"James E. Gunn - Breaking Point" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

"Base all your thinking on that, Johnny. If that seems like leaning over backwards, it's only a sample of
how careful we've got to be, how many angles we've got to figure."

"Hell," said the pilot. "I know all that. I was just ribbing the bat-snatcher here." He thumbed a cigarette
out of his tunic, touched his lighter to it. He frowned, stared at the lighter, tried it again. "It doesn't work.
Damn it!" he barked explosively, "I don't like things that don't work!"

Paresi was beside him, catlike, watchful. "Here's a light. Take it easy, Johnny! A bum lighter's not that
important."

Johnny looked sullenly at his lighter. "It doesn't work," he muttered. "Guaranteed, too. When we get
back I'm going to feed it to Supply." He made a vivid gesture to describe the feeding technique, and
jammed the lighter back into his pocket.

"Heh!" Ives' heavy voice came from the communications desk. "Maybe the natives are primitives, at that.
Not a whisper of any radio on any band. No powerline fields, either. These are plowboys, for sure."

Johnny looked out at the sleeping valley. His irritation over the[Pg 12] lighter was still in his voice. "Imagine
that. No video or trideo. No jet-races or feelies. What do people do with their time in a place like this?"

"Books," said Hoskins, almost absently. "Chess. Conversation."

"I don't know what chess is, and conversation's great if you want to tell somebody something, like 'bring
me a steak'," said Johnny. "Let's get out of this fire-trap," he said to the Captain.

"In time," said the Captain. "Ives, DX those radio frequencies. If there's so much as a smell of radiation
even from the other side of this planet, we want to know about it. Hoskins, check the
landing-suitsтАФfood, water, oxygen, radio, everything. Earth-type planet or no, we're not fooling with
alien viruses. Johnny, I want you to survey this valley in every way you can and plot a minimum of three
take-off vectors."




The crew fell to work, Ives and Hoskins intently, Johnny off-handedly, as if he were playing out a ritual
with some children. Paresi bent over a stereomicroscope, manipulating controls which brought in samples
of air-borne bacteria and fungi and placed them under its objective. Captain Anderson ranged up beside
him.

"We could walk out of the ship as if we were on Muroc Port," said Paresi. "These couldn't be more like
Earth organisms if they'd been transplanted from home to delude us."

The Captain laughed. "Sometimes I tend to agree with Johnny. I never met a more suspicious character.
How'd you ever bring yourself to sign your contract?"

"Turned my back on a couple of clauses," said Paresi. "HereтАФhave a look."

At that moment the usually imperturbable Ives uttered a sharp grunt that echoed and re-echoed through
the cabin. Paresi and the Captain turned. Hoskins was just coming out of the after alleyway with an