"Robert A. Heinlein - Have Space Suit Will Travel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

and never made any kind of landing, then think again. I did very well! -- and
your landing instructions weren't too specific. What have they done with the
Mother Thing?"
"The what?"
"You don't know? Oh, dear!"
"Wait a minute, Peewee. Let's get on the same frequency. I'm 'Junebug'
all right and I homed you in -- and if you think that's easy, to have a voice
out of nowhere demand emergency landing instructions, you better think again,
too. Anyhow, a ship landed and another ship landed right after it and a door
opened in the first ship and a guy in a space suit jumped out -- "
"That was I."
" -- and something else jumped out -- "
"The Mother Thing."
"Only she didn't get far. She gave a screech and flopped. I went to see
what the trouble was and something hit me. The next thing I know you're
saying, 'Hi, there.'" I wondered if I ought to tell her that the rest,
including her, was likely a morphine dream because I was probably lying in a
hospital with my spine in a cast.
Peewee nodded thoughtfully. "They must have blasted you at low power, or
you wouldn't be here. Well, they caught you and they caught me, so they almost
certainly caught her. Oh, dear! I do hope they didn't hurt her."
"She looked like she was dying."
"As if she were dying," Peewee corrected me. "Subjunctive. I rather
doubt it; she's awfully hard to kill -- and they wouldn't kill her except to
keep her from escaping; they need her alive."
"Why? And why do you call her 'the Mother Thing'?"
"One at a time, Kip. She's the Mother Thing because...well, because she
is, that's all. You'll know, when you meet her. As to why they wouldn't kill
her, it's because she's worth more as a hostage than as a corpse -- the same
reason the kept me alive. Although she's worth incredibly more than I am --
they'd write me off without a blink if I became inconvenient. Or you. But
since she was alive when you saw her, then it's logical that she's a prisoner
again. Maybe right next door. That makes me feel much better."
It didn't make me feel better. "Yes, but where's here?"
Peewee glanced at a Mickey Mouse watch, frowned and said, "Almost
halfway to the Moon, I'd say."
"What?!"
"Of course I don't know. But it makes sense that they would go back to
their nearest base; that's where the Mother Thing and I scrammed from."
"You're telling me we're in that ship?"
 "Either the one I swiped or the other one. Where did you think you were,
Kip? Where else could you be?"
"A mental hospital."
She looked big-eyed and then grinned. "Why, Kip, surely your grip on
reality is not that weak?"
"I'm not sure about anything. Space pirates -- Mother Things."
She frowned and bit her thumb. "I suppose it must be confusing. But
trust your ears and eyes. My grip on reality is quite strong, I assure you --
you see, I'm a genius." She made it a statement, not a boast, and somehow I
was not inclined to doubt the claim, even though it came from a skinny-shanked