"David Drake - Hammer's Slammers 02 - Cross The Stars (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

gathered and pinned at the shoulders by crystalline brooches. In fact, the layers were sheets of light polarized by the
crystals, and there was no fabric at all in the ensemble.
An image was beginning to form in the alcove across from the chair, just as a more-than-physical simulacrum of
the Terzia would be awakening in the callerтАЩs unit, parsecs or kiloparsecs away. The Stadtler Device could not be
used to receive alone. Its principle, whatever it was, required balance: a biological intellect at either node of a
communication.
It did not require a human intellect. That was why the link worked as well for the Terzia as it could have worked
for the human she counterfeited.
A woman on a couch like the TerziaтАЩs own gazed from the alcove. The soft focus of the callerтАЩs form sharpened
as the electronic cabinets, the room, and the world beyond the room blurred and disappeared. The universe of the
moment had shrunk to a pair of facing couches and the females upon them.
The caller was shorter than the Terzia and dressed in a soft, one-piece garment. She leaned forward and said, тАЬI
am Life Baron Margritte Pritchard.тАЭ That rank flowed from MargritteтАЩs duties as Minister of State for
Communication. тАЬI speak with the authorization of President Hammer and the State of Friesland. This is a matter of
highest importance, both to our world and to your own. The information you are about to receive must be forwarded
for immediate response by your chief executive.тАЭ
The TerziaтАЩs hair was a rich brown, falling in waves to her upper back. It rippled as she nodded. тАЬI am the chief
executive of Terzia.тАЭ
 The statement was true in a way that only the Stadtler Device made possible. In the field of the communications
unit, there was a being called the Terzia who was separate from all other beings on the planet. Separate from the
being that was all other life on the planet. The TerziaтАЩs face had been modeled on a fine-boned hybrid of French and
Southern Oriental. It began to glow with the arrogance of individuality.
Visual and auditory contact had been complete almost immediately. The two personalities, those of Margritte and
the Terzia, were still integrating. That process would continue, had to continue, throughout the communication to
prevent the link from breaking up into static and sheets of color. For the moment, however, all Margritte was aware
of was the fact that TerziaтАЩs ruler acted as her own communications officer. That was not an uncommon
circumstance for the few who could afford a Stadtler Device. тАЬThere is a man being held on your planet,тАЭ Margritte
said. тАЬYou must release him immediately or risk the anger ofтАФтАЭ she paused тАЬтАФof Colonel Alois Hammer. The
manтАЩs name is Donald Slade of Tethys.тАЭ
The Terzia had known what must be coming. The name was still a numbing blow. Like a spark in her mind
popped an image of Don Slade, back from the field. His gun lay on the table by the door. It was safe, with its
magazine ejected beside it, but it had not been cleaned and put up until other business had been attended to. SladeтАЩs
black hair was long enough to wave as his head tossed with his laughter. His shirt lay in the hallway and he was
stepping out of his trousers. The blaze of his smile and personality flooded the Terzia watching him from the bed.
The Stadtler Field was momentarily a bloom of mauve static. Then it was peopled by entities whose mutual
sharpness was beyond their own self-knowledge. Both minds had recoiled for an instant, then merged. The memory
that had flashed into MargritteтАЩs mind was nearly identical to that of the Terzia. A younger Don Slade, a shell crater
and not a luxurious bed-chamber; a uniform spattered with the blood of the corpse at the craterтАЩs lip. But the same
laughter and the same fiery intensity . . . and the same sinewy hands loosing the trouser fly. тАЬOh dear Lord,тАЭ
Margritte whispered. тАЬOh Danny.тАЭ She looked at the Terzia, seeing and being seen as never before.
тАЬSo that is why you want him back,тАЭ said the alien with human features and a bitter human smile. тАЬReasons of
state.тАЭ
тАЬNo!тАЭ Margritte shouted, angry and cold with a lower-brain fear. Intellectually she knew that the Stadtler Device
was proof against eavesdropping. Nothing which did not merge with the field could withdraw information from it
after the link was established. What she did not herself report would not exist to Hammer; or to her husband. But cer-
tain reflexes are much older than the human intellect. тАЬIt was only once, under fire. It didnтАЩt mean anything, except
that we were alive.тАЭ
тАЬYes, alive,тАЭ the Terzia agreed. She would have stood and paced if the logic of the Stadtler Device had permitted
it. Instead, images of Don Slade wandered around the edges of the field, visible to both communicators.
The big man walked along the jungle edge beside the tender on which he had arrived. He had a pair of imaging