"David Drake - RCN 01 - With the Lightnings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

arguments over right-of-way. The pavements to either side seethed with a mixture of pedestrians and three-wheeled
motorized jitneys, though like the canals they would fill with heavy traffic after dark.
The Kostroman economy was booming on the profits of interstellar trade, and much of that wealth was being
invested here in the capital. Rich merchants built townhouses, and the older nobil-ity added to the palaces of their
clans so as not to be outdone.
Folk at a lower social levelтАФclerks in the trading houses, the spacers who crewed KostromaтАЩs trading fleet, and
the laborers staffing the factories and fisheries that filled those starships, all had gained in some degree. They wanted
improved lodgings as well, and they were willing to pay for them.
Daniel walked along whistling, delighted with the pageant. People wore colorful clothing in unfamiliar styles.
Many of them chattered in local dialects: Kostroma was a watery planet from whose islands had sprung a hundred
distinct tongues during the long Hiatus in star travel. Even those speaking Universal, now the common language of
the planet as well as that of interstellar trade, did so in an accent strange to Cinnabar ears.
Civilization hadnтАЩt vanished on Kostroma as it had on so many worlds colonized during the first period of human
star travel, but Kostroman society had -fragmented without the lure of the stars to unify it. The centuries since
Kostroma returned to space hadnтАЩt fully healed the social fabric: the present Elector, Walter III of the Hajas clan, had
seized power in a coup only six months before.
Nobody doubted that Walter intended to retain KostromaтАЩs traditional friendship with the Republic of Cinnabar,
but the new Elector needed money. At the present state of the war between Cinnabar and the -Alliance of Free Stars,
WalterтАЩs hint that he might not renew the Reciprocity Agreement when it came due in three months had been enough to
bring a high-level delegation from Cinnabar.
Daniel sighed. A high-level delegation, with one junior lieutenant thrown in as a makeweight. Daniel had almost
certainly been sent because he was the son of the politically powerful Corder Leary, former Speaker of the Cinnabar
Senate. DanielтАЩsтАФbadтАФrelationship with his father was no secret in the RCN, but the ins and outs of Cinnabar
families wouldnтАЩt be common knowledge on Kostroma.
A man came out of a doorway, pushing himself onto the crowded pavement while calling final instructions to
someone within the building. Daniel would have avoided the fellow if thereтАЩd been room. There wasnтАЩt, so he set his
shoulder instead and it was the larger Kostroman who bounced back with a surprised grunt.
No one took notice of what was merely a normal hazard of city life. Daniel walked on, eyeing with inter-est the
carven swags and volutes that decorated unpre-tentious four-story apartment buildings.
Kostromans didnтАЩt duel the way members of CinnabarтАЩs wealthy families sometimes did. On the other hand,
feuds and assassinations were accepted features of Kostroman social life. Daniel supposed it was whatever you were
used to.
In Xenos, CinnabarтАЩs capital, real magnates like Corder Leary moved through the streets with an -entourage of
fifty or more clients, some of whom might be senators themselves. You stepped aside or the liveried toughs leading the
procession knocked you aside. The free citizens of the galaxyтАЩs proudest republic -acceptedтАФindeed, expectedтАФthat
their leaders would behave in such fashion. Who would obey a man who lacked a strong sense of his own honor?
Birds fluted as they spun in tight curves from roof coping to roof coping overhead. They were avian in the same
sense as the scaly тАЬbirdsтАЭ of Cinnabar, the winged amphibians of Sadastor, or the flyers of a thousand other worlds
that humans had visited and -described. The details were for scientists to chart and for quick-eyed amateurs like Daniel
Leary to notice with delight.
During the final quarrel Daniel had said heтАЩd take nothing from his father; but the Leary name had brought Daniel
to Kostroma. Well, the name was his by right, not his fatherтАЩs gift. Daniel didnтАЩt have a shipboard appointment, and he
really had no duties even as part of Admiral Dame Martina LasowskiтАЩs delegation; but heтАЩd reached the stars.
The Kostroman navy was small compared to the fleets of Cinnabar and the Alliance, and even so it was larger
than it was efficient. KostromaтАЩs captains and sailors were of excellent quality, but the merchant fleet took the
greaterтАФand the betterтАФpart of the personnel. Ratings in the Kostroman navy were largely foreigners; officers were
generally men who preferred the high life in Kostroma City to hard voyaging; and the ships spent most of their time
laid up with their ports sealed and their movable equipment warehoused, floating in a dammed lagoon south of the
capital called the Navy Pool.
A starship was landing in the Floating Harbor. Daniel turned to watch, sliding the naval goggles down from his