"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 19 - The Quillian Sector" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

certain a thing appears to be, it must never be considered an
absolute event. The probability may be high but, always, it
remains a probability."

Bochner nodded, remembering a time during his early youth.
A copse in which a beast was lurking, himself set and armed, the
weapon lifted, aimed, the butt hard against his shoulder, the
sights leveled on the spot in which the creature was sure to
appear. A long, delicious moment of savored anticipation. The
nearing climax of the hunt was like the climax of sex itself,
though far more satisfying.

And then the shadow, which had crossed the sun. The raft,
which had appeared in a cloudless sky and, as it threw a patch of
darkness over the front sight, the quarry had appeared to turn,
to run, to dodge the bullet which should have brought it low.

Revenge had done little to ease the hurt and after the dead
man had toppled from the raft, and the vehicle itself risen to
vanish into the distance, the penalty had waited at the endтАФ the
blood-price paid in money and sweat and exile from his home
world.

A little thing. One he should have taken into consideration. A
neglect which had altered the trend of his life.

Watching him, Caradoc said, "Imagine a container of boiling
liquid containing tiny motes of solid substance. They are in
continuous, restless activity. The Brownian Movement. The tiny
particles are in motion because of the irregular bombardment of
the molecules of the surrounding medium. Now, imagine one of
the particles to be colored for easy identification. We can tell
where it is in relation to the whole. We can tell where it has been.
We can even predict where next it might be, but never can we be
utterly and absolutely certain."

"Dumarest? The colored particle is Dumarest?"

"The analogy will serve."

"And you know about where he is to be found. In the Quillian
Sector." Bochner's face became taut ugly, the skin tightening so
that his cheeks looked like scraped bone. "The place where space
goes mad. Where the suns fight and fill the universe with crazed
patterns of energy so that men kill at a glance and women
scream at imagined terrors. Ealius and Cham and Ninik."

"Swenna," said Caradoc adding to the list. "Vult and PontiaтАФ"
He paused, then said again, "Pontia."