"Andre Norton - Warlock Trilogy - Storm over Warlock" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

Throgs and Terrans . . . For more than a century now, planet time, they had been fighting their bitter war
among the stars. Terrans hunted worlds for colonization, the old hunger for land of their own driving men
from the overpopulated worlds, out of SolтАЩs system to the far stars. And those worlds barren of intelligent
native life, open to settlers, were none too many and widely scattered. Perhaps half a dozen were found in a
quarter century, and of that six maybe only one was suitable for human life without any costly and lengthy
adaptation of man or world. Warlock was one of the lucky finds which came so seldom.

Throgs were predators, living on the loot they garnered. As yet, mankind had not been able to discover
whether they did indeed swarm from any home world. Perhaps they lived eternally on board their plate
ships with no permanent base, forced into a wandering life by the destruction of the planet on which they
had originally been spawned. But they were raiders now, laying waste to defenseless worlds, picking up
the wealth of shattered cities in which no native life remained. Although their hidden temporary bases were
looped about the galaxy, their need for worlds with an atmosphere similar to TerraтАЩs was as necessary as
that of man. For in spite of their grotesque insectile bodies, their wholly alien minds, the Throgs were
warm-blooded, oxygen-breathing creatures.

After the first few clashes the early Terran explorers had endeavored to promote a truce between the
species, only to discover that between Throg and man there appeared to be no meeting ground at allтАФa
total difference of mental processes producing insurmountable misunderstanding. There was simply no
point of communication. So the Terrans had suffered one smarting defeat after another until they perfected
the grid. And now their colonies were safe, at least when time worked in their favor.

It had not on Warlock.

A last vivid lash of red cracked over the huddle of domes in the valley. Shann blinked, half blinded by that
glare. His jaws ached as he unclenched his teeth. That was the finish. Breathing raggedly, he raised his
head, beginning to realize that he was the only one of his kind left alive on a none-too-hospitable world
controlled by enemiesтАФwithout shelter or supplies.

He edged back into the narrow cleft which was the entrance to the ledge. As a representative of his species
he was not impressive, and now, with those shudders he could not master shaking his thin body, he looked
even smaller and more vulnerable. Shann drew his knees up close under his chin. The hood of his
woodsmanтАЩs jacket was pushed back in spite of the chill of the morning, and he wiped the back of his hand
across his lips and chin in an oddly childish gesture.

None of the men below who had been alive only minutes earlier had been close friends of his. Shann had
never known anyone but acquaintances in his short, roving life. Most people had ignored him completely
except to give orders, and one or two had been actively maliciousтАФlike Garth Thorvald. Shann grimaced
at a certain recent memory, and then that grimace faded into wonder. If young Thorvald hadnтАЩt
purposefully tried to get Shann into trouble by opening the wolverinesтАЩ cage, Shann wouldnтАЩt be here
nowтАФalive and safe for a timeтАФheтАЩd have been down there with the others.

The wolverines! For the first time since Shann had heard the crackle of the Throg attack he remembered
the reason he had been heading into the hills. Of all the men on the Survey team, Shann Lantee had been
the least important. The dirty, tedious clean-up jobs, the dull routines which required no technical training
but which had to be performed to keep the camp functioning comfortably, those had been his portion. And
he had accepted that status willingly, just to have a chance to be included among Survey personnel. Not
that he had the slightest hope of climbing up to even an S-E-Three rating in the service.

Part of those menial activities had been to clean the animal cages. And there Shann Lantee had found