"Jack Vance - Meet Miss Universe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

bamboo. She rolls, walks up-right, or jumps. Weight 30 lbs.
11.Miss Arneb (Alpha Leporis). A globe of blue jelly. Inside are seven
balls of yellow light floating around 3 balls of red light. Weight: ?
12.Miss Jheripur (Omega Crucis). Humanoid C. Four feet high, three feet
wide, yellow as butter. No hair. Weight 250 lbs. Quite an armful.
 13.Miss Delta Corvi. The name fits. She looks like a crow. Tall, no beak,
black skin, no feathers ex-cept crest running down neck. Weight 200 lbs.
14.Miss Alphard (Alpha Draconis). Like a metal lobster, with-out claws,
antennae. Low to the ground. Said to be fast on feet; also rather touchy.
Don't joke with this one. Weight: ? Maybe 500 lbs. Maybe more.
15.Miss Mars. Lorraine Jorgensen, of Polar Colony. Blonde, big blue eyes.
Very nice. Weight 124 lbs.
16.Miss Claverops. Humanoid C. Amphibious, sleek like a seal.
Greenish-brown. Hands and feet like a frog. Weight 180 lbs.
17.Miss Mel. A monster. Eight-een feet long, color of raw oysters. Six big
arms. Makes constant noise like a loud laugh. Head something like a gorilla,
thorax like queen termite. WeightтАФI don't dare guess. Be careful of this one.
She likes to pet you. I'm black and blue from her love-taps. Smells like
slaughter-house. There's something she seems to want, but I can't make out
what it is.
18.Miss Sadal Suud (Beta Aquarii). Mandrake. Body like green-white carrot.
Red foliage sprouting from head. Sadal Suud means Luckiest of the Lucky. Will
she win? Weight 150 lbs.
19.Miss Persigian (Auriga 225-G). Bright blue lizard. Pretty color. Said to
sting like a nettle on con-tact. Weight 100 lbs.
20.Miss Veidranu (Psi Her-cules). Humanoid B. Fragile thing. Covered with
moth-dust. Pink, green, blue film for hair, running down her back. Nice
figure. Pretty. Weight 100 lbs.
21.Miss Gomeisa (Beta Canis Minor). A ten-foot pontoon with an iron sail.
Lives in an ocean of mercury. Charged electrically. Care! Don't touch! Weight:
? Heavy.
22.Miss Procyon (Alpha Canis Minor). Forty feet of Manila hawser.
23.Miss Grglash (Eta Cassiopeiae). Humanoid D. Woman-like form misleading.
Basic chemistry siliconic. Skull is a furnace, flames shoot out of holes in
scalp. Looks like beautiful orange hair. She's hot. Don't touch! Weight 180
lbs.

Hardeman Clydell laid down the paper. "Good job. Thumb-nail sketch of each
contestant." He picked out one of the blue-bound pamphlets at random. "Miss
Aries 44B951." He looked back at the master-list. "'A big tumbledweed with a
hundred jellyfish tangled in it.' Let's see . . . 'She lives on the surface
of shallow lakes crusted over with algae. Males construct igloos of peat-moss
on shore.' Mmmm . . . 'Perform complicated dances on sacred lakes . . .' Mm
hm . . . Mm hm . . . Here's what I'm looking for. The specifica-tions."
"You'll find 'em definite," said Tony. "To the hundredth of an inch."
"They look rather technical," said Clydell. "'Diameter measured from agrix
to therultaтАФ'" He looked up at Tony. "What in heaven's name is an agrix? And a
therulta? Should I know?"
"They're explained in the ap-pendix. There's a diagram of the creature's
physiology. The agrix and therulta, as I recall, are ter-minal kinks of one