"Williamson, Jack - 02 - The Humanoid Touch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Jack)

Later that night, his father called him back behind that gray steel door.

"A rough day, Skipper." His father sat heavily down at the desk, suddenly looking older than the black-bearded man in the queer flat picture above him. "I don't know what became of

Bosun Brong." Uneasily, his father glanced around the tiny room. "Anyhow, it's tune we had a talk."

He listened, breathless with his eagerness.

"I wanted this to wait till you were older," his father said. "But you've heard Brong's story. Part of it may be a clumsy lie, but I'm afraid the part about the humanoids is true. Kai's in danger, Skipper, and only the Lif ecrew stands against them.

"Here's our fort." With a tired white smile, his father waved at the old strongbox and the flatprint books and that dim picture. "We have another on Malili, with one brave woman for a garrison. Crewmate Cyra Sair. Two of us against the humanoids. If I've neglected you, that's most of the reason. I thought I ought to tell you now, and I hope you understand."

"Thank you, sir." He watched his father's face. "Will they come here?"

"I wish I knew." The scar looked pale and bold. "But now they surely know about us. We can only wait. Wait, and be as ready as we can."

"If there's tuneЧ" He had to get his breath. "If I grow up, I want to join the Lif ecrew. May I, sir?"

"If there is a Crew." His father gave him a thin little smile. "And if you're tough enough. But fighting themЧ"

His father stopped, staring off at nothing. Waiting, forgotten, Keth felt bad to see him looking so baffled and afraid.

"Well, Skipper!" His father remembered him. "I didn't want to worry you, but I thought you ought to know."

"About Malili?" Suddenly now he felt brave enough to ask. "Are the humanoids there? Nurse Vesh says they are. She says they killed my motherЧ"

"Don't speak of her!" The scar grew whiter, and he thought the thick ridges of it looked like a spider crawling up his father's cheek. "Don't everЧever speak of her!"

"I-I'm sorry, sir."

He wanted more than ever now to know about the world where he was born, about his mother and how his father got the scar, about rockrust and bloodrot and the strange Leleyo, but his father's open mood was gone.

"Now run along, Skipper." His father was turning to the holo. "I've a call to make."

Stumbling out of the room, he heard the special lock click behind him. He wondered if his father was calling Malili, per- haps to tell Crewmate Cyra Sair about the humanoids on Kyronia.

Through the rest of that long winter, he took gym and ran his route and did his lessons for Nurse Vesh. Sometimes he listened to the holo, but no more news came back from the Kyrone. There was never anything about Captain Vorn or the humanoids or the man with golden hands or even actual dragons.

For his next birthday, Nurse Vesh saved quota points to make him a redberry tart and his father promised him a fine surprise. The surprise was Crewmate Cyra Sair, home from Malili. She was going to be his new mother.

He loved her at once. She was a large, warm woman with dark, bright-shining hair and a small red mole under one eye. She always smelled like sunbud vines, and she was lander than Nurse Vesh.

When she had time.

Like his father, she was haunted with dread and always busy. Every night at home they locked themselves in that little back room. They were often away, he seldom knew where. Once when they were leaving he couldn't help sobbing.

"We do love you, Keth." She came back inside with him. "But you must try to understand your father. I wish he talked more to both of us, but he carries such a terrible load."

Though his father was waiting out hi the tunnel, she sat down and put her arm around him.