"Timothy Zahn - Manta's Gift" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

The other didn't move a muscle, but Raimey had the sudden impression of a man settling in for the
long run. Whatever angle he was working here, he figured he'd found his pigeon. And a captive
audience, to boot.

And as curiosity and annoyance began to replace some of his self-pity, Raimey realized suddenly
there was something familiar about Faraday's face. Something very familiar...

"Tell me, Mr. Raimey," Faraday said, "what did you plan to do after college?"

Automatically, Raimey tried to shrug. The muscles didn't even twitch. "What every other twenty-two-
year-old plans to do," he said, hearing the bitterness in his voice. "Make a life for myself."

"And a name, too?" Faraday suggested. "To excel in your chosen field? To be the best, or the
brightest, or the most respected?" He paused, just slightly. "Or perhaps even the first?"

Raimey felt his forehead wrinkle. "Let's cut through the donut glaze, all right? What's this all
about?"

"As I said, an opportunity," Faraday said, resting his hand on the edge of the sensor railing. A
polished wooden ring glinted subtly on his finger, Raimey noticed. Unusual jewelry. "Tell me, what
do you know about the Qanska?"

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Manta's Gift



The Qanska? "They're giant manta ray-shaped things that swim around in Jupiter's atmosphere,"
Raimey said, frowning. "We made contact with them about twenty years ago and have been talking
ever since. There've been a couple of tries at trade agreements, but no one's ever figured out
anything they could have that we might want...."

He trailed off as Faraday's face suddenly clicked. The chapter on the Qanska, and Balrushka's mule-
headed but failed attempts to work out a trade deal. "You're Jakob Faraday," he breathed. "The Jakob
Faraday."

"Of the tether-probe team of Chippawa and Faraday," Faraday agreed, a slight smile briefly touching
the corners of his mouth. "First men ever to make contact with the Qanska."

The smile turned into an ironic twitch of the lip. "Such as it was."

"They cut your tether," Raimey said, trying hard to remember the details. Balrushka and his trade
negotiations had been the real point of that chapter, with Chippawa and Faraday more a sidebar than
anything else. "One of the Qanskan young ran into it, and one of the predatorsтАФ"

"A Vuuka."

"RightтАФa Vuuka chewed through it," Raimey said. "Then one of the older Qanska caught you or
something. They held a meeting, and decided to send you back up."