"Ben Jeapes - Trial By Alien" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jeapes Ben)

Trial by Alien
a novelette by Ben Jeapes

Rachel was dead. Hugo was dead. Every human on board Pathfinder was dead
except for him and he was under cabin arrest for no reason he could
discern: the one human left alive while the ship drifted in space with the
nearest help a thousand lightyears away.
Neil Cardoso was lying in his bunk while the wedge-shaped face of a Rustie
loomed over him.
"Do not move," Press Minor said. The voice coming from the translator unit
around the alien's neck was bland and expressionless. "You probably still
need rest."
"Probably?" Neil said.
"Our species breathe the same mix of atmospheric components. It is likely
we share the same reaction to smoke inhalation. One of us in your position
would need rest."
"Look, I'm fine." But two hundred pounds of Rustie was pinning him down, a
three-toed foreleg on either side of him, so there was nothing Neil could
do while the two grasper tentacles either side of Press Minor's mouth
extended and depressed his tongue, pulled down his eyelids, felt his
temperature. The flakes of brown-orange flesh that gave the species their
nickname dangled in front of his eyes and its breath hissed gently through
the ring of nostrils around the crown of its head.
"You are probably well," said Press Minor. It swung itself back to stand
on all fours next to his bunk and became a stumpy quadruped the size of a
Shetland pony again.
"Does that mean I can get out of this cabin?" said Neil.
Press Minor paused.
"Well?" Neil said.
"No."
"But why not? If I'm well-"
"Every other human on board is dead-" Press Minor said.
Neil thumped the wall. "I know!" he shouted. "And I want to make my
farewells. I want to make funeral arrangements. I want-"
"-and we think you did it," Press Minor said, sounding almost apologetic.

They let him out the next morning and a troop of four Rusties escorted
him, accompanied by Press Minor, to the ship's canteen. It was the largest
open space on board and the survivors of the Pride, the fifty or so
Rusties that were the other half of Pathfinder's crew, were there waiting.
"Mr Cardoso. Thank you for coming." The speaker was Flesh Several, Senior
and undisputed leader of the Pride. As it spoke the other Rusties
immediately adopted the attitude of junior-to-senior.
"Flesh Several," Neil said, "I've been confined to my cabin, my friends
are dead, I-"
"All in good time, Mr Cardoso." Flesh Several's voice had the perpetual
translator unit-induced lack of interest about it. "Our investigations
have shown that the explosion was deliberately caused and you must admit
that your sole survival from the human contingent raises interesting
possibilities."