"Doris Piserchia - Star Rider" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piserchia Doris)

тАЬHinky,тАЭ I said suddenly.
тАЬDonтАЩt call me that.тАЭ
тАЬHinx, you feel that star?тАЭ
тАЬWhat for?тАЭ
тАЬYou feel those eight planets?тАЭ
тАЬWhat for?тАЭ
Loud as I could, I yelled, тАЬYou bust my brains leapfrogging these
asteroids, now you say you donтАЩt want to bother jinking anything?тАЭ
тАЬAlready jinked something.тАЭ
I glared at him for a long minute тАЬYou know this system same as me.
One sun, eight planets, no moons and enough asteroids to choke a giant.тАЭ
He wagged his big head, dug his haunches into the hard rock and sat
like a lump of lead.
тАЬKind of restless,тАЭ I said. тАЬWhat say we light out for Veraka? They got
blue grass and big crowds. We can panhandle a couple days to get a
stake.тАЭ
тАЬNo, thank you.тАЭ
Cranky, I walked toward him. тАЬHow about Adrax? You like all those
spooky caves.тАЭ
тАЬSeen тАЩem a hundred times.тАЭ
I was sick of yelling so I said softly, тАЬWhat do you want to do?тАЭ
тАЬExcuse me, sweetie, but something around here smells.тАЭ
тАЬNot to me.тАЭ
тАЬYouтАЩre blind when youтАЩre mad. Me, I never get mad so IтАЩm never blind.
What say you relax awhile and get the feel of the place, and then if you
donтАЩt jink anything, well take off?тАЭ
That sounded reasonable so I walked away to do what he said. Felt
uneasy, I did; jumpy as a young mount hitting D-2 for the first time.
Me feeling strange wasnтАЩt usual. Needed thinking about. Sat down on
the ground and considered it.
Nothing on this asteroid to cause Hinx to lose his mind. Chunk of rock
so small I felt light even with my shield in place. I had taken some
atmosphere from the last oxygenated planet we landed on. Hinx had done
the same thing. Carrying along an environment wasnтАЩt difficult to do, in
fact it became more or less automatic to a traveler after he had practiced
it a few times. The mind formed a cage of force around the body, and the
atmosphere was captured inside. Its density was determined by the
amount of gravity on a planet and by the mass of the traveler. There
wasnтАЩt any gravity on an asteroid like this one and my shield was so dense
that its outer side lay a fraction of an inch away from my skin and just
barely covered the hair on my head. I could use the shield I had for about
ten hours, after which IтАЩd have to pick up some fresh atmosphere.
I was twelve when I took off on my mount to hunt for the legendary
planet. Doubleluck was its name, and I was still hunting for it. Good old
Doubleluck. With one hand clasping the long hair on HinxтАЩs neck and the
other dug deep into the fur on his rump, I sat in the depression in his back
and rode like a fiend. For two years.
How many times IтАЩd promised my mount, тАЬWeтАЩll get there first.тАЭ The
devil could take the others, weтАЩd find the place and make it ours. Everyone
would throw their hats in the air and shout that jaks were kings of the