"H. Beam Piper - Four- Day Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

7. Aboard the Javelin
8. Practice, 50тАУmm Gun
9. Monster Killing
10. Mayday, Mayday
11. Darkness and Cold
12. Castaways Working
13. The Beacon Light
14. The Rescue
15. Vigilantes
16. Civil War Postponed
17. Tallow-Wax Fire
18. The Treason of Bish Ware
19. Masks Off
20. Finale




Four-Day Planet


1
 The Ship from Terra
I went through the gateway, towing my equipment in a contragravity
hamper over my head. As usual, I was wondering what it would take, short
of a revolution, to get the city of Port Sandor as clean and tidy and well
lighted as the spaceport area. I knew Dad's editorials and my sarcastic
news stories wouldn't do it. We'd been trying long enough.
The two girls in bikinis in front of me pushed on, still gabbling about the
fight one of them had had with her boy friend, and I closed up behind the
half dozen monster-hunters in long trousers, ankle boots and short
boat-jackets, with big knives on their belts. They must have all been from
the same crew, because they weren't arguing about whose ship was
fastest, had the toughest skipper, and made the most money. They were
talking about the price of tallow-wax, and they seemed to have picked up a
rumor that it was going to be cut another ten centisols a pound. I
eavesdropped shamelessly, but it was the same rumor I'd picked up,
myself, a little earlier.
тАЬHi, Walt,тАЭ somebody behind me called out. тАЬLooking for some news
that's fit to print?тАЭ
I turned my head. It was a man of about thirty-five with curly brown hair
and a wide grin. Adolf Lautier, the entertainment promoter. He and Dad
each owned a share in the Port Sandor telecast station, and split their time
between his music and drama-films and Dad's newscasts.
тАЬAll the news is fit to print, and if it's news the Times prints it,тАЭ I told
him. тАЬThink you're going to get some good thrillers this time?тАЭ
He shrugged. I'd just asked that to make conversation; he never had
any way of knowing what sort of films would come in. The ones the
Peenem├╝nde was bringing should be fairly new, because she was outbound
from Terra. He'd go over what was aboard, and trade one for one for the old