"Kay Kenyon -The Seeds of Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenyon Kay)

she was shaking bad, but the ship was primed to go, her metal skin humming, deck throbbing, air charged
with static and the hot, sharp smell of engines stoked to burn.
Then the captain was calling her to the bridge, in tones that said, Now, Finn.
Clio yanked open the cabin door, jammed down the corridor, nearly colliding with Hillis, chief botanist.
He grabbed her arm, stopping her a moment.
"What's up, Clio? You OK?"
"Sure. " She flashed him a wide smile, then dropped it. "Maybe this Dive's got me spooked, " she said.
"Maybe I got a bad feeling about this one. "
He pulled her in close to him, looking into her eyes, and whispered, "Jesus, Clio, how many of those
things did you take?"
"Just two, " she lied, searching his face for some comfort.
He shook his head, released her.
Clio raced for the bridge, taking the ladder to the flight deck two rungs at a time. She emerged onto
Starhawk's bridge, now dim for pre-Dive countdown, readouts pulsing on every side. Captain Russo was
busy with command central on visual. She nodded at Clio. Clio -nodded back, slipped into her chair. Her
copilot, Harper Teeg, seated next to her, raised an eyebrow at her.
 Clio faced him. "Had to take a pee, OK?"
"I thought you girls had iron bladders. "
"You haven't learned anything new about girls since seventh grade, Teeg. "
"Just waiting for the right teacher, Miss Finn. " His eyes lapped her up in the usual way. Didn't matter
they were about to Dive back four hundred thousand years, didn't matter she was sick as hell and the only
one on board that could steer this crate. Things like that didn't faze Harper Teeg.
Clio strapped herself in, clipped her headphones on, pushing them into her short, thick auburn hair. She
scanned the instrumentation, everything looking good, panels surging to go. Listened to the countdown
droning of command central, still coming in clear from Earth's largest space station, Vanda, though eleven
thousand kilometers distant from the ship.
On another channel, Captain Russo found time to say, "Lieutenant Finn, you don't leave the bridge
during countdown again, you copy?"
Clio turned her head around to her, acknowledging. "Yessir. Sorry, sir. " Russo wasn't half bad, Clio
thought. Just stiff as hell, a lifer with Biotime. No grey in mat short black hair, though. If Russo felt the
pressures of command, she buried it deep in her stocky body.
Countdown was looking good, going smooth. Until Ellison Brisher patched in from Vanda Station, his
puffy face filling screen number two.
"You got a problem, Ellison?" Russo asked, her voice even, her face scowling at this last-second
interference from the company.
"Not at all. You are on track, Captain. Little jumpy aren't we?" He popped a small candy in his mouth,
moving his jaw sideways, as though chewing cud.
"Yeah, I'm always jumpy when I take a little trip like this. "
Brisher smiled. "Just wondering how Clio's doing. "
Russo shook her head. "She's on task, Ellison. You want to talk to her?"
Brisher looked surprised. "No. Not necessary, just backing you up, Captain. Anything you need, just
ask. "
"Thanks, Biotime, we are ready to fly. No problems. " In a tone that said, And keep your goddamn nose
off the bridge.
Clio listened to this exchange, her stomach clenching up, a trickle of sweat starting to cut a path down
her hairline. Ellison Brisher was out to get her, she figured; whether he had anything on her or not was a
question. Didn't want to think about what Biotime's chief operations officer could do to her if he chose.
Screen two blanked out as station systems separated from the ship, leaving them in communications
blackout as Starhawk gathered speed, reaching for Dive velocity, reaching for their destination, Crippen's
Planet.