"Edmond Hamilton - Battle for the Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

THE TWO THOUSAND CENTURIES:
The Era of the Federation and United WorldsтАФ62,339-129,999.
BATTLE FOR THE STARS
By
EDMOND HAMILTON
ISBN 1-58873-992-9
All rights reserved
Copyright ┬й 1961, renewed Estate of Edmond Hamilton
Reprinted by permission Spectrum Literary Agency
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
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THE TWO THOUSAND CENTURIES
The Era of Interplanetary Exploration and ColonizationтАФ1971-2011.

The Era of Interplanetary FrontiersтАФ2011-2247.

The Era of Interplanetary SecessionтАФ2247-2621.

The Era of Interstellar ExplorationтАФ2300-2621.

The Era of Interstellar ColonizationтАФ2621-62,339.

The Era of the Federation and United WorldsтАФ62,339-129,999.

The Era of the Star KingsтАФ130,000-202,115.


CHAPTER 1
It was no place for a man to be.

Men were tissue, blood, bone, nerve. This place was not made for them. It was made for fire and force
and radiation. Go home, men.

But I can't, thought Jay Birrel. Not yet. My feet ache. I didn't sleep well. I want to see my wife, but I
can't go home. I have to go on into this place where a human being looks as pathetic as an insect in a
furnace.

Such thoughts made Birrel uneasy. He disliked imaginative thinking and imaginative people, he regarded
himself as a tough, practical man. They had a job to do and that was all there was to it, and he might as
well quit mooning about it. He straightened up a little more. He was always doing that, trying to gain a
little height, so that when he gave an order to a man he would not have to look up to him. It seemed a
little foolish to do it, but he could not quite get over the nagging consciousness that his height was only
average.

He said, тАЬRadar?"