"Andrew J. Offutt - Spaceways 09 - In Quest of Qalara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

ducked a flying elbow. "Hellfire," Trafalgar said, noting her very serious
expression and becoming just as sober, "you are wanted on more planets than
you've ever visited. We are your friends, and we've been through more than one
hell together. We can't possibly see you step off onto Thebanis and be
arrested and hauled away, or knocked off by some TGO assas-uh, eliminator. We
know you've changed, partly because of mental scar tissue or something like.
We all heard you give-well, almost-Satana to Janja, now that you're
rich-" "Now that we are all rich!" Cinnabar practically shouted. "-and of
course now there's the business arrangement with those people down on Jorinne,
and the banker on Thebanis." Trafalgar paused to shake his head. "Knorese
gemstone jewelry, Jorinne 'cataract' pearls, and spaceships, 43 too! What a
complicated trade! I will tell you this, though, citizen!" He leveled a finger
at her. "I am charging you an obligation, a service rendered should ever I
need one and call on you. And right now I am saying that everyone else
onboard-the Satana Coalition, no less-should demand the same." "Not me!" Janja
said. "I have Satana and I will have . . . whatever the name of the new ship
is!" "You've got it," Hellfire said, her glance sweeping them all, and they
saw something they had never seen before, any of them-the liquid glint of
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tears in the eyes of the vicious pirate Hellfire. "And come to think, I am
thinking Tarkij as the name for my ship, and you others had probably better
try talking me out of it," Janja was continuing. "I've got an ob on you,
Cap'n-I-mean-citizen," Cinnabar said, and poked a long, thin, orange finger
into Hellfire's breast-or the place where one would have been if she had
breasts, at any rate. "And I'll take it. You'll never be free of me, you sexy
Galactic!-ouch!" Trafalgar had casually swatted Cinnabar in one rounded
breast; at almost the same instant Hellfire gave the Jarp a finger-flick in
the crotch, where its penis nestled in a pair of horribly blue trunks. Quindy
came to Hellfire and set both hands on her shoulders. She looked into those
moist mahogany-colored eyes. "I take no favor and demand no obligation,
Hellfire. Just that if ever I set down on a planet where you are, I want you,
and you know how." Hellfire nodded, and tears spilled down her cheeks bright
and glistening as rolling pearls. She knew. She and Quindy had long been
lovers, and their relationship was master and slave-the consummately competent
ship-handler and computrician Quindy as slave. There was no masochism 44 gene
for bioengineering to remove, and Quindaridi of Ghanji was most definitely
masochistic. There followed some hugging, which was followed by an awkward
silence. "All right Quindy," Janja said at last, "let's go get ourselves
spaceborne!" 3 "An ancient writer, I understand, once asked 'What's in a
name?' He wouldn't have asked that if he'd been called 60640329aO!" -Trafalgar
Cuw Cinnabar suggested "Ellfira" or "Elphira," but Helifire turned up her nose
and besides Trafalgar said it sounded too much like "Helifire" anyhow. Janja
suggested her nickname for Helifire: "Prasstop" could be used as a name. No it
couldn't, Helifire said; "Prasstop" wasn't any sort of name and besides the
color of her hair really should be changed. As a matter of fact she was
wondering if raggedy-pixieish black bangs mightn't soften the long angular
lines of her face. He would come up with a name she could not resist,