"Smith, E E 'Doc' - SubSpace Vol 2 - Subspace Encounter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

all solar systems over!-she wore, dangling from a fine platinum chain encircling her left
eat; a two-inch octagonal diffraction grating.

Like the man's, her face and shoulders and arms and legs were deeply tanned; and, like
his, they too were plenteously and finely scarred, if not quite as abundantly as his,
numerously enough to show unmistakably that the worn rawhide haft of the knife at her
belt did not get that way from skinning orksts.

With no change of expression---or rather, with no expression at all on his face-the male
visitor tuned his mind to the girl's and drove a thought. "You're Daught."

"Quiet!" she interrupted mentally. Not a muscle of her face moved. Her eyes showed,
strictly unchanged, only the customary interest in a strange young man who was as much
of a man as this man very evidently was. "Are you sure this fat slob can't yarn? Or
anyone else within range, so you're sure you're not making eaglemeat out of both of us."

"Positive," he telepathed. "He's no more psionic than the toad he looks like, and Knuaire
of Spath's on guard. You know him."

"Songladen Knuaire? The theoretician? I've met him once, is all. He's an operator. "

"You can carve that on the highest cliff in town."

All this, of course, at the transfinite speed of thought, had taken the merest fraction of a
second of time. The fat man was speaking. "Sonrodnar Rodnar of Slaar-Daughtmatja
Marrjyl of Orm--I greet," he said formally, and the two replied in unison, "Sonfayand
Baylor of Slaar, I greet."

"You two haven't met, I understand," the games-master said, and went on to introduce
his two visitors to each other, using the informal mode. "Rodnar, Status Thirty-Eight . . ."
-the person of higher status was always named first.. and Marrjyl, Status Forty, meet
each other."

" Both smiled and bowed. "I'm very glad to, Marrjyl," and, "I am, too, Rodnar-so glad!"
they said; and as they clasped hands firmly, Rodnar went on, "No, Baylor, we've never
met before. And Marrjyl, when I said I was mighty glad to meet you, I wasn't just being
polite. I've heard a lot about you-all good."

She smiled again. "Thanks, Rodnar, but not half as much as I've heard about you, I'm
sure."

"Maybe you know, then, Rod," the fat man said, "that she isn't a real pro, either. Like
you, she's a spare-time games man, in it partly for the junex, but mostly for augmentation
of status. She's a Designer First just in from Orm-this is her first stab at the big time and
the big chance and the big money-but, as you can see, she's good. Okay, peel your
jerseys and turn around."

The word "peel" was strictly appropriate, especially in the girl's case. Her upper garment
was almost as tight as the skin of an orange.