"Andre Norton - Jern Murdock 02 - Uncharted Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

had heard from a storytape. Suffice it that I was set adrift in space
itself, along with acompanion whose entrance into my time and space was as
weird as his looks.He was born rightly enough, in the proper manner, out of
a ship's cat. Onlyhis father was a black stone, or at least several men
trained to observe theunusual would state that. Eet and I had been drawn by
the zero stone--thezero stone! One might well term that the seed of all
disorder!I had seen it first in my father's hands--dull, lifeless, set in a
greatring meant to be worn over the bulk of a space glove. It had been found
onthe body of an alien on an unknown asteroid. And how long dead its
suitedowner was might be anyone's guess--up to and including a million
years onthe average planet. That it had a secret, my father knew,
and itsfascination held him. In fact, he died to keep it as a threatening
heritagefor me. It was the zero stone on my own gloved hand which had drawn
me, andEet, through empty space to a drifting derelict which might or
might nothave been the very ship its dead owner had once known. And from
that alifeboat had taken us to a world of forest and ruins, where, to
keep oursecret and our lives, we had fought both the Thieves' Guild (which my
fathermust have defied, though he had once been a respected member of its
uppercircles) and the Patrol. Eet had found one cache of the zero stones.
Bychance we both stumbled on another. And that one was weird enough to make
aman remember it for the rest of his days, for it had been carefully laid
upin a temporary tomb, shared by the bodies of more than one species of
alien,as if intended to pay their passage home to distant and unknown planets
oforigin. And we knew part of their secret. Zero stones had the power to
boostany energy they contacted, and they would also home on their
fellows,activating such in turn. But that the planet we had landed upon by
chancewas the source of the stones, Eet denied. We used the caches for
bargaining,not with the Guild, but with the Patrol, and we came out of the
deal withcredits for a ship of our own, plus--very sourly given--clean
records andour freedom to go as we willed. Our ship was Eet's
suggestion. Eet, acreature I could crush in my two hands (sometimes I
thought that solutionwas an excellent one for me), had an invisible presence
which towered higherthan any Veep I had ever met. In part, his feline
mother had shaped him,though I sometimes speculated as to whether his
physical appearance did notcontinue to change subtly. He was furred, though
his tail carried only aridge of that covering down it. But his feet
were bare-skinned and hisforepaws were small hands which he could use to
purposes which proved themmore akin to my palms and fingers than a feline's
paws. His ears were smalland set close to his head, his body elongated and
sinuous. But it was hismind, not the body he informed me had been "made"
for him, which counted.Not only was he telepathic, but the knowledge which
abode in his memory, andwhich he gave me in bits and pieces, must have rivaled
the lore of the famedZacathan libraries, which are crammed with centuries of
learning. Who--orwhat--Eet was he would never say. But that I would ever be
free of him againI greatly doubted. I could resent his calm dictatorship,
which steered meon occasion, but there was a fascination (I sometimes
speculated as towhether this was deliberately used to entangle me, but if
it was a trap ithad been very skillfully constructed) which kept me his
partner. He had toldme many times our companionship was needful, that I
provided one part, hethe other, to make a greater whole. And I had to admit