"Harry Harrison - Bill 2 - On The Planet Of Robot Slaves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

spacer still hurtled downwards. Through thicker and thicker air, through wispy
high clouds, towards the ground below that rushed towards them at a terrible
pace. "Fire the garbage!" Praktis pleaded, but to no avail. Captain Bly
stood firm. The others added their cries to his, begged and sobbed, but the
thick, grubby finger did not descend. Closer and ever closer they fell,
until they could see individual grains of sand on the ground below In the
final nanosecond of the last microsecond the finger stabbed down.
Ka-chunk! went the coiled spring, releasing its nascent energy in a single
mighty spasm. Ka -flopf! went the garbage, hurtling outward to crash into
the planet just below. Ker-splat! went the space tug as it settled gently
into the mound of old newspapers, fish cans, grapefruit rinds, broken light
bulbs, beheaded rats, dead tea bags and shredded files. "Not bad if I say
so myself," Captain Bly chortled. "Not bad at all. This is really one for the
record books." The cabin echoed with the click of safety belts being
unlocked, the thud of hesitant boots upon the rusty deck.31 "Gravity
feels good," Bill opined. "A little light, but good..." "Shut up!" Pratkis
snapped. "I have one question and one question only for you, Cy. Did you..."
his voice broke and he restored it with a quick cough. "Did you get off the
planet's position?" "I tried to, Admiral. But the power cut off before I
could get out a signal." "Then do it now! There must be some juice left in
the batteries. Try it!" Cy punched in the commands, then thumbed the
activator button. The screen glowed-then went black and all the lights went
out. Wurber shrieked with fear at the sudden darkness, sobbed with relief when
the feeble glow of the emergency blub oozed out. "It worked!" Praktis
chortled. "Worked! The signal went out!" "Sure did, Admiral. At that
strength it must have gone up about five feet at least." "Then we are
marooned..." Bill intoned feebly. "Lost in space. On an enemy planet.
Surrounded by flying dragons. Millions of parsecs from home. In a dead
spaceship sitting on a mound of garbage." "You got it buddy-boy," Cy
nodded. "That's just about the size of it." C H A P T E R 4 32 "Here
is your beer, sir. can i go potty now?" Wurber gurgled, holding out the
once-warm bottle, now blood-hot from his heated grip. Pratkis snarled an
inarticulate reply as he grabbed the bottle and half-drained it in a single
glug. Captain Bly groped through the pockets of his crumpled uniform until he
found the butt of an Hjoint which he lit. Bill sniffed his exhaust fumes
appreciatively but decided against asking for a drag. Instead he went to look
out of the viewport at this newfound planet, but all he could see was
garbage. Pratkis grimaced as he drained the warm beer from the bottle,
then whistled wetly. When Bill looked around he flipped the bottle to him.
"Put this outside with the rest of the rubbish, chicken-foot. And while you
are out there sort of have a look-see and let me know what it looks like."
"Are you requesting me to make a reconnaissance and report back?" "Yes, if
that's what you want to call it in your rotten Trooperese. I'm a doctor first
and an admiral by accident. So just get on with it." The dim glow of the
emergency light did not penetrate down the ladderway. Bill clicked his heels
together to turn on his toe-torch, then climbed33down the rungs in the light
of his glowing boot. Since there was no power the spacelock would not open
when he thumbed the switch. He turned the sticky manual wheel and groaned with
the effort. When the inner door had opened about a foot he squeezed through
the gap and into the chamber of the lock. A bright beam of sunlight shone