"Heinlein, Robert A- Space Family Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

His father took a deep breath. 'Thank you. Which reminds me that I still have a full episode to sweat out tonight, so I will cut this discussion short. In the first place you can't touch the money without my thumbprint - from now on I am going to wear gloves. In the second place both of you are too young for an unlimited license.'
'You could get us a waiver for out-system. When we got back we'd probahly be old enough for unlimited.'
'You're too young!'
Castor said, 'Why, Dad, not half an hour ago you accepted a gimmick from me in which you were going to have an eleven-year-old kid driving a ship.'
'I'll raise his age!'
'It'll ruin your gimmick.'
'Confound it! That's just fiction - and poor fiction at that It's hokum, dreamed up to sell merchandise.' He suddenly looked suspiciously at his son. 'Cas, you planted that gimmick on me. Just to give yourself an argument in favor of this hair-brained scheme - didn't you?'
Castor looked pious. 'Why, Father, how could you think such a thing?'
'Don't Father me! I can tell a hawk from a handsaw.'
'Anybody can,' Grandmother Hazel commented. 'The Hawk class is a purely commercial type while the Hanshaw runabout is a sport job. Come to think about it, boys, a Hanshaw might be better than a Douglas. I like its fractional controls and -'
'Hazel!' 'napped her. son. 'Quit encouraging the boys. And quit showing off. You're not the only engineer in the family.'
'I'm the only good one,' she answered smugly.
'Oh, yes? Nobody ever complained about my work.'
'Then why did you quit?'
'You know why. Fiddle with finicky figures for months on end - and what have you got? A repair dock. Or a stamping mill. And who Ceres?'
'So you aren't an engineer. You're merely a man who knows engineering.'
'What about yourself? You didn't stick with it.'
'No,' she admitted, 'but my reasons were different. I saw three big, hairy, male men promoted over my head and not one of them could do a partial integration without a pencil. Presently I figured out that the Atomic Energy Commission had a bias on the subject of women no matter what the civil service rules said. So I took a job dealing blackjack. Luna City didn't offer much choice in those days - and I had you to support.'
The argument seemed about to die out; Castor judged it was time to mix it up again. 'Hazel, do you really think we should get a Hanshaw? I'm not sure we can afford it.'
'Well, now, you really need a third crewnaan for a -'
'Do you want to buy in?'
'Mr Stone interrupted. 'Hazel, I will not stand by and let you ecourage this. I'm putting my foot down.'
'You look silly standing there on one foot. Don't try to bring me up, Roger. At ninety-five my habits are fairly well set.'
'Ninety-five indeed! Last week you were eighty-five.'
'It's been a hard week. Back to our muttons - why don't you buy in with them? You could go along and keep them out of trouble.'
'What? Me?' Mr Stone took a deep breath. '(A) a marine guard couldn't keep these two junior-model Napoleons out of trouble. I know; Ive tried. (B) I do not like a Hanshaw; they are fuel hogs. (C) l have to turn out three episodes a week of The Scourge of the Spaceways - including one which must be taped tonight, if this family will ever quiet down!'
'Roger,' his mother answered' 'trouble in this family is like water for fish. And nobody asked you to buy a Hanshaw, As to your third point' give me a blank spool and I'll dictate the next three episodes tonight while I'm brushing my hair.' Hazel's hair was still thick and quite red. So far, no one had caught her dyeing it. 'It's about time you broke that contract anyway; you've won your bet.'
Her son winced. Two years before be had let himself be trapped into a bet that he could write better stuff than was being channeled up from Earth - and had gotten himself caught in a quicksand of fat checks and options. 'I can't afford to quit' he said feebly.
'What good is money if you don't have time to spend it? Give me that spool and the box'
'You can't write it.'
'Want to bet?'
Her son backed down; no one yet had won a bet with Hazel.
'That's beside the point I'm a family man; I've got Edith and Buster and Meade to think about, too.'
Meade turned her head again. 'If you're thinking about me, Daddy, I'd like to go. Why, I've never been any place - except that one trip to Venus and twice to New York.'
'Hold still. Meade,' Dr Stone said quietly. She went on to her husband, 'You know, Roger, I was thinking just the other day how caamped this apartment is. And we haven't been any place, as Meade says, since we got back from Venus.'
Mr Stone stared. 'You too? Edith, this apartment is bigger than any ship compartment; you know that.'
'Yes, but a ship seems bigger. In free fall one gets so much more use out of the room.'
'My deer, do I undersand that you are supporting this junket?'
'Oh' not at all! I was speaking in general terms. But you do sleep better aboard ship. You never snore in free fall.'
'I do not snore!'
Dr Stone did not answer. Hazel snickered. Pollux caught Castor's eye and Castor nodded; the two slipped quietly away to their own room. It was a lot of trouble to get mother involved in a family argument, but worth the effort; nothing important was ever decided until she joined in.

Meade tapped on their door a little later; Castor let her in and looked her over; she was dressed in the height of fashion for the American Old West. 'Square dancing again, huh?'
'Eliminations tonight. Look here, Cas, even if Daddy breaks loose from the money you two might be stymied by being underage for an unlimited license - right?'
'We figure on a waiver. They had also discussed blasting off without a waiver, but it did not seem the time to mention it.
'But you might not get it. Just bear in mind that I will be eighteen next week. Bve now!'
'Good night.'
When she had gone Pollux said, 'That's silly. She hasn't even taken her limited license.'
'No, but she's had astrogation in school and we could coach her.'
'Cas, you're crazy. We can't drag her all around the system; girls are a nuisance.'