JК
Crashlander :: Нивен Ларри
Страница: 184 из 199Bey, we shouldn't be talking here. That kzin is a cop, and nobody knows how good their hearing is. Bey, I get off at sixteen hundred.»
«I'll shop. We're both overdue on life gifts.»
* * *
«How do I look? How should I look?»
I had posed us on the roof of the Pequod, with the camera looking upward past us into the green seaweed forest. I said, «Just right. Pretty, cheerful, the kind of woman a man might drown himself for. A little bewildered. You didn't contact me because you got a blow to the head. You're only just healing. You ready? Take one, now.» I keyed the vidcamera.
Me: «Wilhelmin, Toranaga, I hope you're feeling as good as we are. I had no trouble finding Milcenta once I got my head on straight —»
Sharrol (bubbling): «Hello! Thank you for Jan's life, and thank you for teaching him to sail. I never could show him how to do that. We're going to buy a boat as soon as we can afford it.»
Me: «I'm ready to face the human race again. I hope you are too. This may help.» I turned the camera off.
«What are you giving them?» Sharrol asked.
«Silverware, service for a dozen. Now they'll have to develop a social life.»
«Do you think they turned you in?»
«They had to. They did well by me, love. What bothers me is, they'll never be sure I'm not a murderer. Neither will the police. This is a wonderful planet for getting rid of a corpse. I'll be looking over my shoulder for that kzinti cop —»
«No, Bey —»
«He smelled our fear.»
«They smell everyone's fear. They make wonderful police, but they can't react every time a kzin makes a human nervous. He may have pegged you as an outworlder, though.»
«Oop. Why?»
«Bey, the kzinti are everywhere on Fafnir, mostly on the mainland, but they're on site at the fishing sources too. Fafnir sea life feeds the whole Patriarchy, and it's strictly a kzinti operation. Shashters are used to kzin. But kids and wimps and outworlders all get twitchy around them, and they're used to that.»
He might have smelled more than our fear, I thought. Our genetic makeup, our diet … but we'd been eating Fafnir fish for over a month, and Fafnir's people were every breed of man.
«Stet. Shall we deal with the Hand of Allah?»
Now she looked nervous. «I must have driven them half crazy. And worried them sick. It's a good gift, isn't it? Shorfy and Isfahan were constantly complaining about fish, fish, fish —»
«They'll love it.
«I'll shop. We're both overdue on life gifts.»
* * *
«How do I look? How should I look?»
I had posed us on the roof of the Pequod, with the camera looking upward past us into the green seaweed forest. I said, «Just right. Pretty, cheerful, the kind of woman a man might drown himself for. A little bewildered. You didn't contact me because you got a blow to the head. You're only just healing. You ready? Take one, now.» I keyed the vidcamera.
Me: «Wilhelmin, Toranaga, I hope you're feeling as good as we are. I had no trouble finding Milcenta once I got my head on straight —»
Sharrol (bubbling): «Hello! Thank you for Jan's life, and thank you for teaching him to sail. I never could show him how to do that. We're going to buy a boat as soon as we can afford it.»
Me: «I'm ready to face the human race again. I hope you are too. This may help.» I turned the camera off.
«What are you giving them?» Sharrol asked.
«Silverware, service for a dozen. Now they'll have to develop a social life.»
«Do you think they turned you in?»
«They had to. They did well by me, love. What bothers me is, they'll never be sure I'm not a murderer. Neither will the police. This is a wonderful planet for getting rid of a corpse. I'll be looking over my shoulder for that kzinti cop —»
«No, Bey —»
«He smelled our fear.»
«They smell everyone's fear. They make wonderful police, but they can't react every time a kzin makes a human nervous. He may have pegged you as an outworlder, though.»
«Oop. Why?»
«Bey, the kzinti are everywhere on Fafnir, mostly on the mainland, but they're on site at the fishing sources too. Fafnir sea life feeds the whole Patriarchy, and it's strictly a kzinti operation. Shashters are used to kzin. But kids and wimps and outworlders all get twitchy around them, and they're used to that.»
He might have smelled more than our fear, I thought. Our genetic makeup, our diet … but we'd been eating Fafnir fish for over a month, and Fafnir's people were every breed of man.
«Stet. Shall we deal with the Hand of Allah?»
Now she looked nervous. «I must have driven them half crazy. And worried them sick. It's a good gift, isn't it? Shorfy and Isfahan were constantly complaining about fish, fish, fish —»
«They'll love it.