"Dafydd ab Hugh, Brad Linaweawer DOOM: Endgame (english)" - читать интересную книгу автораout.
So I shot the frigging bastard before he could utter another syllable. I raised my M-14 and squeezed off a burst of four, the big rifle kicking against my shoulder like a Missouri mule, disemboweling the Newbie where he stood. Arlene stared. "Jesus, Fly" was all she said, her voice tentative and questioning. The Newbie staggered back against a hydraulic pumpЧGod only knows what use the Freds had for hydraulics in a spaceshipЧbut it didn't clutch its belly or moan or gasp "ya got me!" or anything. It bled, the blood being pinkish white, like pale Pepto- Bismol. A bulge started in his side. I understood immediatelyЧit was evolving more organs to relink around the damage! I blasted them, too, and at last the damned thing truly died ... as nearly dead as the living dead ever could be. It bubbled softly, leaning back against a bulkhead, then nothing. Yeah, but I'd seen that act before. I unloaded the rest of the magazine into him, hitting every major biological system I could imagine. I guess maybe I went a little overkill; but, criminey, what else could I do? "A.S.," I explained guiltily, "he was getting under Lance, he would have had us eating his solid waste in five minutes flat." "I ... understand, butЧJesus, Fly!" The Newbie slid slowly to the ground, staring at me with such intensity I almost reloaded and shot anoth- er burst into its face, just to shut those eyes! I didn't. But for the first time, I really understood the protago- nist of Poe's "The Telltale Heart." He turned his head to the side, staring down at the deck. I think he was already "dead," unable to control his neck and eye muscles, but I still know he saw what he saw. They all did. "Jesus was a man of action, Corporal." I was getting a bit offended at her taking of the Lord's name in vain. Maybe I was just a bit worried that Jesus might not have liked what I had just done. "I had no choice ... his tongue was silver!" She just stared, shaking her head. The ship contin- ued to accelerate back to cruising speed, giving us two "down" directions: outboard and aft. I felt sick, but I didn't know whether it was from the weird "gravity" or being sick at heart about what I had just doneЧ blown away the only representative we had met from an entirely new alien species. |
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