"Kerrion Empire - 03 - Earth Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

not given and taken away, but is, or is not. As for me,
when I love, not even death can stop it!" She gulped,
sniffled loudly. Her nose was red and she wiped it,
stepped back: one step; two.

He regarded her, thumbs hooked in his black uniform
pants. He shook his head quite slowly and brought his
hands forth palms up, spread them wide. Then, with a
brief, self-deprecating smile, he dropped them to his

EARTH DREAMS 17

sides, whispered: "So be it," in a voice far from steady,
and left her standing there alone.

KXV 134 Marada bobbed restlessly exactly five thou-
sand miles above the head of Shebat Kerrion, periodic
thrusts of attitude adjustment blossoming behind him
whenever Shebat moved her location. The Marada could
monitor reflected starlight on a space helmet at twenty-
five thousand miles. Keeping his pilot (the only piece of
outboard equipment any cruiser needed) in sight was
much less difficult. One could not know a space helmet,
mind to mind. The Marada was attuned to the brain
wave frequencies of his outboard, Shebat. He could
monitor her physiological being with his telemetry almost
as easily as when she was aboard him: heart rate, respira-
tion, blood chemistries belonging to Shebat were as much
a part of his metering functions as voltage regulation, su-
percooling, and data processing. But between the Ker-
rion experimental vehicle Marada and Shebat Kerrion lay
more than normal pilot/cruiser intimacy, more than their
ability to converse without any intermediary accessing
keyboard, more even than that surpassing love all pilots
have for cruisers, which no mortal suitor can hope to

match.

Marada was the most advanced spongespace cruiser
Kerrion shipwrights' unparalleled expertise had ever pro-
ducedЧand more than they had ever wanted to produce.
The KXV series had been abruptly terminated with the
Kerrion consul general's realization that this cruiser
could do things no cruiser should have been able to do,
patently undesirable things like talking to other cruisers
upon its own initiative, like shipping out with no pilot on
board, like communicating with outboard and cruiser
alike in unorthodox (and thus unsurveillable) fashion, no
matter the distance intervening or physical laws con-
travening.