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

Rip tabbed the lock control and then, at zero, keyed the outer lock,
which slid silently open onto the jewel-pierced blackness of space.

Their helmet lights came on as each member of the squad hooked onto
the cable uniting the two ships. Rip pushed off and glided along the cable
for a moment; then his suit thrusters flared and he dwindled rapidly
towards the alien ship. Dane followed. Then Rael flexed her toes to
demagnetize her boots and pushed off into space. At first her movement
merely intensified the feeling of falling; then, as she reached a safe
distance from Jasper, she ignited her thrusters and her stomach settled as
acceleration gripped her. Now it felt like flying. She grinned, remembering
Weeks's thin face, grim behind his faceplate. He hated free fall outside the
safety of a ship. For her, it was a feeling of freedom that never failed to
boost her spirits.

The hull of the mystery ship glowed in the light of Mykos's primary,
showing up the heavy scoring that marred the smooth fairing. Rael was
not a pilot, but she knew that this ship would not be easy to land on a
planet.

It was time to decelerate. She pivoted around and triggered another
blast from her thrusters, then pulled herself along to join Rip and Dane.

Against the hull Rip was already working quickly, mute evidence that
this investigation was a race against time. Rael heard a soft click, knew
that the open communicator had switched to a two-way link so that Rip
and Dane could talk to each other without flooding everyone's head with
chatter. The two men worked quickly at the ship's outer lock. Rael
watched, aware of her adrenaline-pushed heart rate. Though she felt
nothing, and saw nothing, she knew they were hurtling through space at
tremendous speed. Any kind of space dust could rip through their suits
and kill them and they wouldn't necessarily see it coming.

As they waited, Rael saw Jasper pat the weapon at his side, and
wondered if he, like she, was also thinking of the hazards they were
exposed toтАФonly in Jasper's case, he seemed to be worried about the very
real possibility of space pirates. Not that they carried blasters, but the
weapons they nicknamed sleeprods were better than nothing: the blast of
sonics they emitted could temporarily scramble the nervous system of any
oxygen breather.

The lock opened; they went in.

The general communicator clicked on again.

"All right, let's do this just like we've drilled," Rip said.

He and Dane moved in first, scanning swiftly for anything amissтАФfrom
bodies to obvious traps. They gestured Jasper and Rael in. Rael was glad