"Smith, E E 'Doc' - Lensman 05 - Second Stage Lenman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

a million; and it is sufficient characterization of the government of the Galactic Council to
say that in the long history of Civilization no planet has ever withdrawn from it.
Time went on. The prodigiously long blood-lines, so carefully manipulated by
Mentor of Arisia, neared culmination. Lensman Kimball Kinnison was graduated Number
One of his class-as a matter of fact, although he did not know it, he was Number One
of his time. And his female counterpart and complement, Clarrissa MacDougall of the
red-bronze-auburn hair and the gold-flecked tawny eyes, was a nurse in the Patrol's
Hospital at Prime Base.
Shortly after graduation Kinnison was called in by Port Admiral Haynes. Space
piracy had become an organized force; and, under the leadership of someone or
something known as "Boskone", had risen to such heights of power as to threaten
seriously the Patrol itself. In one respect Boskonia was ahead of the Patrol; its scientists
having developed a source of power vastly greater than any known to Civilization. Pirate
ships, faster than the Patrol's fastest cruisers and yet more heavily armed than its most
powerful battleships, had been doing as they pleased throughout all space.
For one particular purpose the engineers of the Patrol had designed and built
one ship-the Brittania. She was the fastest thing in space, but for offense she had only
one weapon, the "Q-gun". Kinnison was put in command of this vessel, with orders to:
(1) Capture a late-model pirate vessel; (2) Learn her secrets of power; and (3) Transmit
the information to Prime Base.
He found and took such a ship. Sergeant Peter vanBuskirk led the storming party
of Valerians-men of human ancestry, but of extraordinary size, strength, and agility
because of the enormous gravitation of the planet Valeria-in wiping out those of the
pirate crew not killed in the battle between the two vessels.
The Brittania's scientists secured the desired data. It could not be transmitted to
Prime Base, however, as the pirates were blanketing all channels of communication.
Boskonian warships were gathering for the kill, and the crippled Patrol ship could neither
run nor fight. Therefore each man was given a spool of tape bearing a complete record
of everything that had occurred; and, after setting up a director-by-chance to make the
empty ship pursue an unpredictable course in space, and after rigging bombs to destroy
her at the first touch of a ray, the Patrolmen paired off by lot and took to the lifeboats.
The erratic course of the cruiser brought her near the lifeboat manned by
Kinnison and vanBuskirk, and there the pirates tried to stop her. The ensuing explosion
was so violent that flying wreckage disabled practically the entire personnel of one of
the attacking ships, which did not have time to go free before the crash. The two
Patrolmen boarded the pirate vessel and drove her toward Earth, reaching the solar
system of Velantia before the Boskonians headed them off. Again taking to their
lifeboat, they landed on the planet Delgon, where they were rescued from a horde of
Catlats by one Worsel-later to become Lensman Worsel of Velantia-a highly
intelligent winged reptile.
By means of improvements upon Velantian thought-screens the three destroyed
a group of the Overlords of Delgon, a sadistic race of monsters who had been preying
upon the other peoples of the system by sheer power of mind. Worsel then



accompanied the two Patrolmen to Velantia, where all the resources of the planet were
devoted to the preparation of defenses against the expected attack of the Boskonians.
Several other lifeboats reached Velantia, guided by Worsel's mind working through
Kinnison's ego and Lens.