"Ardath Mayhar - Khi to Freedom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mayhar Ardath)

Khi to Freedom
Ardath Mayhar
To Beth Meacham, who showed me what needed to be done
Copyright ┬й 1983 by Ardath Mayhar



I.

Hale Enbo
ThereтАЩs nothing in the universe as bored as an off-duty Scout. To be
stuck on a vessel full of Ginli with nothing to do but devour the library or
stare at the wall is a thing that brings out the worst in me. Always has.
Even back on Big Sandy, when I was a boy, my folks found out early that
they had to keep me busy. Idle hands and all that, you know.
We had been in orbit around a middle-sized planet for entirely too long.
The Ginli techs were scanning the place with unusual care, and IтАЩd been
wondering if it would be my good luck to be assigned to go down there
and accumulate the usual assortment of specimens and geological
readings. I hoped so, but I doubted it. They had had me boning up on
wet-planet techniques again, though after some of the assignments IтАЩd had
anyone but a Ginli would have taken it for granted that I knew how to
handle myself on such a world. Otherwise IтАЩd be long dead and forgotten.
The planet below seemed, when I could sneak a peep through a scanner, to
be a goodly mix of land-mass and small-sized seas.
The ship-days were long and full of nothing much. My stints of studying
were skimpy, IтАЩll admit, but perusing something you know as well as your
own name is deadly. So I managed to poke around into places I hadnтАЩt had
a chance to see before.
That ship was big. It wasnтАЩt, you understand, of Ginli design or make.
The Ginli wouldnтАЩt admit that, but all intelligent beings know that the
Ginli are technologically deficient. Mentally, too, I had found out the hard
way, but nobody would believe me even if I ever had a chance to tell them.
I never did, having worked alone and lived mostly to myself even on
shipboard since I was eighteen and got roped into a Ginli contract. My
employers didnтАЩt approve of Scouts getting too friendly with their peers,
either. And as it was necessary to be a loner in order to make a good
Scout, that didnтАЩt bother any of us as much as youтАЩd think.
So I spent a lot of time slipping along the dim corridors in my best
silent-woodsman style, having a great time startling Ginli by touching
them on the shoulders and asking abstruse questions that I knew they
couldnтАЩt answer but would be flattered to be asked.
That palled after three days. I had never before been stuck for so long
without anything to do; usually between assignments they put us into
hypno-sleep. ItтАЩs a great time-waster but better than this boredom. And
my real life was conducted on wild green worlds teeming with all kinds of
creatures, both intelligent and not. That was where I really felt at home
and comfortable, even if I had to spend all my time fending off affectionate
furry worms or paddling through endless knee-deep swamps. That, in fact,
was where I formed my attachments with others. Note that I didnтАЩt say