"Robert F. Young - The Star Eel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

part about it. She stands there immobile, tears flowing without end, as though her grief is a fountain that
will never go dry. "Pasha was all I had."
 A phase of her life has come to an abrupt close. She cannot pass unscathed into the next unless the
precise psychological note is sound-ed. Starfinder knows this, but he is tone-deaf and has no notion of
what the note should be. He says nothing.
"All I had."
Still Starfinder says nothing. He is a clothing-store dummy. He is a wooden Indian standing outside a
tobacco store.
The whale has finished feeding. It rescinds the energy restrictions imposed by the man. Warmth
creeps onto the bridge. There is a distant rumble as the recycling system comes back to life.
A silence ensues. A long one. At length a rebus takes shape in Starfinder's mind. In Ciely's тАФ

Clearly the whale is contrite. It is trying to butter up to the man. Starfinder shakes his head. "It won't
work, whale."
A second rebus appears:

Ciely is gazing at Starfinder. Miraculously, the flow of tears has ceased. "What does it mean,
Starfinder?"
"It means that you're his `friend.' He's trying to say he's sorry, Ceily."
A third:

Starfinder translates again. "It means that both of us are his `friends.' That he and you and I are three
comrades."
The look of wonderment is back on Ceily's face. It does not eclipse the grief that resides in her
blue-flower eyes, but it is a beginning. Someday she must be returned to a Andromedae IX and her
haute bourgeoisie parents. But not yet. Not for a long while. She needs the therapy that only the whale
can provide.'
The whale, which seems to know everything else, apparently knows this also.



it "says," and the three comrades sail forth into the Sea of (space) and (time).
"... and baby makes three, in our blue heaven ...."