"Jack Vance - Alastor 2262 - Trullion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

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you'll never need Aka-die's explanations." "I'm not talking about that sort of thing." "Then
what sort of thing are you talking about?" "I don't care to explain. You'd only jeer at me, which
is tiresome." "No jeering!" declared Shira. "We'll give you a fair hearing! Say on."
"Very well. I don't really care whether you jeer or not. I've long felt a lack, or an emptiness.
I want a weight to thrust my shoulder against; I want a challenge I can defy and conquer."

"Brave words," said Shira dubiously. "But why should I so trouble myself? Because I have but one
life, one existence. I want to make my mark, somewhere, somehow. When I think of it I grow almost
frantic! My foe is the universe; it defies me to perform remarkable deeds so that ever after folk
will remember me! Why should not the name 'Glay Hulden' ring as far and clear as 'Paro' and
'Slabar Velche'?* I will make it so; it is the least I owe myself!"

Jut said in a gloomy voice, "You had best become either a great hussade player or a great
starmenter."
"I overspoke myself," said Glay. "In truth I want neither fame nor notoriety; I do not care
whether I astonish a single person. I want only the chance to do my best." There was silence on
the verandah. From the reeds camethe croak of nocturnal insects, and water lapped softly against
the dock; a merling perhaps had risen to the surface, to listen for interesting sounds.

*Paro: a hussade player, the darling of the cluster, celebrated for his aggressive and daring
play. Slabar Velche: a notorious starmenter.

Jut said in a heavy voice, "The ambition does you no discredit. Still I wonder how it would be
if everyone strove with such urgency. Where would peace abide?"

"It is a difficult problem," said Glinnes. "Indeed, I had never considered it before. Glay, you
amaze me You are unique!" Glay gave a deprecatory grunt. "I'm not so sure of this. There must be
many, many folk desperate to fulfill themselves." "Perhaps this is why people become
starmenters," suggested Glinnes. "They are bored at home, at hussade they're inept, the girls turn
away from them-so off tkey go in their black hulls, for sheer revenge!"

"The theory is as good as any," agreed Jut Hidden. "But revenge cuts both ways, as thirty-three
folk discovered today." "There is something here I can't understand," said Glinnes. "The Connatic
knows of their crimes. Why does he not deploy the Whelm and root them out once and for all?"
Shira laughed indulgently. "Do you think the Whelm sits idle? The ships are constantly on the
prowl. But for every living world you'll find a hundred dead ones, not to mention moons,
asteroids, hulks and starments. The hiding places are beyond enumeration. The Whelm can only do
its best." Glinnes turned to Glay. "There you are: join the Whelm and see the cluster. Get paid
while you travel!" "It's a thought," said Glay.
Chapter 3
***
In the end it was Glinnes who went to Port Maheul and there enlisted in the Whelm. He was
seventeen at the time. Glay neither enlisted in the Whelm, played hussade, nor be-Shortly after
Glinnes joined the Whelm.