"Barbara Karmazin - Blackbird 2 - Out of the Dark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Karmazin Barbara)

along with his normal vision.
 Indio turned. Tiny had pulled the rest of his selkieskin over his face too. He looked like an alien
creatureтАФcoal black with huge dark eyes in a face that had no mouth, nose or ears.

Indio unlatched the supply drawer, pulled out two equipment belts and handed Tiny one. He pointed at
the ship's view screen recorder and flipped the switch for the exterior searchlights. Not having a mouth to
speak with while wearing the selkieskins had made sign language a very popular course of study
station-wide. Learning how to sign was a small price to pay, though, in return for all the pluses of wearing
a selkieskin for space maneuvers.

Indio fastened his belt around his hips and signaled that he'd go first. Tiny nodded and buckled his belt.
With three other ambulances already on site, Code Seven Two meant his and Tiny's roles had been
switched to forensics. Apparently, Traffic Control had taken the fact that Indio was a police officer into
consideration while monitoring the entire rescue and evacuation mission.

Indio reached up to the Velcro straps hanging from the ceiling and pulled himself hand over hand to the
airlock. Tiny would be right behind him. The lock cycled open. They swam inside, grabbed more Velcro
straps on the wall and held on while the door closed itself behind them and the ship removed all the air
from the cramped compartment.

A green light flashed over the exit door. It cycled open. Indio kicked off from the wall, snagged the
grappling line and hauled himself down.

Earth's sunlit crescent wheeled in the background, a blue jewel in the black sky. The cold white light of
the moon glowed behind the gutted ship. Indio ignored the view. They had plenty of time off-duty for
sightseeing.

The yacht was an elongated ovoid, which was dictated by the need for shielding versus the need to
mount engines in the rear. The bow, which should have been a round blunt shape, had a crumpled tear in
its side. Fused and melted metal radiated out from the point of impact. Non-explosive as far as he could
see from this distance. The tear had the classic deformation and damage ratio of a good-sized meteorite,
possibly the size of a baseball. Streamers of hardened white foam sealant flowed from the gaping
woundтАФten seconds of critical time would be used before it filled the gap and prevented explosive
decompression of the yacht.

Too bad they hadn't yet figured out how to attach individual solar flight wings to the selkieskins. Direct
flight, using the solar wind to maneuver, would be a lot easier than hauling himself hand-over-hand along
the tether lines hooked to the yacht from bow to stern.

He risked a quick glance over his shoulder. Tiny was busy clamping a modified camcorder below the
largest searchlight. Right. They needed a double recordтАФdistance and close upтАФof the damage for the
insurance claims investigators. Indio pulled himself along. The yacht's hull inched closer. The entry hole
loomed jagged and ugly. Minute particles of ice drifted from the edges of the frozen sealant at the
shattered bow. With his selkie vision, they looked like snowflakes falling from the ship into the black sky.

Indio unclipped a smaller digital camcorder from his belt and carefully recorded every inch of damage
caused by the meteor. He clipped the camcorder to his belt again and turned his head sideways. Tiny
was hauling himself to the yacht's open airlock.

Indio shifted his grip on the tether line and grabbed onto the handgrips on the side of the yacht. The grips