"David Drake - The Way to Glory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

ISBN: 0-7434-9882-8

Cover art by Stephen Hickman

First printing, May 2005

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Drake, David.

The way to glory / David Drake.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7434-9882-8 (hc)
1. Space warfareтАФFiction. I. Title.

PS3554.R196W39 2005
813'.54тАФdc22
2005000987

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH (www.windhaven.com)
Printed in the United States of America




CHAPTER 1
Xenos on Cinnabar
The pair of footmen at the head of the stairs bowed to Daniel; the older one said, "Senator Kearnes will
be most pleased that you're able to attend, Lieutenant Leary."

"Pleased to be here," Daniel said. He smiled as he passed into the ballroom which took up most of the
second floor of the Kearnes townhouse. Indeed, hewas pleased.

The invitation to Lira Kearnes' fortieth birthday gala specified that officers were to wear full medals
rather than ribbons. The request might well have been intended to display Lieutenant Daniel Leary at his
most splendid; certainly it had that effect.
 The Republic of Cinnabar Navy was the sword of the republic, not a weapon of party politics. High
RCN officers couldn't attend this ball because Bruno Kearnes was the central figure in several political
battles of the sort that the RCN kept out of. The unspoken ban on attendance didn't apply to a
twenty-four-year-old lieutenant. The fruit salad on the breast of Daniel's Dress Whites would've been
impressive even for an admiral, however.

Daniel, lately commanding the corvettePrincess Cecile , had returned with dispatches from Admiral
Keith's squadron just in time to give Senator Kearnes his show. Daniel in turn was getting the kind of
adulation that came to those whom the citizens of Cinnabar decided were genuine heroes. It was Lira
Kearnes' gala, but it was Daniel Leary's night.