"Andrew J. Offutt - Spaceways 17 - The Carnadyne Horde" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

vainly to seal shut so as to trap the thief. A spindly manipulator at the
cyber's equator grappled on to the safe door and the sphere thrust
backward. Poison gas filled the room. The cyber didn't mind. It pulled the
door free. "Celsius-about 72 degrees Fahrenheit, Old Style. 10 Stopper
beamers-set in the overhead-attempted to Fry the metal intruder. They
succeeded only in warming its exterior. Damage, however, was likely if the
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cyber lingered in the captain's well-protected cabin. This it minded. Tura
knew what the safe held. She tapped a few commands into the computer. The
cyber responded instantly. Three precision sensors detected the sources of the
sonic beams. Triangulating, they pointed the salvager's plasmers and
triggered. The hidden stoppers vaporized, along with large sections of the
overhead. The cyber extended a waldo and seized the contents of the safe: a
slim gray and maroon equhyde packet. Depositing it in an interior compartment,
the cyber gymballed about and thrust toward the simplest path to Black
Dawn-the cabin's wide viewing port. The metal thief burned a neat hole in the
crysplas with its plasmer. The outrush of what little atmosphere remained in
the cabin (mostly an enzymatic poison gas called 3-4-3 Gamma Dioxylase)
propelled the sphere through with an extra push. It retracted its farrago of
arms and passed the fused edges of the port with room to spare. The gray and
maroon packet it carried contained twenty slim pieces of plastic. They looked
unimpressive. Only the fact that they were sealed in a TGW Priority
Transferral Pouch indicated their true value. Any Galactic banker would
immediately identify them as negotiable credcassettes. Millions of stells
worth. A droplet in TGW's operating budget (a month's payroll and expenses for
TGW personnel and TGO AiP's on Terasaki and Franji), it represented a fortune
in the hands of one person. Tura ak Saiping was that person. She smiled coolly
and concentrated on the remaining three salvagers. A thin film of perspiration
glowed on her golden-bronze skin. One of the cybers she sent back to her ship
with a load 11 of quark-tunnel microcomputer components. They were being
shipped to a TGW (and, presumably, TGO) research facility. She had the cyber
rip open the sealed documents attached to the container. She frowned when she
read what the cyber held up to its TP. Why would there be a TGW research
station just a half light-year away from Shir ash? Most Galactics shuddered at
the mere mention of the planet that gave birth to a race of amorphous
monstrosities possessing intensely powerful telehypnotic abilities. Tura ak
Saiping merely continued to frown. As far as she knew, TGW maintained an
uncrewed cybercraft in orbit around the watery world. It served as a warning
buoy, alerting spacefarers to the almost unopposable danger below. That
monitor would also alert TransGalactic Watch, pres meaning fast, if the
jelly-blobs of Shirash ever escaped their planet and moved out along the
spaceways. One less load of equipment for whatever they're "researching" near
that abominable planet, she mused in satisfaction. Or anywhere else! The other
cyber in the main cargo hold bypassed crates of food and drink-flavorings/farm
machinery (although that was an ancient cover-phrase for weapons, ref: the
Caribbean Connection), holotapes, uniforms, and mining equipment. Thousands
and thousands of stells' worth of stuff, all doubtless urgently needed for