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

were well clear and safe. Then she leaned into her sick bag and threw up.
"Helm to you, Teeg, " the captain was saying as Clio passed out.

In her dreams she could hear the hull resound: metal scraping on metal. Maybe she wasn't dreaming,
just delirious, if there was a difference.
She woke up to see Doc Posie leaning over her, taking a blood-pressure reading. Posie was only an
RN, but the crew called him Doc; a real doctor wouldn't fuss over a blacked-out Dive pilot.
Clio felt the ship shudder. She pushed up on both elbows. "What's going on, Doc?" Then, putting the
situation together, swung off the bed, trying to find the floor with her feet.
Posie pushed her back down. "Just calm yourself, Clio. "
"Calm myself? I'm so calm I'm barely breathing. Is that the lander separating? They going ahead with
the mission?"
Posie nodded.
"Jesus. "
"You don't need to swear. "
"I didn't swear, goddamn it. " Posie was so squeaky clean, in thought, word, and deed. "How long have
I been out?"
"About ten hours. "
She swung her feet around again, ran into Posie's thick hands gripping her shoulders, shoving her back
onto the pallet.
"You're not going anywhere, so lie still, " Posie said. He grabbed her arm harshly, pressing the
blood-pressure band against her skin.
"Who says? I'm copilot on this ship, and I'm going to the bridge. "
Posie's face zoomed down to fix her with a stare. "Captain says, Finn. So lie still or I'll trank you good.
" Posie's hands were shaking, his face redder than usual.
"OK, don't have a coronary. " She lay back down, deciding to try charm instead of push. "What's the
damage, Doc? I gotta know. I feel awful. " She worked her face into a knot of anxiety.
Posie sniffed, turned to put the pressure band in a drawer, drawing out the moment. "As much as I've
heard, we've got a crunch starboard side as big as a bathtub. No cracks or leaks, but they're still checking.
"
"Still checking! Jesus Doc, we just launched the lander, and we don't know the full damage to the ship
yet? Has Russo lost her mind?"
Posie grabbed his clipboard, stalked to the medlab door. "You stay here and rest or the captain'll chew
you up for dinner, you copy
Finn? She doesn't want a pilot with the wobbles on the bridge. "
"Goddamn it Posie, you all wobble big time every freeping Dive!"
 Posie glared at her and left, slamming the door.
Clio put her head in her hands, smelling her rank uniform, dunking what a mess, an unholy mess she'd
made of the mission. A crew out in Babyhawk, and Starhawk crumpled up amidships, with maybe a lethal
crack or systems damage. She heard the final separation of the lander, as it eased out of its position, where
it had been nestled into the side of Starhawk, its shipside forming a seal against the launch bay opening.
Then a rumble as the ship's bay doors closed the gap left by Babyhawk.
God, I passed out, passed out in Dive. Rivulets of sweat ran down her sides as she let the thought
sink in. God, oh God. Biotime would jerk her back so fast it'd make her head swim. She'd get her
retirement real fast, the whole ex-Diver package, a lump sum and maybe a slot as a tech on Vanda Station,
so she could hang out near the spacers and shoot the shit with the other old Divers. An unwelcome voice in
her head summed it up: It's 2019, you're twenty-seven years old, and you 're finished, sister.
Or if they weren't feeling generous, she'd go Earthside, and she didn't want to think about that, oh no.
Then she noticed the bandage strip on her arm. Jesus, a blood draw. They'd taken her blood while
she was passed out, a kind of medical rape. Anger stirred, propelling her off the pallet.