"Harry Harrison - Galactic Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

and beat the protesting camel with clubs back from whence it had come, while a
medic clamped a tourniquet on the wounded man's stump and dragged his limp
body away.

"That is your first lesson about combat camels," the Colonel cried huskily.
"Never raise your arms to them. Your companion, with a newly grafted arm will,
I am certain, ha-ha!, remember this little lesson. Next man, next companion!тАЭ

Again the thunder of rushing feet and the high-pitched gurgling, scream-like
roar of the combat camel at full charge. This time the Corpsman kept his arm
down, and the camel bit his head off.

"Can't graft on a new head I am afraid," the Colonel leered maliciously at
them. "A moment of silence for our departed companion who has gone to the big
rocket pad in the sky. That's enough. Ten-SHUN! You will now proceed to the
camel training area where you will learn to get along with your faithful
companions. Never forgetting of course that each creature has a complete set
of teeth made of imperviumite, as well as razor sharp claw caps of this same
substance. Dis-MISSED!тАЭ

The student barracks of the CCC was well known for its "no frills" - or rather
"no coddling" - decor and comforts. The beds were impervitium slabs, no
spine-sapping mattresses here!, and the sheets made of thin burlap. No
blankets of course, not with the air kept at a healthy 4 degrees Centigrade.
The rest of the comforts matched so that it was a great surprise to the
graduates to find unaccustomed luxuries awaiting them upon their return from
the ceremonies and training. There was a shade on each bare-bulbed reading
light and a nice soft two centimeter-thick pillow on every bed. Already they
were reaping the benefits of all the years of labor.

Now, among all the students, the top student by far was named M. There are
some secrets that must not be told, names that are important to loved ones and
neighbors. Therefore I shall draw the cloak of anonymity over the true
identity of the man known as M. Suffice to call him "Steel," for that was the
nickname of someone who knew him best. "Steel," or Steel as we can call him,
had at this time a roommate by the name of L. Later, much later, he was to be
called by certain people "Gentleman Jax," so for the purpose of this narrative
we shall call him "Gentleman Jax" as well, or perhaps just plain "Jax.тАЭ

Jax was second only to Steel in scholastic and sporting attainments, and the
two were the best of chums. They had been roommates for the past year and now
they were back in their room with their feet up, basking in the unexpected
luxury of the new furnishings, sipping decaffeinated coffee, called koffee,
and smoking deeply of the school's own brand of denicotinized cigarettes,
called Denikcig by the manufacturer but always referred to, humorously, by the
CCC students as "gaspers" or "lungbusters.тАЭ

"Throw me over a gasper, will you Jax," Steel said, from where he lolled on
the bed, hands behind his head, dreaming of what was in store for him now that
he would be having his own camel soon.