"Timothy Zahn - Spinneret" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

answered at the meeting tonight; emergency questions can be handled at the
admin complex. Next!"

Well, at least they've got things organized, Hafner thought as he headed toward
the knot of people around the bulletin board. For a moment he considered finding
the admin complex and seeing if they would tell him where Patterson would be
living. But they were probably up to their necks in work over there, and there was

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Zahn, Timothy - Spinneret


no point making a nuisance of himself any sooner than necessary. The meeting
tonight would be soon enough to find Patterson and discuss the work schedule;
until then, he would do well to put a leash and choke collar on his eagerness. A
quick look at his new quarters and a long walk around Unie should do him for
today. In fact, if his luggage had been delivered to his house yet, he'd even have
his sample boxes and a handful of reagents to take with him.

Smiling, he picked up his pace. Perhaps the afternoon wouldn't be a total waste,
after all.

The stars were shining like frozen sparks overhead as the Ceres town meeting
broke up, their brilliance seemingly unaffected by the handful of lights that
defined where the streets were alleged to be. Cristobal Perez walked slowly
toward the house he shared with two other men, the work orders they'd passed out
in the meeting crinkling in his pocket as he moved.

A footstep scrunched the gravel behind him: someone overtaking. Turning, he
caught a glimpse of the other's face. "Matro," he nodded in greeting. "How do you
like your new home so far? A true land of opportunity, si"

Matro Rodriguez snarled an old Nahuatl curse Perez had often heard him use.
"Farming. Farming.' We came all this way just to be put to work in fields like
migrants?"

"I told you not to expect too much," Perez said with a shrug. "If you'd ever been in
the Army, you would know that all recruiters lie through their teeth."

"We might as well be in the Army. Or haven't you looked at me list of rules yet?"

"I looked at it. What did you expectтАФthat we would be the new Pilgrims here, get
to do anything we want?"

Rodriguez didn't seem to be listening. "Did you notice how practically everyone
in Ceres is Hispanic? And how they've got us three to a house? I was behind one
of the middle-class science types in line this afternoonтАФhe got a house all to
himself in Unie."