"Raymond Jones - Renegades of Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Raymond)

to spend the night in the open with no shelter but the lee of the
rocks sticking out of the beach.

Joe walked over and sat beside her. He tried to see her
features more closely, but the light was gone, and she was
scarcely more than a shadow against the rock.

None of this is actually happening, he thought. He had been
injured by the fall, and his brain had stirred up with wild fantasy
of its own accord.

"We don't know how long the nights are," said Tamarina out
of the dimness. "They may be shorter or many times longer than
the night you are accustomed to."

"Whatever it is," Joe said, "we must hunt food as soon as it is
light again. We were crazy not to spend the daylight hours doing
that. There must be some kind of small animal life and plant
growth that is edible. Maybe even fish in that dirty sea."

"I'm sorry. I forgot," Tamarina said. She fumbled at another
of the packets at her waist. Then her fingers hunted for Joe's
hand in the darkness. She pressed a small capsule into his hand.

"Break it slowly between your teeth. Let it drain down your
throat."

He felt the half-inch long capsule and tried to see it in the
dimness. "This is a steak dinner?" he said. "We've gone a long
way toward dehydrating food, but not this far. And it takes water
to make it a meal."

"It's not food," said Tamarina. "It's a drug that removes the
sense of hunger and thirst for a time about equal to one of your
days. The body suffers the lack of nourishment, but you are
insensible to it. No more than seven of the capsules may be used.
But our beacon should be found within a dayтАФif it is to be found
at all."

Joe crunched the capsule and felt a warm drop of syrup
spread over his mouth and throat. He swallowed hard to get the
-stuff down. It stuck to the tissues and diffused over his tongue
and throat, and then he could feel it in his stomach.

And suddenly he was as satisfied as if he had eaten the steak
dinner he had mentioned. He felt as if he needed to loosen his
belt and back away from the table. Only when he touched his
belly it felt as hollow as ever.

"That's great stuff. Too bad it isn't for real."