"Jerry Pournelle - Houses of the Kzinti" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

Grraf-Commander said to tell me."
The tremor became more obvious, but Tzak-Navigator
knew when he was boxed. "With
a four-kzin crew, our titles and our duties tend to
vary. When I accept duties
of executive officer and communications officer as
well, another member may
prove his mettle at some simple tasks of astrogation."
"I would think Apprentice Engineer might be good at
reading meters," Locklear
said carefully.
"He has enough of them to read in the engine room.
Besides, Ship's Gunner has
superior time in grade; to pass him over would have
been a deadly insult."
"Um. And I don't count?"
"Exactly. As a captive, you are a nonperson-even if
you have skills that a
gunner might lack."
"You said it was adequately done," Locklear pointed
out.
"For a gunner," spat the navigator, and Locklear
smiled. A kzin, too proud to
lie, could still speak with mental reservations to an
underling. The navigator
went on: "We drew first blood with our chance sortie
to the galactic West, but
Ship's Gunner must verify gravitational blips as we
pass in hyperdrive."
Locklear listened, and asked, and learned. What he
learned initially was fast
mental translation of octal numbers to decimal. What
he learned eventually was
that, counting on the gunner to verify likely blips
of known star masses,
Grraf-Commander had finally realized that they were
monumentally lost,
light-years from their intended rendezvous on the rim
of known space. And that
rendezvous is on the way to the Eridani worlds,
Locklear thought. He said, as if
to himself but in Kzin, "Out Eridani way, I hear
they're always on guard for you
guys. You really expect to get out of this alive?"
"No," said the navigator easily. "Your life may be
extended a little, but you
will die with heroes. Soon."
"Sounds like a suicide run," Locklear said.
"We are volunteers," the navigator said with lofty
arrogance, making no attempt