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

Trafalgar told her, and have it registered into reality on Outreach before
they reached Thebanis. As a matter of fact they could easily stop off at the
Outreach docking station, at least; it was a mere four light-years from
Thebanis's star, Janski. (The ship was falling through starlit indigo and
gray, past Bleak now and rushing on, on. Spacedust caressed them, fitfully lit
by starfire in blue and yellow, ruddy orange and greenwhite as they hurtled
faster than meteors through a domain never meant for their kind.) 45 46
Hellfire said, "Outreach?" Trafalgar Cuw nodded. He was positively
scintillant in a prismatically colored Joser robe that made him look like the
priest of some chromohedonistic cult. He wore his ingenuous boy expression,
which he did well. "Pos. I can arrange identities, you see, on Outreach. I
have a lot of influence, on Outreach." Suddenly he jerked his head toward
Janja and his eyes were bright with the excitement of discovery. "Janjaglaya
Wye! W-Y-E." Janja looked at him. Eyebrows up, head on one side as she
considered, briefly. "I ... can live with that." "Thought you could," he said,
beaming. "I love it," Cinnabar said or rather its translation helmet did.
"Captain Janjaglaya Wye." Rather plaintively Janja said, "I don't know
anything about Outreach." "SIPACUM does. So study." "I don't either, dammit,"
Hellfire said. "So study," Trafalgar repeated, in the same bland tone. "What
was your name before? I mean, you weren't named Hellfire at birth, were
you?'' "None of your business. I hate that name. How do you have influence, on
Outreach?" "Oh-" (He gestured, robe's polychromatic sleeve streaming, flapping
so that its colors flowed in a beautiful blur.)"-family. You know. It's not
important. A person gains influence. Consider-we all have some on Jorinne now,
for instance. Anyhow, would you rather whisper your old name to me, let me see
if I can make anything out of it? Another name, I mean.'' He evades questions
better than anyone in the Galaxy, Janja mused. Now there's something I want to
learn to do! Hellfire made a face. She sat on the edge of her bed in her
cabin-the captain's cabin of spacer Satana. "No." She was looking down at her
tight blue shimmerfabric pants, idly scratching at the metallic glint on her
thigh with 47 a close-trimmed fingernail. "Oh, Tao's balls, all right! My
birth-name was Aljareh. And a string of numbers. I really believe I've managed
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to forget them." "That's not so terrible," Janja said. She was already
tap-tapping the cabin's SIPACUM link, initiating a computer scan for planet
Outreach. "It is to me," Hellfire said petulantly. "I never liked it and
besides you don't have my memories, Cloud-top. Besides, it won't do, anyhow.
It's known too, that name. I mean-more than one policer organization's records
have my real name in the banks. And description." "And all of them have the
names Hellfire and Satana on file," Trafalgar said rather quietly, feeling her
morose-ness. She shot him only the briefest of dark glances. Those
almost-black eyes were hardly soft, but they were a lot less hard and mean,
these days. In a way Hellfire really was dead. "Hellfire's real name, not
yours," Cinnabar corrected her lightly with a pretense at solemnity, but
Hellfire didn't smile. She sat on the edge of the luxurious bed she had caused
to be installed on Satana for her comfort and her sexuality, and she stared at
her hand at its idle work on her thigh. Her friends were trying to help. Her