"Norton, Andre - Solar Queen 04 - Postmarked The Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

not take sides. It was hammered into every crewman that the ship itself was his planet and to it he owed
allegiance, first, last, and always. No involvement in local matters. That could be a hard fact to face when
one's sympathies or emotions were aroused by sights and sounds, but every one of them knew that it was
the backbone of their own lives and it must be adhered to. So far, Dane had never come face to face with a
choice between the ship's safety and his own emotional urge to join or refrain. He knew that he had been
lucky, and he only hoped that luck would continue to hold for him. He did not know whether any of the
others had faced that dilemma, but the past, before he had joined the Queen, was theirs and not his to
remember.

"Nothing off course that I know of." Jellico still slapped the ident disk against the palm of his hand. "We'd
have been warned in the general orders if there was. Combine had this run. They turned over all their
general tapes with the contract."

"There is always," Ali said, "the I-S."

I-S--Inter-Solar. Twice in the past the Solar Queen had had a brush with that company. And both times the
Free Trader had won the round, a pygmy successfully facing down one of the giants of the star lanes. The
companies with their huge trading empires, their fleets of ships, thousands, even millions of employees
strung out along the galactic trade routes, were monopolists, sparring with each other for the control of new
planet trade. The Free Traders were the beggars at the feast, snatching at such crumbs of profit as the big
ones overlooked contemptuously, or thought it not worth the effort to exploit.

The Solar Queen had held a contract on Sargol for the taking of Koros gems--her captain had even fought
a Salarik duel with an I-S man to claim and hold their rights. It was the I-S who had had the Queen
proclaimed a plague ship when the mysterious pest they had unwittingly brought aboard with cargo had
knocked out most of the crew. And only grit, determination, and an appeal made over the law, but
effectively, to Terra at large, broadcast from a port by the junior members, who had not succumbed to the
pest, had saved their ship and their lives.

And it had again been an I-S representative whose poaching trade they had broken on Khatka when
Captain Jellico, Medic Tau, and Dane had visited there at the Chief Ranger's request during what might
have been a disastrous planet leave.

So the I-S people certainly had no love for the Queen, and her crew would be inclined to think first of their
meddling in any trouble. Dane drew a deep breath. This could be I-S! They would have the means, the
facilities to set up such a plan. There had not been any I-S ship planeting on Xecho while the Queen was
there--it was Combine territory--but that meant nothing. They could have shipped in their man on a
neutral shuttle from another system. But if this was part of an I-S plot--
"Could be," Jellico returned. "But I doubt it. In the first place, they may not look upon us with any warmth
of feeling--or at least a warmth of feeling we would relish. But to them we are very small fry. If they saw
a chance to fuse our tubes without difficulty, they'd probably do it. But to set up some elaborate plan--no.
We're carrying mail, and any trouble would bring a Patrol investigation. I won't cut out I-S, but they are
not my first choice. Combine reported no political trouble on Trewsworld, so what--"

"There is one way of learning something." Tau drummed absently on the edge of a swing shelf with his
fingertip, and Dane caught himself watching that. Craig Tau's hobby was magic, or rather those
unexplainable powers and talents that the primitive (and sometimes not so primitive) men on half a
thousand worlds used to gain their ends. He had used his knowledge of such things to bring them safely out
of danger on Khatka, and in that particular action a drum had had a great deal to do with the building up of
whatever force he had drawn upon to break the will of a feared witch doctor. Only Dane had beat the drum