"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 04 - Kalin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

"I'm here."

"You were thinking," she said. "Of what? Places you have
seen? People and planets you have known?" The fingers
tightened even more. "Where is your home, Earl? Which planet
do you call your own?"

"Earth."

He waited for the inevitable derision but, to his surprise, it
didn't come. He felt a momentary hope. The girl claimed to have
traveled. It was barely possible that she mightтАФ

"Earth," she repeated, and shook her head. "An odd name.
Dirt, soil, loam, but you don't mean that, of course. Is there really
a planet with such a name?"

"There is."

"Odd," she said again, frowning. "I seem to have heard of it
somewhere, a long time ago. When I was a child."

A child?

Age was relative. For those traveling Low time it had no
meaning. For those traveling High, using the magic of
quicktime, an apparent year was two generations. But no matter
how time was judged, the girl could not be older than twenty or
twenty-five biological years.

Less when the real standard was used. The only measure that
had true meaning. Experience.

"Try to remember," he urged. "What you know about Earth."

She smiled. "I'll try. Is it important?"

Was a reason for living important? Dumarest thought of all
the journeys he had made, the ships he had ridden, sometimes
traveling High, more often traveling Low. Doped, frozen and
ninety percent dead, riding in the caskets meant for the
transport of animals, risking the fifteen percent death rate for
the sake of economy. Traveling, always traveling, always looking
for Earth. For the planet which seemed to have become
forgotten. The world no one knew.

Home!

He waited, watching her as she closed her eyes, frowning in
concentration, doing what came hard to herтАФlooking back