"David Feintuch - Seafort 03 - Prisoner's Hope" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feintuch David)

Captain,

"Awful. Yes, I know." I deserved a ruined face. Lord God in his time would do
worse. An oath is sacred.

"Well, er, different, sir." He quickly changed the subject While he chattered I
reflected on all that had passed since/ our days as midshipmen in Hibernia's
wardroom, when" Alexi was a young fifteen and I, at seventeen, struggled toward
manhood.

After Hibernia's officers had been killed and I was catapulted to Captain, I'd
left Alexi in the wardroom. We'd shipped together afterward on Portia, but since
then we'd gone our separate ways for two long years. He wasтАФwhat? twenty-one?тАФ
and I was tired and numbed at twenty-three.
"God, I'm glad I ran into you, sir. I'm off duty today, but tomorrow it's back
to Admiralty House." He shrugged and

smiled wryly. "They have me working in Tactics." Like any lieutenant, Alexi
wanted ship time, which would give him a leg up toward promotion. His grin
faded; his eyes drifted from mine. "About what I did on Portia, sir, I'm soтАФI'm
ashamed."

"Did?" I tried to remember what he might be ashamed of.

"I wanted to volunteer for transfer, sir. I meant to ask the Admiral, but I
couldn't. I sat in my cabin for hours before I gave up pretending. Now I know
how cowardly 1 am."

"Stop that!" My anger thrust him back a step. "I told you then I wouldn't accept
you on Challenger under any circumstances. You're no coward."

"I should have volunteered." He turned away. "Whether you took me or not. You
had the courage to go."

"You fool!" I spoke so savagely he winced with the hurt. "If Amanda and Nate
hadn't died, perhaps I'd have wanted to live, I wasn't brave, I was running
away!" His look of dismay only goaded me further, "If I'd died I wouldn't have
become what I am now.**

Alexi's eyes met mine, troubled, What he saw there made him shrug and try a
tentative smile, "Whatever our motives, sir, we've done what was in m* I won't
Jet you down spin,"

"I absolve you, for what it's worth." To distract him I said, "They've relieved
Tremaine,"

"Thank Lord God, sir. But what about your challenge?*'

"You heard about that?" Livid with rage when Geoffrey Tremaine had off-loaded
Portia's transient children before fleeing to safety, I'd sworn an oath to call