"Edmond Hamilton - The Godmen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

Men were running out of the Thetis, as he and Yrra ran up. He darted a glance backward and saw the
torches streaming out over the plain. Now the newly-arrived ship was landing on the ground, its keel
tubes spurning ghostly clouds of ions, and he made out its outlines as those of a twenty-man star-cruiser
like his own ship.

Kwolek came running up to him, as he and Yrra reached the Thetis.

"It's another Star Survey cruiser! Do you suppose it'sтАФтАЭ Then he broke off, looked at Yrra, and
whistled. тАЬWhere'd you pick her up?"

"Get the men back into the ship,тАЭ snapped Harlow. тАЬThere's liable to be trouble. And take her with you.
Garcia, you'll come with me."

To Yrra he spoke as rapidly as he could in the Ktashan tongue. тАЬGo with him. Your people are coming
and they must not see you with us."

She flashed a look of understanding at him, and went with Kwolek without a word.

The torches were corning across the plain in ragged order, still some distance away. Harlow glanced at
them worriedly and then with Garcia beside him he hot-footed it around the stern of the Thetis.

His first close look at the newly-landed ship shattered his hopes.

Dundonald's cruiser had been the Starquest, but the name on the bows of this one, beneath the Survey,
emblem, was Sunfire.

"Not Dundonald,тАЭ said Garcia. тАЬBut I didn't know another Survey ship was anywhere near here."

The lock of the Sunfire opened as a square of glowing light in the dark flank. A tall figure shouldered out,
glanced around, and then came toward Harlow and Garcia.
By the light streaming from the lock, from which other men in the standard uniform were now emerging,
Harlow saw a big young man with close-cropped red hairтАФand keen, light blue eyes in a rawboned
face.

"Taggart, commanding the Sunfire," he said, extending his hand. тАЬYou'll be Harlow? I'm from Sector
Three Division, I don't think we ever met. What the devil's going on here?"

"The people here are not happy about your coming,тАЭ Harlow said dryly. тАЬIf I may make a suggestion, I'd
confine your men aboard ship for the present."

Taggart looked at the oncoming torches and swore, then turned and rapped out an order to the men in
the lock. Then he turned back to Harlow.

"Service courtesy demands that I visit your ship first, but shall we get a move on?тАЭ he said.

Harlow thought they had better. The torches were uncomfortably close, and he could hear the angry
voices of the men who carried them.

With Garcia following them, he and Taggart went back around the Thetis on the double. As they
reached its lock, he saw that the Ktashans had stopped a pistol-shot away, but a shout that he knew was