《Choice 》作者：- Keith Laumer【EPUB】

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THE CHOICE For a second or two when the red ALERT light started flashing I didnt know what it meantthen I saw the crinkly lines wiggling across the counterscope and I knew that something outthere was giving off patterned radiation. Considering the fact that we were nine hundredmillion miles out from Earth in unexplored space that was kind of a surprise. My first impulsewas to switch on the transmitter and give whatever it was a hail—but Commander Ironblood wasawake when he shouldnt have been. In two of those snappy military steps he was beside meelbowing me out of the comm seat and pushing buttons with both hands. He was a big thick manwith quarter-inch gray stubble across his skull and barbed wire for nerves. quotMr. Barkerquot he spat me as if I wasnt there quotduty station if you please. Power off. Observetotal radiation silence.quot I wish I could say he yelled but he sounded just as iceberg-cool ashe had back at Sands the day he told me the personnel computer had picked me out of thereserve files as third man on the Neptune Probe. quotI didnt ask to have an untrained unqualified civilian aboard my commandquot he had told mequotbut since youre assigned youll conduct yourself as a SpArm officer. The first thing youlldo is get a haircut—and get rid of that vacuous smile. Space is a serious business.quot I stoppedsmiling all right as soon as I got my first look at the ship all gray paint and DO and DONTsigns. quotYou mean Im going to spend a year and a half cooped up in this oversized phone boothquot Iyelped. Barker the Number Two had grinned at me out of the corner of his mouth. He had one of thosescraped-bone faces plastered over with freckles. quotWhat did you expect Goodlarkquot he asked quotthe Imperial suite complete with gold doorknobssilk sheets and breakfast