"Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan - The New Space Opera" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

planetside attention, we couldnтАЩt pass up an opportunity.

At the gates of the CSS, deep in SperanzaтАЩs hollow heart, there was a delay. The Customized Shelter
Police wanted us in armored glass-tops, they felt that if we needed a walkabout we could fake itтАж Pel├й
chatted with Tiamaat, stooping from his lean black height to catch her soft voice. Baal stared at the
banners on two display screens. The KiAn understood flags, we hadnтАЩt taught them that concept. Green
and gold quarters for the Ki, a center section crosshatched with the emblems of all the nations. Purple
tracery on vivid bronze for the An.

Poor kid, I thought, itтАЩs not a magic gateway to your lost home. DonтАЩt get your hopes up. ThatтАЩs the
door to a cage in a conservation zoo.
He noticed my attention, and showed his white teeth. тАЬAre there other peoples living in exile on this
floor?тАЭ

I nodded. тАЬYes. But mostly the people sheltered here are old spacers who canтАЩt return to full gravity. Or
failed colonist communities, likewise: people whoтАЩve tried to settle on empty moons and planets and been
defeated by the conditions. There are no other populated-planet exiles. It hasnтАЩt been, er, necessary.тАЭ

тАЬWe are a first for you.тАЭ

I wondered if that was ironic; if he was capable of irony.

A compromise was reached. We entered on foot, with the glass-tops and CSP closed cars trailing
behind. The Ki domain wasnтАЩt bad, for a displaced-persons camp wrapped in the bleak embrace of a
giant space station. Be-tween the living-space capsule towers the refugees could glimpse their own shade
of sky; and a facsimile of their primary sun, with its partner, the blue-rayed daystar. They had sanitation,
hygiene, regular meals; leisure facili-ties, even employment. We stopped at an adult retraining center; we
briefly inspected a hydroponic farm. We visited a kindergarten, where the teaching staff told us (and the
flying cams!) how all the nations of the Ki were gath-ered here in harmony, learning to be good Diaspora
citizens.

The children stared at Baal and Tiamaat. TheyтАЩd probably been born in the camp, and never seen An in
the flesh before. Baal fidgeted, seeming in-dignant under their scrutiny. Tiamaat stared back with equal
curiosity. I saw her reach a tentative hand through the shielding, as if to touch a Ki child: but she thought
better of it.

After the classroom tour, there was a reception, with speeches, dance, and choral singing. Ki community
leaders and the An couple didnтАЩt literally тАЬshake handsтАЭ; but the gesture was accomplished. Here the live
trans, ended, and most of our party stayed behind. The An leaders and the Ki delegates went on alone,
with a police escort, for a private visit to тАЬHopes and Dreams ParkтАЭтАФa facsimile of one of the Sacred
Groves (as near as the term trans-lates) central to KiAn spirituality.

Pel├й and I went with them.

The enclave of woodland was artfully designed. The тАЬtreesтАЭ were like self-supporting kelp, leathery
succulentsтАФlignin is native only to the Blue PlanetтАФbut they were tall, and planted close enough to block
all sight of the packed towers. Their sheets of foliage made a honeyed shade, we seemed alone in a
gently managed wilderness. The Ki and the An kept their distance from each other now that the cams
werenтАЩt in sight. The police moved out-ward to maintain a cordon around the group, and I began to feel
uneasy. I should have been paying attention instead of savoring my breakfast, I had not grasped that