"Andre Norton - Solar Queen 06 - Derelict For Trade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

watched until the edges of his vision twinkled darkly, then realized he had
been holding his breath too long.

Rip said suddenly, "There it is!"

He keyed his console and the screen overhead flickered. They all stared
up at the sleek ship following them. A frisson of fear shuddered through
Dane as he noted the unfamiliar lines of the shipтАФit was not of Terran
manufacture, nor, he knew from his recent studies, Kanddoyd or Shver.

No lights shone from it. The ship looked dead.

"Plague ship?" Jasper Weeks's voice came over the ship's com. The jet
tech's apprentice was obviously watching on Kosti's screen.

Wilcox looked over at the captain. "May be, and maybe abandoned." He
tabbed a key and the ship jumped even closer to view, showing dark
scoring down one side. "Looks like she's been fired on."

"She's Terran registry," Rip exclaimed as their angle on the gleaming
hull changed. In silence they read the registry numbers, and next to it, in
Terran script and another script Dane had never seen before, was the
word Starvenger.

"If she's Terran registry, chances are the crew were human, or
humanoid," Tau said.

Kosti's voice came over the com: "Question is, if we use fuel to match
speeds and cable it in, we're going to be running on fumes. Unless it's got
fuel on boardтАж"

No one spoke as the captain studied the ship on screen. Jellico's thumb
stroked absently at the blaster scar on his cheek, a sure sign he was
thinking furiously. This was the Free Trader life: a risk versus a gamble.
With no fuel at all, the salvage fees would be even higher, due to the tug's
greater fuel expenditure to match velocity.

Dane looked up at that dead ship with its blasted hull, and felt the old
cramping all over again. Even though the ship was alien, its fuel, if any,
would probably be usable by the QueenтАФthe basics of fuel technology were
universal, for no race, save perhaps the long-dead Forerunners, had ever
cracked the secret of antigravity.

"Even if there's fuel on board," Johan Stotz said, "do we want to risk
being contaminated by whatever killed its crew?"

"If it doesn't kill us," Kosti said, "and we do find fuel, we've got to have
time to adapt the Queen's catalyzers and engine feeds before the
Kanddoyds vaporize usтАФ"