.
After that, when somebody knocked I pretended I wasn't home.



Just before noon on the third day, I got another visitor... and the peep-monitor showed it was a woman
wearing an admiral's gray uniform. I couldn't very well keep an admiral shut out, so I ran my fingers
through my hair, then told the door to open.

The admiral woman was short and brown and young, with a big purply blotch on her cheek; I couldn't
tell what the blotch was, and didn't know if I was supposed to compliment it or pretend it didn't exist. My
twin sister Samantha used to yell at me, "Edward, when you see a woman has done something special
with her face, for God's sake say she looks pretty." It was easy to tell Sam she looked pretty, because
she was always as beautiful as sunshine on a lake. With other women though, either I sat there
tongue-tied, or I'd try a compliment and the woman would just stare at me... like maybe I was trying to
be funny or something. I sure didn't want an admiral to think I was making fun of her face; so I just
ignored her blotchy cheek and gave her my best salute.

It's hard to go wrong saluting. Especially with an admiral.
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