"Barry B. Longyear - Homecoming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Longyear Barry)

THE HOMECOMING
Barry Longyear


Lothas draped his heavy green tail between the seat cushion and
backrest. Extending a claw on a scaled, five-fingered hand, he inserted it
in a slot switch and pulled down. The armored shield on the forward view
bubble slowly lifted as the control center went to redlight. Lothas felt the
strange pain grow in his chest as he looked through the filter at the target
star, now no longer a point of light but a tiny, brilliant disc. He leaned
against the backrest, his large dark eyes glittering as they drank in the
sight of the star.

It has been so long. Even though I have been out of suspension for only
a total of six star cycles, yet I still know it has beenтАж seventy million star
cycles. A third of a galactic cycle.

Lothas noticed his own reflection in the filter, turned his long neck left,
then right, and marveled at the absence of change. The large eyes,
occupying a fifth of the image, were clear and glinted with points of red,
blue, and yellow light reflected from service and indicator lights. The skin,
gray-green and smooth, pressed against and outlined the large veins
leading from his eyes down the elongated muzzle, with its rows of thick,
white, needle-sharp teeth. His focus returned to the star as he reached and
pressed a panel with one of the five clawed fingers of his right hand.

"This is Lothas Dim Ir, on regular watch." He paused and examined the
navigation readout, then switched to a display of the rest of the cluster
formation of ships. "The formation is normal; no course corrections
necessary; the homestar Amasaat now atтАФ" he examined an instrument
"тАФfour degrees of arc."

He pressed another panel, signaling to all the watches on the rest of the
ships. The display showed all but three of the two hundred ships
answering. Lothas studied the display, slightly confused that he felt
nothing about the missing ships. Automatic recording systems had shown
the three ships wrecked by the same meteor.
 But that wasтАж millions of cycles ago. Difficult to feel pain for deaths
that old.

He pressed another panel, and the display began filling with life unit
survival-percentage figures transmitted by the watches on the other ships.
Automatically an average was made and a total rate of survival and unit
count was made. 77.031 percent; 308,124 life units surviving. Lothas
nodded. There had been no change in the figure forтАж over thirty million
star cycles. The three wrecked ships, and the others who could not survive
the suspension process.

But, the rest of us shall see Nitola.