标题: 《Grimes 024 The Wild Ones 》作者：- A. Bertram Chandler【EPUB】 [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2013-4-22 15:57 标题: 《Grimes 024 The Wild Ones 》作者：- A. Bertram Chandler【EPUB】 THE WILD ONESA. Bertram ChandlerChapter 1Sister Sue John Grimes commanding had made a relatively uneventfulvoyage from New Sparta to Earth and was now berthed at Port Woomera.But nobody seemed to be in a hurry to take delivery of her cargo a quitelarge consignment of the spices for which New Sparta had become famousamong Terran gourmets. This didnt worry Grimes much. His ship of whichhe was owner as well as master was on time charter to the InterstellarTransport Commission and until her holds were empty she would remain onpay. What did worry Grimes was that the charter had expired and that theCommission had indicated that it might not be renewed. Another cause forworry was that Billy Williams his chief officer for many years and for quitea while during the term of Grimes appointment as governor for Liberiarelieving master was taking a long overdue spell of planet leave returningto his home world Austral. With him had gone the Purser/Catering OfficerMagda Granadu leaving Grimes with a shipful of comparative strangersyoung men and women who had not been among her complement when hehad first commissioned her. So he had to find a replacement for Magda andone for Billy Williams. The second officer young Kershaw was in Grimesopinion too inexperienced a spaceman for promotion. It would be manyyears before he would be capable of acting as a reliable second incommand.Meanwhile Grimes had no option but to hang around the ship like a badsmell. Until he had seen which ways the many cats were going to jump hecould not afford to leave her in the fumbling hands of young Kershaw. Andhe wanted badly to get away himself for at least a few days to revisit hisparents home in Alice Springs. The old man was getting on now althoughstill churning out his historical novels. And his mother Matilda althoughone of those apparently ageless women blessed at birth with a good bonestructure would be wanting to hear a firsthand account of her sonsadventures as governor of Liberia and then on New Sparta.He was beginning to wonder if he should make the not too long walk fromthe commercial spaceport to the Survey Service