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

every lock on Suyari. The white-suited pirate ushered everyone into the
captain's cabin. It was quite small, a serviceable spot 22 of privacy on a
business ship designed to devote all possible space to the double-P engines,
internal sys-temry, and cargo holds. Their captor bade the three crewmembers
of Suyari to sit side by side on their captain's bunk. He directed his Number
Two to go and relieve Number Three of its-yes, he said its!-cutter and bid it
bring the captain along. Then the pirate began searching. No one knew what he
sought. It did not take long. The captain's standard old yellow go-bag still
held a few items and the pirate emptied them out. It was obvious that the bag
remained heavy. In a fine show of confidence-or contempt for his captives?-the
shark in the white space-suit bolstered his stopper and snicked his suit-knife
free. He knifed open the base of the go-bag. They watched him withdraw a flat
packet almost precisely the size of a human hand. The simple fold-over was of
soft, opaque plastic. He unfolded it, peered in, shook it, nodded, and
refolded it. The three crewmembers stared. "TZ," they were told, while he
kneaded the bag. "You know it?" Engineer and first mate frowned; ship's
computrician nodded. "Very illegal," she said. "Dangerous; very expensive and
very profitable. Tetrazombase." "One hopes that you have not been made
forcibly acquainted with the foul substance." Suzuki shook her head in a jerk.
"No!" "A substance everywhere illegal," the faceless pirate said, "inasmuch as
no person would take it willingly. Therefore it is to be employed only on the
unwilling. As the name implies, it makes the recipient take on the appearance
and some attributes of a zombi. That's an ancient word of Homeworld and has
unknown linguistic origin-it means the walking dead. A human automaton or a
badly programmed robot, you see. Your external cargo is telecybemetic mining
equipment. 23 Heavy machinery for those poor lonely pnamprum miners on the
fourth satellite of Murph. This," he said, hefting the bag, "is worth about as
much as two-thirds of the crates outside-combined. It is true that your
captain's backer is in financial trouble, but it is also true that your
captain knows that he is hauling this evil substance. Nor did he object to
transporting it, for a percentage." He had reclipped the knife to his suit.
Now he opened the suit's knapsack and slipped in the folded little plastic
bag. "Now the tetrazombase is where it belongs-in the hands of a manifestly
evil man! In which case we shall not bother to look into your holds. Whatever
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is there will pay for your trip, surely, and we are not after all
pigs-ah." The alien was entering, half-walking and half-dragging the captain.
The paunchy fellow with the side-worn single braid was only partially
recovered from the nerve-paralyzing effect of Prith's stopper. He came to life
at sight of the crowd in his cabin-and the ruined go-bag. A wordless little
cry escaped him and his elbow slammed back to rob the impossibly tall alien in
the yellow suit of its grip and its breath. Captain Ota glared wide-eyed at
the white spacesuit, and the business end of the tube pointed at his chest. If
it occurred to him that this seemed his day for being helpless at the wrong
end of a stopper, the thought did not make him philosophic. With his stopper
persuading the captain against further unwise moves, the pirate made a gesture
that stayed the alien from retaliating. "You knew I had it! You've taken