"Babylon 5 - Legions of Fire 03 - Out of the Darkness - Peter David" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babylon 5)

"They're quite carefully selected, for maximum impact with minimal risk," G'Kar squeezed in, as an opinion.
Sheridan nodded vehemently. "Exactly. And the risk remains minimal because certain factions in the Alliance keep refusing to go up against the Centauri! Every time the Centauri take an aggressive action and succeed with impunity, they're that much more emboldened to keep to their course! A course that, over the past year, has brought us closer and closer to a costly, full-blown war!"
" 'Cost' probably has a good deal to do with it," a grim


Garibaldi commented. "Not that I can prove it, you understand, but 1 suspect there's some serious greasing of palms going on."
"There are many who are happy to overlook long-term ramifications in return for short-term profits," G'Kar said. "It's been a pattern throughout history."
"Is that how it works, then?" demanded Sheridan. "Throughout history, the strong allow the weak to suffer so that they can obtain selfish goals?"
"Of course," G'Kar said reasonably. "Where have you been hiding?"
"That was the past," Sheridan insisted. "We're supposed to have advanced. We're supposed to have learned. Learned that you cannot allow thugs and monsters to have their way." He stopped at the window and gazed out as if he were trying to look past the Minbari horizon. As if he could spot Centauri vessels cruising around in the depths of space, looking for new prey. He shook his head, and when he spoke again he sounded discouraged and frustrated. "You would think that if we'd learned anything from the Shadow War, it was that even the most benevolent of races can become despotic, if they're allowed to exercise their might unchecked. Yet here we are again, facing an enemy who is building up strength, weaponry, and confidence, and the pacifists in the Alliance would have us do nothing."
"They don't think it affects them directly," Delenn finally spoke up. "The problem, John, is that your efforts with the Alliance have been too successful in other areas. Through the treaties you've overseen, the crackdowns on trade piracy, the assorted economic models you've introduced ... through all of that and more, you've helped bring about an unprecedented sense of prosperity and economic stability throughout the system. When people are satisfied with their financial situation, when they want for nothing ... it is difficult to get them to leave their comfortable homes and hurl themselves into the depths of space to fight wars. They have so much, they are not willing to risk losing it."
"If they can't get off their asses to fight the Centauri, they're sure as hell going to lose it," Sheridan said flatly. He leaned against his desk and shook his head, looking more discouraged and frustrated than Delenn could recall seeing him in years. "They keep being 'encouraged' to look the other way. They be-
lieve that if they simply let Centauri Prime take this world or that world, that it will be enough to placate them. They think things are going to settle down. They don't understand that it isn't going to happen unless we make things settle down .. . and that won't happen for as long as the Centauri think that they can walk all over us!"
Six more years. And this sort of irritation was all he had to look forward to, day in, day out? Delenn could not recall a time when she more despised Londo Mollari.
"I've spoken to the Brakiri. The Dubai. The Gaim. And on and on, a list almost as long as the list of worlds that have fallen to the Centauri," Sheridan continued. "No one wants to get involved. They come up with reason after reason why it's not a good idea, and you're right, Delenn, it all boils down to the same thing: It's not their problem." He shook his head. "If we had simply waited around until the Shadows were ready to attack Babylon 5, it would be a seriously different galaxy out there. These damned pacifists. .."
"Since when is peace bad?"
The youthful voice startled Sheridan out of his frustrated diatribe. They all turned toward the speaker, even though they all already knew who it was.
David Sheridan stood there, leaning against the door frame and smiling in that infinitely self-possessed manner that only adolescents could summon with facility.
"And here he comes ... the great agitator," Garibaldi said with the air of someone who had been down the same road any number of times.
"Hey, Uncle Mikey."
Garibaldi emitted a pained howl, as if he'd just been stabbed through the heart. He staggered across the room, then suddenly lunged and snagged an arm around the back of David's neck. David let out a howl of anything other than anguish, as Garibaldi yanked on his long hair and snarled, "No 'Uncle Mikey'! I hate 'Uncle Mikey'! You know I hate 'Uncle Mikey'!"
"I'm sorry, Uncle Mikey!" David howled, choking on his own laughter.
"Punk kid. Get a haircut."
Garibaldi shoved him free, turned to John Sheridan, and

chucked a thumb at the teen. "You got a punk kid there with no respect for his elders, including his beloved godfather."
"Tell me about it," Sheridan commiserated.
"David, I thought you were at your lessons with Master Vultan," Delenn said.
"I was. Vultan decided it was time to take a break."
"Meaning that he took his eyes off you for half a second and you were gone."
David shrugged noncommittally.
Delenn let out a sigh that was a familiar combination of love and exasperation. "He's your son," she said to Sheridan.
"How reassuring," G'Kar remarked. "There were those rumors..."
"Your sense of humor, as always, is not appreciated, G'Kar," Sheridan said with mock severity.
"True comic visionaries rarely are during their lifetime."
"A few more remarks like that, and I'll solve the 'lifetime' problem for you," Sheridan warned with that same feigned gravity.
"Sounds like you folks are all having a good time kidding around with each other," David observed wryly. "Kind of interesting, considering that when I came in everything sounded pretty damned grave."
"Language," Delenn said reflexively.
"Sorry. Pretty goddamned grave."
She looked heavenward for strength.
"You wouldn't, by some chance, be trying to change the mood in here simply because I'm around?" inquired David.
The adults looked uncomfortably at each other.
"It's all right," he continued, clearly not interested in waiting for an answer. "I was actually standing outside the last few minutes."
Garibaldi pointed at David and said to Sheridan, "That boy has a future in surveillance. Let me take him back to Mars and train him for a few years. You won't recognize him."
"If his hair gets much longer, I won't recognize him in any event," Sheridan commented.
"You didn't answer my question, Dad," David said, clearly not about to let his father off the hook. "You're angry with the pacifist factions who don't want to get into a full-blown war with
the Centauri. What's wrong with pacifism? I mean, look at the Earth-Minbari war. Thanks to the aggressiveness of the Humans who fired on the Minbari, killing Dukhat, and the Minbari responding with pure rage, there was a needless interstellar war that cost millions of lives."
Delenn flinched inwardly. David would have had to bring that up. The fact was that it was Delenn herself who had made the fateful decision to attack the Humans, even as she had cradled the still-warm corpse of Dukhat. They 're animals! The words, screamed in an agonized voice barely recognizable as her own, still rang in her head. But David had never learned that. It was a secret that she kept buried deep in her, a moment that she could never forget, no matter how much she wanted to.
"And then," continued David, unaware of his mother's inner turmoil, "the entire Human Homeworld would have been wiped out if the Minbari hadn't suddenly surrendered. The reasons were complicated, but the result was the same: a peace movement. So obviously, those who seek peace are right some of the time. When do you decide it's the right time for peace ... and when it is time to go to war?"
"It's not an easy question," Sheridan admitted.