"Robert Reed - Hatch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

тАЬIтАЩm sorry,тАЭ Peregrine replied. тАЬI wasnтАЩt talking to you. I was chatting with a
woman friend.тАЭ

The alien lifted one of his intricate limbs, signaling puzzlement. тАЬAnd where is
this woman?тАЭ

тАЬInside my skull.тАЭ Peregrine gave his temple a few hard taps. тАЬI met her last
night. I thought she was pretty, and she was pleasant enough. But she said some
critical words about raiders wasting too many resources, and I thought she was
accusing me of being a coward.тАЭ

тАЬYou listed your sensible reasons, of course.тАЭ

тАЬNot all of them,тАЭ he admitted.

тАЬWhy not?тАЭ

тАЬI told you,тАЭ said Peregrine. тАЬI thought she was pretty. And if I acted like an
unapologetic coward, I wouldnтАЩt get invited to her bedroom.тАЭ

Hawking absorbed this tidbit about human spawning. Or he simply ig-nored it.
Who could know what that creature was thinking beneath his thick carapace?
Low-built and long, Hawking held a passing resemblance to an earthly trilobite. A
trio of crystalline eyes pulled in light from all direc-tions, delicate optical tissues
teasing the meaning out of every photon. His armored body was carried on dozens
of jointed legs. But where trilobites had three sections to their insectlike bodies, this
alien had five. And where trilobites were dim-witted creatures haunting the floors of
ancient seas, HawkingтАЩs ancestors had evolved grasping limbs and large, intricate
minds while scurrying across the lush surface of a low-gravity world.

Hawking was not a social animal. And this was a blessing, since he was the
only one of his kind in the city. Peregrine had studied the available files about his
species, but the local data sinks were intended to help military op-erations, not
educate any would-be xenologists. And likewise, after spending decades in close
association with the creature, and despite liking as well as admiring him, Peregrine
found there were moments when old Mr. Hawk-ing was nothing but peculiar,
standoffish, and quite impossible to read.

But Peregrine had a taste for challenges.

тАЬAnyway,тАЭ he said, cutting into the silence. тАЬI lied to that woman. I told her
that I wasnтАЩt flying because I knew something big was coming. I had a feeling, and
until that ripe moment, I was resting both my body and my ship.тАЭ

тАЬAnd she believed you?тАЭ

тАЬPerhaps.тАЭ

After a brief silence, Hawking said, тАЬShe sounds like a foolish young