"James Tiptree Jr. - Beam Us Home" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tiptree James Jr)

care. All he was thinking about was his bowels. So far he had not fouled himself or his plane. When he
was down by their signal, he bolted out to squat under the chopper's tail. The grunts climbed in, yelling at
him.

They had a prisoner with them. The Gu├й was naked and astonishingly broad. He walked springily; his
arms were lashed with wire and a shirt was tied over his head. This was the first Gu├й Hobie had been
close to. As he got in, he saw how the Gu├й's firm brown flesh glistened and bulged around the wire. He
wished he could see his face. The gunner said the Gu├й was a Sirion├│, and this was important because the
Sirion├│s were not known to be with the Gu├й's. They were a very primitive nomadic tribe.

When Hobie began to fly home, he realized he was getting sicker. It became a fight to hold onto
consciousness and keep on course. Luckily nobody shot at them. At one point he became aware of a lot
of screaming going on behind him but couldn't pay attention. Finally he came over the strip and horsed
the chopper down. He let his head down on his arms.

"You okay?" asked the gunner.

"Yeah," said Hobie, hearing them getting out. They were moving something heavy. Finally he got up and
followed them. The floor was wet. That wasn't unusual. He got down and stood staring in, the floor a
foot under his nose. The wet stuff was blood. It was sprayed around, with one big puddle. In the puddle
was something soft and fleshy-looking.

Hobie turned his head. The ladder was wet. He held up one hand and looked at the red. His other hand
too. Holding them out stiffly, he turned and began to walk away across the strip.

Control, who still hoped to get an evening flight out of him, saw him fall and called the hospital. The two
replacement parameds were still in pretty good shape. They came out and picked him up.

When Hobie came to, one of the parameds was tying his hands down to the bed so he couldn't tear the
IV out again.

"We're gong to die here," Hobie told him.

The paramed looked noncommittal. He was a thin dark boy with a big Adam's apple.

"'But I shall dine at journey's end with Landor and with Donne,'" said Hobie. His voice was light and
facile.

"Yeats," said the paramed. "Want some water?"

Hobie's eyes flickered. The paramed gave him some water.

"I really believed it, you know," Hobie said chattily. "I had it all figured out." He smiled, something he
hadn't done for a long time.

"Landor and Donne?" asked the medic. He unhooked the empty IV bottle and hung up a new one.

"Oh, it was pathetic, I guess," Hobie said. "It started out тАж I believed they were real, you know? Kirk,
Spock, McCoy, all of them. And the ship. To this day, I swear тАж one of them talked to me once; I
mean, he really did тАж I had it all figured out; they had me left behind as an observer." Hobie giggled.