"Barry Longyear - Enemy Mine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Longyear Barry)

"Sure thing, ne!"
I shrugged. "No, it's not a sure thing, but, what about staying here? We don't know how big those waves
can get. What if one just comes along and washes us off the island? What then?"
Jerry looked at me, its eyes narrowed. "What there, Davidge? Irkmaan base, ne?"
I laughed. "I told you, we don't have any bases on Fyrine IV."
"Why want go, then?"
"Just what I said, Jerry. I think our chances would be better."
"Ummm." The Drac folded its arms. "Viga, Davidge, nasesay stay. I know."
"Know what?"
Jerry smirked, then stood and went into the shack. After a moment it returned and threw a two-meter
long metal rod at my feet. It was the one the Drac had used to bind my arms. "Davidge, I know."
I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. "What are you talking about? Didn't that come from your capsule?"
"Ne, Irkmaan." "
I bent down and picked up the rod. Its surface was uncorroded and at one end were arabic numerals-a
part number. For a moment a flood of hope washed over me, but it drained away when I realized it was a
civilian part number. I threw the rod on the sand. "There's no telling how long that's been here, Jerry. It's
a civilian part number and no civilian missions have been in this part of the galaxy since the war. Might
be left over from an old seeding operation or exploratory mission..."
The Drac nudged it with the toe of his boot. "New, gavey?"
I looked up at it. "You gavey stainless steel?"
Jerry snorted and turned back toward the shack. "I stay, nasesay stay; where you want, you go, Davidge!"




With the black of the long night firmly bolted down on us, the wind picked up, shrieking and whistling
in and through the holes in the walls. The plastic roof flapped, pushed in and sucked out with such
violence it threatened to either tear or sail off into the night. Jerry sat on the sand floor, its back leaning
against the nasesay as if to make clear that both Drac and capsule were staying put, although the way the

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswi...umenten/spaar/Barry%20Longyear%20-%20Enemy%20Mine.txt (6 of 44)20-2-2006 23:04:05
 file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswijk/Mijn%20documenten/spaar/Barry%20Longyear%20-%20Enemy%20Mine.txt

sea was picking up seemed to weaken Jerry's argument.
"Sea rough now is, Davidge, ne?"
"It's too dark to see, but with this wind ..." I shrugged more for my own benefit than the Drac's, since the
only thing visible inside the shack was the pale light coming through the roof. Any minute we could be
washed off that sandbar. "Jerry, you're being silly about that rod. You know that."
"Surda." The Drac sounded contrite if not altogether miserable.
"Ess?"
"Ess eh 'surda!"
"Ae."
Jerry remained silent for a moment. "Davidge, gavey 'not certain not is'?"
I sorted out the negatives. "You mean 'possible,' 'maybe,' 'perhaps'?"
"Ae, possiblemaybeperhaps. Dracon fleet Irkmaan ships have. Before war buy; after war capture. Rod
possiblemaybeperhaps Dracon is."
"So, if there's a secret base on the big island, surda it's a Dracon base?"
"Possiblemaybeperhaps, Davidge."
"Jerry, does that mean you want to try it? The nasesay?"
"Ne."