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

staring at?" Bill sussurated with all the menace of a snake in heat.
"Nothing, majesty, sir, your highness. . ." "Don't lie -- you're staring
at my face.""No, I mean yes, can't help myself since my eyeball is touching
your face." "And it's not just my face you are staring at -- it's my tusk.
And you are thinking -- why has he only one tusk?" Bill stepped back and
growled loathingly at all of the swaying, frightened, fatigued, near-death
recruits. "You are all thinking that, aren't you? Say _yes_!" "Yes!" They
gasped and croaked in unison, most of them too hammered by fatigue to have the
slightest idea of what the hell they were doing anyway. "I knew it," Bill
sighed, then twanged the solitary rusk gloomily. "Not that I blame you. A DI
with two tusks would be a fearful and terrible sight. But a single tusk is, I
must say it, a pathetic sight."7 He sniffled with self-pity and rubbed a
pendant drop from his nose with the back of his hand. "Not that I expect
sympathy from you feebleminded misfits -- or loyalty or anything like that,
since it is always bowbyour-buddy week. No, I expect raw self-interest and
bribery. We will drill until it grows dark or you drop dead, whichever comes
first." He waited while the moan of pain sighed through the troops. "Or you
might emulate yesterday's intake who, so sympathetic to my problem, freely
donated one buck each towards my fang fund. I must admit that I was so
grateful that I cut the drill short at that point." The troopers, all
recently and reluctantly drafted into service for the glory of the Empire, had
already absorbed a few survival messages. They read this one loud and cleat.
There was a clink of coins as Bill passed before them and accepted their
unsolicited donations. "Dismissed," he muttered as he counted the loot.
Enough, yes, just enough. He smiled and looked down at his feet. The smile
instantly vanished. The tusk was only half of his problem. He was now looking
at the other half. His left foot appeared normal enough, encased in its
mirror-finished recruit-stamping boot. His right boot was slightly
different. More than slightly. For one thing it was twice the size of his left
boot. Of even greater interest was the long toe that stuck out through a hole
above the heel. An impressive yellow toe that .was tipped by a shining claw.
Bill growled in frustrated anger and kicked out with his right foot and gouged
a deep groove in the hard ground. Something was just going to have to be done
about this as well.8 Thunder rumbled from behind the mountains as Bill
started across the drill field towards the barracks. He cast a suspicious eye
at the sky as black clouds boiled quickly into sight. The wind rushed up just
as fast as the clouds. He coughed as the dust swirled around him -- but not
for long. The dust was beaten down by a torrential rain that instantly turned
the field to a sea of mud. The rain -- stopped as soon as he had been well
soaked -- and giant hailstones plocked holes into the mud and rattled off his
helmet. Before he reached the barracks the clouds were blown from sight and
the tropical sun burned billows of steam from his uniform. This planet,
Grundgy, had an interesting climate. This was the only thing interesting
about it. Otherwise it was barren and worthless and had only two seasons:
frigid winter, tropical summer. There were no minerals worth digging, no land
worth planting, no resources worth exploiting. In other words the perfect
planet to turn into a military base. This had been done, at great and
overpriced expense, until the giant island-continent in the boiling, iceberg
filled sea, was a single great military establishment. Fort Grundgy, named
after the galaxy-famous Commander Merda Grundgy. He was famous for absolutely