"Zach Hughes - Gold Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

potentially serious threat which, if unattended, could make it doubtful
that you'd ever get back to anywhere to collect deep-space bonus pay.

Peter examined his face in the mirror as he brushed his hair. He saw a
regular, not exactly ugly fellow who stood compactly just under six feet,
with a strong neck, a thick chest, and well-muscled arms and torso. He
was beginning to feel good. He'd run ship's gravity up to Earth Standard
plus 0.1 because Jan had gained three pounds in the past thirty days. The
extra exertion required by the additional 0.1 gravity would use up enough
calories to trim her down.

The logical place to start an inspection tour was the power room. The
generator was on full charge with all readings normal. The power of the
generator field made the blond hair stand up on his head and try to
separate into individual strands. It was not a bad feeling. It was a healthy,
reassuring tingle. There under the circular shield was the thing which
gave deep-space wings to man, the blink generator. The Stranden 47's
generator was a real horse, hefty enough to send the relatively small tug
several galaxies away in one blink if the coordinates had been available,
powerful enough to allow the 47 to latch onto the largest liner or freighter
and blink her to the nearest repair base.

No one really knew the potential power which was stored in even the
smallest blink generator. It had been said that not even Billy Bob Blink,
the Texan who had developed the blink generator, fully understood what
happened when the energy accumulated in a blink generator was released.
The practical result was that anything attached to the generator's vehicle
or within the generated field ceased to exist in one location and came to
exist in another.

Pete worked his way through a checklist. There was nothing amiss. The
generator was always held at full charge so that the 47 was ready to blink
on a moment's notice in the event of a distress call. Such a call could come
from the four directions of the blink routes which intersected at the 47's
station.

There wasn't all that much more to inspect once he had finished the
power-room checklist. The generator took up a full half of the ship's
150-foot length.

The compact control room, one wall taken up by the communications
equipment, was located next to the power room. Aside from a tool and
supply storage area the remaining space inside Stranden 4Ta rectangular,
rounded-cornered hull was living area for a four-man crew. With only two
people aboard, the living area was ample to luxurious. Into that space,
roughly seventy-five by fifty feet, the Stranden designers had packed the
food-preparation and dining areas, a small swimming pool which served
as storage for the bulk of the ship's constantly recycled water, an exercise
room, two lounge rooms, and two bedrooms. The Mule Class was designed
to house a crew of four. Each time a Mule put out into deep space she was