"Andrew J. Offutt - Spaceways 02 - Corundums Woman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

lives. Outside, the unlikely pirate saw to the completion of the transfer, in
progress, of a hut-size crate's towing cable to Firedancer's external cargo
attachments. Nine such crates remained indecorously attached to Suyari. Two
spacesuited figures-an orange and a pale turquoise-had been working at the
transfer. They were happy to call it off and join their three cohorts at
Fire-dancer's airlock. It was equipped with something Corundum had read about:
he pushed the doorbell, in a code-sequence. The hatch swung noiselessly
open. The pirates entered their ship. 2 CORUNDUM: an esp. hard mineral of the
composition A12 03, forming the valuable gemstones ruby and sapphire. The
massive, abrasive, non-transparent forms are known as emery. Universal
Edutapes Quite comfortable in the spacesuit and with full vision, Corundum
went directly to the con-cabin, which he referred to as the "bridge." In less
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than three minutes he was assured that all systems were just fine and so was
the situation. With his right gauntlet in his left hand, he slipped a course
command cassette into the slot. The cassette was not commercially available,
though many were. This one had been programmed by Corundum and a woman he
still regretted losing. The cassette was tailored to his own habits and use,
and thus to the present situation. It bade SIPACUM (which he called Jinni and
which was fully cognizant of their situation with regard to Suyari and space
itself) to break off, ease away from Suyari, move to a safe distance for
tachyon conversion, prepare for subspace entry, and sound a fifty-second
warning. 28 29 Manually and vocally, he also set SIPACUM/Jinni to plotting
a subspace course for the vicinity of the fourth moon of the- planet called
Murph. Captain Corundum returned to the others in time to see the yellow
spacesuit slide down King's body. The Saipese was nearly the same color as the
suit and was far from 215 or even 200 sems in height. Hing stood about 175 and
his two brown eyes and two gold-hued arms were in the usual places. He was
strictly a Galactic, born and raised on Saiping. King's TP "eye" relayed its
image to the self-lit screen built inside the chest of the gigantic headless
suit. The extra arms were controlled by a separate telepresence which King
operated most expertly indeed. The suit served its purpose. It was intended to
add a bit more menace and mystique and thus fear to in-space boardings. No
four-armed beings had yet been encountered among the hundreds of contacted
and/or colonized planets. Thus far. Stripped to a temp-controlled coolsuit of
Ming blue, tight as the skin of youth, Hing grinned at his ingenious captain.
The suit and its use were Corundum's concept. It had been made meticulously to
order by a talented individual on Jahpur. He was, regrettably, no longer
alive. Bearcat was already peeling his turquoise suit and Sakbir his orange
one. Corundum's newest associate was far less experienced and thus slower at
unsuiting. The helmet came free to reveal the small, well-molded head of an
astonishingly pale woman whose short straight hair could not be real; it was
the almost white of a distant GO sun. Until Corundum had brought her aboard,
none of his crew had ever seen anyone of such hue with (undyed) hair so nearly
achromatic. Nor, computer-link had informed them, had 99.789 percent of all
the people of the galaxy-including the small (estimated) populace of her
planet. The skin and hair colors were real. 30 No less startling were her