"Smith, E E 'Doc' - The Galaxy Primes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

BATTLE RAGES ACROSS SPACE!
The Primes went down, over what had been one of that world's largest cities. The air, the stratosphere, and all nearby space was full of battling vessels of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the tremendous globular spaceships of the invading Dilipics down to the tiny, one-man jet-fighters of the Arpalones.
The Dilipics were using projectile weapons only - ranging in size from heavy machine guns up to 75-millimetre quick-firing rifles. They were also launching thousands of guided missiles of fantastic speed and of tremendous explosive power.
Each defending Arpalone vessel, depending upon its type and class, carried from four up to a hundred burnished-metal reflectors some four feet in diameter, each with a small black device at its optical centre and each pouring out a tight beam of highly effective energy. Whenever one struck a Dilipic ship or plane everything in its path flared almost instantly into vapour and the beam glared incandescently.
The invading task-force was arranged hi a whirling, swirling, almost cylindrical cone, like a tornado. Each Dilipic unit seemed madly, suicidally determined that nothing would get through that furious wall to interfere with whatever it was that was coming down from space to the ground through the relatively quiet 'eye' of the pseudo-hurricane.
On the other hand, the Arpalones were madly, suicidally determined to break through that vortex wall. Group after group of jet-fighters came diving in. Occasionally, their combined blasts made enough of an opening for the centre fighter to get through. Once inside, the pilot stood his little stubby-winged craft squarely on her tail, opened his projectors to absolute maximum power and spread, and climbed straight up ...
THE GALAXY PRIMES - a superb novel of conflict and high adventure in the depths of space by E. E. 'Doc' Smith, world-famous creator of the epic LENSMAN and SKYLARK series (both avail' able in Panther Science Fiction).
Also by E. E. 'Doc' Smith in Panther Science Fiction
Spacehounds oflPC Subspace Explorers*
The LENSMAN series
Triplanetary First Lensman Galactic Patrol Grey Lensman Second Stage Lensmen Children of the Lens Masters of the Vortex
The SKYLARK series
The Skylark of Space Skylark Three Skylark of Valeron Skylark DuQuesne
*Forthcoming
E. E. 'Doc' Smith
The Galaxy Primes
Panther
Granada Publishing Limited
First published in Great Britain in 1975 by
Panther Books Ltd
Frogmore, St Albans, Herts AL2 2NF
Copyright (c) 1965 by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D. Made and printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd Bungay, Suffolk Set in Linotype Times
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. This book is published at a net price and is supplied subject to the Publishers Association Standard Conditions of Sale registered under the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1956.
THE GALAXY PRIMES

ONE
Her hair was a brilliant green. So was her spectacularly filled halter. So were her tight short-shorts, her lipstick, and the lacquer on her finger- and toe-nails. As she strolled into the Main of the starship, followed hesitantly by the other girl, she drove a mental probe at the black-haired, powerfully-built man seated at the instrument-banked console.
Blocked.
Then at the other, slenderer man who was rising to his feet from the pilot's bucket seat. His guard was partially down; he was telepathing a pleasant if somewhat reserved greeting to both newcomers.
She turned to her companion and spoke aloud. 'So these are the system's best.' The emphasis was somewhere between condescension and sneer. 'Not much to choose between, I'd say ... 'port me a tenth-piece, Clee? Heads, I take the tow-head.'
She flipped the coin dexterously. 'Heads it is, Lola, so I get Jim - James James James the Ninth himself. You have the honor of pairing with Clee - or should I say His Learnedness Right the Honorable Director Doctor Cleander Simmsworth Garlock, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Science, Prime Operator, President and First Fellow of the Galaxian Society, First Fellow of the Gunther Society, Fellow of the Institute of Paraphysics, of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, of the College of Mathematics, of the Congress of Psiontists, and of all the other top-bracket brain-gangs you ever heard of. Also, for your information, his men have given him a couple of informal degrees - P.D.Q. and S.O.B.'
The big psiontist's expression of saturnine, almost contemptuous amusement had not changed; his voice came flat and cold. 'The less you say, Doctor Bellamy, the better. Bitchy, swellheaded women give me an acute rectal pain. Pitching your curves over all the vizzies in space got you aboard, but it won't get you a thing from here on. And for your information, Doctor Bellamy, one more crack like that and I take you over my knee and blister your backside.'
'Try it, you clumsy ape!' she jeered. 'That I want to see -
any time you want to get both arms broken at the elbows!'
'Now's as good a time as any. I like your spirit, but I can't say a thing for your judgment.' He got up and started purposefully toward her, but both noncombatants came between.
'Hold it, Clee!' James protested, both hands against the heavier man's chest. 'What the hell kind of show is that to put on?' And simultaneously:
'Belle! For godsake - picking a fight already, and with nobody knows how many million people looking onl You know as well as I do that we may have to spend the rest of our lives together, so act like civilized beings - please - both of you! And don't...'
'Nobody's watching this but us,' Garlock interrupted. 'When pussy there started using her claws I cut the gun.'
'That's what you think,' James said sharply, 'but Fatso and his number one girl friend are coming in on the tight beam.'
'Oh?' Garlock whirled toward the hitherto dark and silent three-dimensional communications instrument. The face of a bossy-looking woman was already bright.
'Garlock! How dare you try to cut Chancellor Ferber off?' she demanded. Her voice was deep-pitched, blatant with authority. 'Here you are, sir.'
The woman's face shifted to one side and a man's appeared - a face to justify in full his nickname.
'"Fatso," eh?' Chancellor Ferber snarled. Pale eyes glared from the fat face. That costs you exactly one thousand credits, James."
'How much will this cost me, Fatso?' Garlock asked.
'Five thousand - and, since nobody can call me that deliberately, demotion three grades and probation for three years. Make a note, Miss Foster.'
'Noted sir.'
'Still sure we aren't going anywhere,' Garlock said. What a brain!'
'Sure I'm sure!' Ferber gloated. 'In a couple of hours I'm going to buy your precious starship in as junk. In the meantime, whether you like it or not, I'm going to watch your expression while you push all those pretty buttons and nothing happens.'
'The trouble with you, Fatso,' Garlock said dispassionately, as he opened a drawer and took out a pair of cutting pliers, 'is
that all your strength is in your glands and none in your brain. There are a lot of things - including a lot of tests - you know nothing about. How much will you see after I've cut one wire?' 'You wouldn't dare!' the fat man shouted. 'I'd fire you -blacklist you all over the sys -'