"Alexander Kazantsev. The Destruction of Faena (ГИБЕЛЬ ФАЭНЫ, англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

"Even the Sister of Health?" asked Um Sat quietly.
"Even her," snapped Smel Ven. "She will be useful to the others if they
fall ill as well."
Um Sat laughed weakly but said nothing.
"I am leaving now," Smel Ven hastened to say.
"I am replacing you," said the old man after him, but the hatch had
already slammed shut.
Um Sat wearily closed his eyes. When would he stop making mistakes? Why
ever did they think him wise?
Smel Ven assembled all the astronauts.
"Um Sat has ordered me to inform you that the camp is being transferred
from the rocket into the forest. As it will be hard for the old man to spend
the night there, he has delegated the leadership of the camp to me as his
deputy."
"But the forest's dangerous at night," commented Toni Fae.
Smel Ven looked at him contemptuously.
"I don't know who is more graced with cowardice: the astronomer or the
poet."
Toni Fae flushed. Gor Terr interceded on his behalf.
"Caution is useful, even in a leader."
"What risk can there be," said Smel Ven aggressively, "if we've come to
a world of love and harmony?" And he turned to Mada and Ave.
"Who's threatening us?" said Mada, backing him up.
Ave nodded silently.
The explorers collected up everything they needed, armed themselves at
Gor Terr's insistence with pistols, though loaded only with stun bullets
harmless to animal life, and set off into the forest.
Mada urgently wanted to see Um Sat, but Smel Ven refused to let her; he
was anxious to get into the forest before darkness fell.
They pitched camp on the shore of the lake from which the stream fell
into the chasm. White birds with curved necks were swimming on rippling
water that was tinged with mother-of-pearl.
"Why do they have such long necks?" asked Toni Fae.
"To fetch up underwater weeds," replied Mada.
"A very peaceful occupation," commented Gor Terr.
The evening glow was already flickering in the sky when Smel Ven sent
Mada and Ave to survey the other shore of the lake. They had to make their
way across the stream, jumping from rock to rock.
They walked on, occasionally stooping under low branches, dressed in
their clinging black suits and delightedly looking about them. Suddenly,
they both stopped in their tracks.
A reindeer, its antlered head flung back, raced past in front of them.
A powerful beast with a spotted hide was following it in great soft bounds.
It overtook the reindeer and pounced on its neck. The victim, its artery
bitten through, made a last desperate bound and collapsed under a tree.
There was a bellowing sound. The beast was tearing its prey to pieces.
Ave snatched at his pistol to reload it with poisoned bullets.
"We daren't take lives here," intervened Mada. "We mustn't bring
Faena's morals with us."
"I'm afraid they already exist here."