标题: 《Grimes 020 Matilda's Step Children》作者： - A. Bertram Chandler 【EPUB [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2013-4-22 15:52 标题: 《Grimes 020 Matilda's Step Children》作者： - A. Bertram Chandler 【 MATILDA'S STEPCHILDREN A. Bertram Chandler To Matilda-long may she waltz! One Fenella Pruin did not like Grimes. Grimes did not like Fenella Pruin. Their de jure relationship was that of charterer's representative and Owner/Master of the vessel under charter. Their de facto relationship was that of employer and servant. Grimes, bound by the terms of the charter party did as he was told and Miss Pruin did the telling. He did not like it. She, most obviously, did. It was a charter that he would never have accepted had he not been so desperately in need of money. But he had been grounded on Bronsonia with port dues mounting steadily, with heavy fines still to pay and with the salvage award in respect of the obsolescent, renamed Epsilon Class freighter Bronson Star still being haggled over by the lawyers. The other Bronson Star, a newspaper, had come to his financial rescue. This Bronson Star was a sensational rag which also owned trivi stations and the like. Although its sales on its home planet were not small it derived the bulk of its considerable income from syndicated material. It had earned, over the years, a reputation as the galaxy's premier