Spin, Devil!

Начало книги

The massive, bearded man stiffened in the wide web straps, tilted his head back and yelled with all the power of his lungs. It was a gargantuan yawp that set up a heavy metallic resonance in the forward compartment of the tiny ship. He yelled again and again, and suddenly stopped. He slumped, his face slack, his mouth open, a sticky thread of saliva on his bearded chin. His eyes, small flecks of aquamarine in the weathered leather above the beard, were dazed and confused. A series of relays clicked and he was once again in the deathly silence that had lasted for ten full days. His fear soured the air around him.

He shook his big head, dug at the corners of his eyes with his knuckles in a gesture like that of a tearful child.

Then a look of animal cunning crept into his eyes. He carefully checked his astrogation chart, flicked the switch that started the gyros, watched the dial that indicated change of axis. When the change was sufficient, he cut the gyros. Three tenths of a second of blast would straighten the little ship on the new course. The blast was like a tremendous hammer that flung him heavily to one side, the straps tightening like bands of steel.

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