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

awake when he heard the ghastly moans. Cy was crawling up the dune on all
fours, groaning as he came. His skin was ghastly white and he was vibrating
like an electric dildo. Praktis climbed up behind him, his expression one of
sadistic pleasure. "The shot brought him around but, oh boy, has it got
some really wicked side affects. That's the direction, juicehead, that line
scratched in the sand. Get a fix on it." Cy dug out the compass, but his
hand was shaking too much to read it. In the end he had to lay it fiat on the
sand. Then he had to hold his head still with both hands to take the sight.
After a certain amount of blinking, eyepopping and twitching he spoke in a
hollow voice.41 "Eighteen degrees east of the magnetic pole. Permission
requested to go away and die, sir." "Permission denied. The shot will wear
off soon..." A shrill scream cut through his words, followed by the roar
and splat of blaster fire. "We're being attacked!" Praktis screeched. "I'm
unarmed! Don't fire! I am a doctor, a noncombatant, my rank only an honorable
one!" Bill, his brain cells still so gummed by sleep and ethyl alcohol,
drew his blaster and ran down the dune towards the firing instead of away from
it which, normally, he would have done. He picked up speed, could not stop,
saw Meta before him, standing and firing, could not turn and ran into her at
full gallop. They collapsed into an inferno of arms and legs. She
recovered first and punched him in the eye with a hard fist. "That hurt,"
he whimpered, holding his hand over it. "I'm going to have a shiner."
"Move your hand and I'll give you another one to match. Why did you knock me
down like that?" "What was all the shooting about?" "Rats!" She
grabbed up her blaster and spun about. "All gone now. Except the ones I
blasted into atoms. They were getting at our food. At least we know what lives
on this planet. Great big nasty gray rats." "No they don't," Praktis said,
having recovered from his fit of cowardice and rejoined the party. He kicked a
piece of exploded rat with his toe. "Rattus Nowegicus. Mankind's companion to
the stars. We must have brought them with us." "Sure did," Bill agreed.
"They bailed out of the spacer even before you did."42 "Interesting,"
Praktis mused, rubbing his jaw, nodding, squinting, doing all the things that
indicate musing. "With a whole planet to nosh in-I ask you -why do they come
creeping back here to eat our food?" "They don't like the native chow,"
Bill suggested. "Brilliant but incorrect. It is not that they don't like
it-there is none of it. This planet is barren of life as any fool can plainly
see." "Not completely, sir," any fool said. Recruit Wurber appeared from
out of the desert, his adam's apple bobbing up and down like a yo-yo. He held
out a flower. "As soon as I heard the shooting I ran away. Over thataway found
the flowers and..." "Let me have that. Ouch!" . . . and I cut my hand
when I picked it, just like you did just then, Admiral, when you grabbed it."
Praktis held the flower so close that his eyes crossed as he examined it.
"Stem, no leaves, red petals, no stamen or pistil. But made of metal. This is
made of metal, you idiot. It wasn't growing. IL was planted there in the sand
by a person or persons unknown." "Yes, Admiral. Shall I show the admiral
where the rest of the flowers are growing?" He led the way and the others
followed. Except for Captain Bly who was still zonked unconscious. Up dune and
down dune to a dark patch in the sand where a stand of flowers grew. Praktis
snapped one of them with his fingernail and it pinged. "Metal. All of
them, metal." He poked a finger into the damp sand, then sniffed it. "And this
is not water-smells like oil." No scientific explanation for the phenomena was