《Frontier Of the Dark 》作者：- A. Bertram Chandler【EPUB】

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FRONTIER OF THE DARK An experiment: this is a science-fiction fantasy — yet whether such things might be valid forhumans or not — theyd make peculiarly dangerous alien enemies Falsen had never liked cats and cats had never liked him. That was one of the reasons whyCaptain Canning master of the interstellar ship Etruria had ordered that his second pilot bemarooned on Antares VI an inhospitable planet barely capable of supporting human life anddeemed by the Federation not worthy of the time trouble and expense of any colonizationproject. At that Falsen was lucky that the mutual hostility between himself and the felinespecies brought only marooning as its consequence. Others like himself had been tossed put ofair locks without spacesuits had been carefully shot with quotspeciallyquot manufactured bulletshad in fact been purged from the body politic by many and divers methods more interestingthan pleasant. But Falsen had once saved Cannings life at considerable risk to his own—onoccasion when the bloody-minded Lemans overran and all but annihilated the trading post ontheir planet—and as Canning remarked to his senior officers there are limits you know . . .And Canning had added he couldnt be certain— So at the appointed time the whine of the Mannschen Drive generators had sagged from thesupersonic to the subsonic and Etruria navigating once more in normal space-time had made agingerly approach to the sixth planet of the ruddy sun had thrown herself into an orbit aroundthis planet. Number Three boat had been readied and to the boat Falsen under heavy escortwas taken. He could have broken free even then he could have slipped out of the manaclesaround his wrists with ease. But there were too many of the crew to see him off and Wilbrahamthe commander was carrying a heavy old-fashioned automatic pistol an outmoded blunderbuss ofa thing that fired as Falsen well knew slugs of metal rather than bolts of energy. So he wentinto the boat which was to be piloted by Kent his own junior and Wilbraham still carryinghis weapon came too and Minnie the ships cat spat one last malediction at him before theair lock doors closed. They set him down on a spongy plain that was more than half swamp with the last of thedaylight almost gone and a thin persistent rain drifting down from the overcast sky. Falsenshivered as they pushed him towards the air lock door. quotYou mightquot he protested quothave let mebring