"Frank Herbert - Direct Descent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

Direct Descent

Frank Herbert
1980

A portion of this book appeared as "Pack Rat Planet" in the December 1954
issue of Astounding Science Fiction, 1954.




Part I


Vincent Coogan pulled at his thin lower lip as he stared at the image of his
home planet growing larger in the star ship's viewscreen.

"What kind of an emergency would make Patterson call me off a Library
collection trip?" he muttered.

The chief navigator turned toward Coogan, noted the down-drooping angles on
the Library official's face. "Did you say something, sir?"

"Huh?" Coogan realized he had been speaking his thoughts aloud. He drew in a
deep breath, squared his stringy frame in front of the viewscreen, said, "It's
good to get back to the Library."

"Always good to be home," said the navigator. He turned toward the planet in
the screen.

It was a garden world of rolling plains turning beneath an old sun. Pleasure
craft glided across shallow seas. Villages of flat, chalk-white houses
clustered around elevator towers which plumbed the interior. Slow streams
meandered across the plains. Giant butterflies fluttered among trees and
flowers. People walked while reading books or reclined with scan-all viewers
hung in front of their eyes.

The star ship throbbed as its landing auxiliaries were activated. Coogan felt
the power through his feet. Suddenly, he sensed the homecoming feeling in his
chest, an anticipating that brought senses to new alertness. It was enough to
erase the worry over his call-back, to banish his displeasure at the year of
work he had abandoned uncompleted.

It was enough to take the bitterness out of his thoughts when he recalled the
words someone on an outworld had etched beside the star ship's main port. The
words had been cut deeply beneath the winged boot emblem of the Galactic
Library, probably with a Gernser flame chisel.

"Go home dirty pack rats!"