"James Alan Gardner - League of Peoples 04 - Hunted" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

The woman at my door introduced herself as Lieutenant Admiral Festina Ramos, and said I had to come
to the party. "What party?" I asked. Back when Samantha and I had been on active duty, I couldn't
remember navy starships ever having parties. At least, none that I'd been invited to.

"We're crossing the line in fifteen minutes," the admiral woman said. "You should be there."

I didn't know what she meant, crossing the line; I was pretty sure there were no lines in outer space.
When I said that, she laughed and pinched my cheek. "You're an angel." Then she took me by the arm
and leaned against me all warm and a bit perfumed while she led me to theWillow's recreation lounge.

The perfume was in her hair.



I wasn't so used to having perfumey women take me by the arm. Part of it was just being away from
human things for so longтАФwhat with escorting Samantha on her big diplomatic mission, then the long
awful time after, it'd been a whole thirty-five years since I'd gone out in human company. (That made me
middle-aged, I guess: fifty-seven... though with YouthBoost treatments, I hadn't changed a whit since my
twenties.)

But even when I was a teenager on New Earth, I didn't spend much time with women. My father didn't
like me being seen by anyone off our estate. Dad was rich and importantтАФAlexander York, Admiral of
the Gold in the Outward FleetтАФand he treated me like a big smeary stain on his personal reputation.
Even though it wasn't my fault.

Back before I was born, Dad paid a doctor lots of money to make my sister and me more perfect than
perfect: athletic and dazzling and smart, smart, smart. It didn't matter that gene engineering was illegal in
the TechnocracyтАФmy father went to an independent world where the laws were different... or where the
police were cheaper to buy off.

The gene-splicing worked real well for Samantha, but with me it only did part of the job. I can do
hundreds of push-ups without stopping, and Sam always called me devilishly handsome, but my brain
chemistry didn't come out so good. Too much of some things, too little of others. So Dad kept me at
home for fear his "retarded idiot son" would embarrass him in public.

I didn't mind so much. He kept Samantha at home too, with all kinds of private tutors. Sam becamemy
private tutor, so it worked out pretty well. She taught me to be polite and brave and honest, and to think
really hard about being good to people. Later, when we were teenagers, she'd take me on pretend-dates
so I wouldn't feel left out: to the gazebo on the south lawn near the reflecting pool, where we'd dance and
dance and dance.

Sometimes I wished I had someone else to dance withтАФsomeone who liked me, who wasn't my twin
sister. But I never said that to Sam; I didn't want to hurt her feelings.