Title: The Space Pirate
Author(s): Jack Vance
Publisher(s): Underwood Books
Pages: 164
Year: 1950
Format: EPUB
Language: English
**************************************************************************************
Download
The random article:
Alone on the tiny world, Paddy searched the sky to see what had occasioned the haste. The five ships, about two miles distant, had drifted together into roughly parallel formation with their keels toward Paddy.
It was a rather a solemn sensation, alone and manacled to this bit of nameless rock, exposed like a victim on an altar. Paddy bent to examine his bonds. From the band clamped about his ankle a chain led to a staple in the stone. He tested it, heaving till the skin of his hands tore and his stomach muscles knotted, to no effect.
He stood erect once more, studied his surroundings. There was no bar within reach he might use as a lever, no fragment of rock to pound with. He was completely alone, unless someone were stationed on the far side of the little space-island. Craning his neck, he saw a concrete casement and a flight of steps leading down into the rock. Toward the gravity unit, thought Paddy, and maybe an air generator.
He heard a swish, a drone. He looked up to see a shining space-boat settling almost at his head. It touched the surface, the dome swung back. The five Sons of Langtry stepped out. Silently, in a formal line, they advanced to the platform, the gaunt Eagle of Alpheratz A at one end, then the butter-colored Loristanese with the flickering features, the Shaul with the mottled cowl, the saucer-eyed Koton and last the stocky Badau with the short legs and hump-head.
Paddy watched them approaching with hands on hips and a curled lip. He shook his head. «And to think their grandsires were all decent Earthers such as me. See $prime;em now, like the menagerie in Kensington Gardens.»
From the rear of the boat came two others, giant Kudthus. By their purple skins Paddy knew them for the desexed, nearly mindless creatures produced by surgery and forced feeding. Huge muscular creatures they were, with tumescent red wattles like cocks.
They had been lobotomized to centralize their concentration and they moved like creatures in a hypnotic state. They took up posts at opposite ends of the asteroid, where they stood gigantic, quiet, blue puffball eyes fixed on Paddy.
The Sons of Langtry separated, took their seats. The Loristanese glanced at Paddy.
«An Earther this year,» he observed cheerfully. «Occasionally they$prime;re good linguists. They and the Shauls make the best, I believe. But there are few Shaul criminals. I wonder what this rascal$prime;s done.»
Paddy cocked his head, squinted balefully. Then deciding that his duties had begun, he bowed to the Koton, repeated the words in the Koton tongue, did likewise for the Badau, the Eagle and the Shaul. In the final sentence however at the word «rascal» he substituted the Koton word zhaktum, equivalent to «reckless fellow»—the Badaic laud, meaning «wellappointed knight» in the Robin Hood tradition—the Pherasic a-kao-ut, meaning «swift flyer»; the Shaul condosiir derived from the old Tuscan condottiere.
- Рубрика: Фантастика
- Перейти на Главную
- Похожие книги:
- Королевская кровь — Эллен Шрайбер
- Клуб бессмертных — Эллен Шрайбер
- Танец смерти — Эллен Шрайбер
- Вампирвилль — Эллен Шрайбер
- Темный рыцарь — Эллен Шрайбер
- Поцелуй вампира. Начало — Эллен Шрайбер
- Карантин — Малицкий Сергей
- Камешек в жерновах — Малицкий Сергей
- Вакансия — Малицкий Сергей
- Цена крови — Таня Хафф
- След крови — Таня Хафф
- Проклятие крови — Таня Хафф
- Дым и тени — Таня Хафф
- Дым и пепел — Таня Хафф
- Дым и зеркала — Таня Хафф
- Долг Крови — Таня Хафф
- Договор крови — Таня Хафф
- Холодная ночь — Клаудия Грэй
- Звездная ночь — Клаудия Грэй
- Вечная ночь — Клаудия Грэй