"Andrew J. Offutt - Spaceways 19 - King of the Slavers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

altogether (since a broad-spectrum killer of bacterial infection was obviously
impossible). Serendipity applied to a million other fortuitous accidents. It
applied to the meeting of spacer captains Sibanda and Manjanungo in the busy,
ever-noisy lounge on Qal-arastation. Both ship's masters had business on the
planet below; business involving this or that matter of 9 cargo, replacement
part, and supplies for their galaxy-spanning ships. Both were awaiting the
return of their agents, down on Qalara, and for the moment had little to
do. The very striking Manjanungo soon learned that the underclad woman was not
just another pretty face and desirable, well-displayed form. Her color was a
golden tan: skin, hair, and eyes. A jewel-flashing jerkin over nothing but
skin and a pair of low-on-the-hips pants, snug and white and arabesqued in
gold, left bare her nicely tucked-in waist and a navel around which had been
painted a starburst, in Bonestell blue. She affected arabesquery-traced gloves
to the elbow, snug-as-skin and of a perfect blue that matched her longish
vest. A single pair of golden frogs and a single taut, royal blue lacing
prevented it from showing more than half of her very round breasts. This was
Captain Sibanda of spaceship Serendip. In her turn she soon learned that this
Manjanungo was more than the oddly-attired, foppish, and imperious dandy he
appeared. As a matter of fact she had heard of Manjanungo of Jorinne. He
affected long hair drawn straight back into a queue and held by a scarlet bow.
His long coat of shining black taffetas-a wrinkle-free synthefabric, of
course-imitated the attire of a more than ancient sea captain of Espanya. With
his own modifications: the coat was long and belted, and skin-hugging black
pants or tights disappeared into equally black jackboots. The fancily-tooled
ball-and-cap pistole tucked into his wide belt was surely a replica-surely a
stopper, the common weapon of the spaceways, was concealed in the ridiculously
primitive and inefficient handgun. Not tall and not unhandsome, this was
Captain Manjanungo of 10 spacer Starwolf and other names. Sibanda and
Manjanungo discovered that they were in the same business. In a privatized
booth, they talked. Just how it came about is neither here nor there; suffice
it to say that the two struck a bargain. It involved their mutual business,
which was piracy, and a certain huge luxury spaceliner well advertised as
being well-armed. The liner was called Starqueen and its master was Captain
Trinn Yosef. The finest prize in space, Starqueen-and any pirate would have to
be a fobbin' fool to tangle with the liner with its new armaments and capable
master. Two pirates, however, met serendipitously and made such plans. One
possessed Starqueen's precise voyage plan, and Manjanungo agreed that in
exchange she would receive 60 per cent of the proceeds of their joint
venture. The rendezvous with Captain Lortice would keep, Manjanungo thought,
his gleaming sable taffetas rustling as he strode back to his ship's docking
berth. He was a deeply tan man of absolutely normal height and weight, neither
ugly nor handsome. He walked, however, like a king. Some people gave him
stares, but somehow none remained in his way. A man perhaps to be scorned or
pointed out with smiles behind his back, but not to be crossed. So it is the
second-largest and best-armed liner along the spaceway, he mused. / hardly
have time to await something small and safe. And once we have Starqueen
awallow in space, we shall see who receives sixty per cent of nothing and who
takes all! He was met at Starwolfs inner airlock by a quiet beauty, unrelaxed
of face and very erect in her tighter-than-skin one-piece skinnTite of
gleaming white. It 11 flaunted her waist, which was corseted, surely