Balance of Power. Brian Stableford
that we could stand off an army from the top of the rock—even one armed with a pocket battleship. He didn’t appreciate my making light of it.
“It’s a long way back to the ship,” he complained.
“Well,” I said, “if the mermaids set an ambush we’ll just have to fight our way through.”
I regretted it immediately as an unnecessarily exasperating remark, but it was done. I resolved to be more diplomatic in future.
“If there are aliens nearby,” said Nieland, more reasonably, “they could have seen the boat from the forest at any time. And the New Hope isn’t inconspicuous. We’re not trying to hide from them.”
Roach just grunted. He moved to the edge of the rock and spat into the water far below.
“We’d better get back,” I said. “We’ll have to bring the ship upriver. It might be a mile or two more before we find somewhere suitable to build a base. There’s no point in trying to penetrate to the interior in a rowboat.”
Roach seemed glad of the decision
“We need a good night’s sleep,” agreed Nieland. “Tomorrow the work starts.”
That thought didn’t seem to gladden Roach’s heart.
“We could find another island,” suggested the crewman. “A little bigger. That’s to be safe.”
I was already beginning to lower myself down the gully, and didn’t bother to answer him. Mariel followed.
All the way back to the ship, Roach’s eyes were scanning the forest above us, searching the shadows for something to be scared of, feeding his own unformed fears.
I knew that our suspicious forebodings were justified. The crew wasn’t going to be any happier now we’d reached our destination.
At least, I thought, they won’t begrudge putting work into the building of a nice strong stockade.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.