"Murray Leinster - Exploration Team" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

field outside. Then he stood up and prepared to take the measures required by
discovery. He packed the paper work heтАЩd been doing into the disposal safe. He
gathered up all personal documents and tossed them in. Every record, every bit
of evidence that the Kodius Company maintained this station went into the
safe. He slammed the door. He touched his finger to the disposal button, which
would destroy the contents and melt down even the ashes past their possible
use for evidence in court.
Then he hesitated. If it were a Survey ship, the button had to be
pressed and he must resign himself to a long term in prison. But a Crete Line
shipтАФif the space phone told the truthтАФwas not threatening. It was simply
unbelievable.
He shook his head. He got into travel garb and armed himself. He went
down into the bear quarters, turning on lights as he went. There were startled
snufflings and Sitka Pete reared himself very absurdly to a sitting position
to blink at him. Sourdough Charley lay on his back with his legs in the air.
HeтАЩd found it cooler, sleeping that way. He rolled over with a thump. He made
snorting sounds which somehow sounded cordial. Faro Nell padded to the door of
her separate apartmentтАФassigned her so that Nugget would not be underfoot to
irritate the big males.
Huyghens, as the human population of Loren Two, faced the work force,
fighting force, andтАФwith NuggetтАФfour-fifths of the terrestrial nonhuman
population of the planet. They were mutated Kodiak bears, de
scendants of the Kodius Champion for whom the Kodius Company was named. Sitka
Pete was a good twenty-two hundred pounds of lumbering, intelligent carnivore.
Sourdough Charley would weigh within a hundred pounds of that figure. Faro
Nell was eighteen hundred pounds of female charmтАФand ferocity. Then Nugget
poked his muzzle around his motherтАЩs furry rump to see what was toward, and he
was six hundred pounds of ursine infancy. The animals looked at Huyghens
expectantly. If heтАЩd had Semper riding on his shoulder, theyтАЩd have known what
was expected of them.
 тАЬLetтАЩs go,тАЭ said Huyghens. тАЬItтАЩs dark outside, but somebodyтАЩs coming.
And it may be bad!тАЭ

He unfastened the outer door of the bear quarters. Sitka Pete went
charging clumsily through it. A forthright charge was the best way to develop
any situationтАФif one was an oversized male Kodiak bear. Sourdough went
lumbering after him. There was nothing hostile immediately outside. Sitka
stood up on his hind legsтАФhe reared up a solid twelve feetтАФand sniffed the
air. Sourdough methodically lumbered to one side and then the other, sniffing
in his turn. Nell came out, nine-tenths of a ton of daintiness, and rumbled
admonitorily at Nugget, who trailed her closely. Huyghens stood in the
doorway, his night-sighted gun ready. He felt uncomfortable at sending the
bears ahead into a Loren Two jungle at night. But they were qualified to scent
danger, and he was not.
The illumination of the jungle in a wide path toward the landing field
made for weirdness in the look of things. There were arching giant ferns and
columnar trees which grew above them, and the extraordinary lanceolate
underbrush of the jungle. The flood lamps, set level with the ground, lighted
everything from below. The foliage, then, was brightly lit against the black
night-skyтАФbrightly lit enough to dim-out the stars. There were astonishing