"Gwyneth Jones - Saving Tiamaat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Gwyneth)

The Ki (who were not present either) had offered a swift deposition. They wanted
the incident treated with utmost discretion: they did not see it as a bar to negotiation.
The Balas/Shet party argued that BaalтАЩs kill had been unique, an тАЬextraordinary
ritualтАЭ that we had to sanction. And we knew this was nonsense, but it was the best
we could do.

One of our Green Belts, struck by the place in the report where Tiamaat
exclaims тАЬthe Others knew it!,тАЭ came up with the idea that the young Ki had been a
form of suicide bomber: sacrificing his life in the hope of wrecking the peace talks.
Investigation of the dead boy and his contacts would now commence.

тАЬThank funx it didnтАЩt happen on the live transmission!тАЭ cried Shamaz, the old
soldier, getting his priorities right.

It was very late before Pel├й and I got away. We spent the rest of the night
together, hiding in the tenderness of the Blue Planet, where war is shameful and
murder is an aberration; where kindness is common currency, and in almost every
language strangers are greeted with loveтАФdear, pet, darling; sister, brother,
cousinтАФand nobody even wonders why. What an unexpected distinction, we who
thought we were such ruthless villains, such fallen angels. тАЬWeтАЩre turning into the
care-assistant caste for the whole funxing galaxy,тАЭ moaned Pel├й. тАЬQu├й cacho!тАЭ

****

The Parliament session was well attended: many tiers packed with bilocators; more
than the usual scatter of Members present in the flesh, and damn the expense. I
surveyed the Chamber with distaste. They all wanted to make their speeches on the
KiAn crisis. But they knew nothing. The freedom of the press fades and dies at
interstellar distances, where everything has to be couriered, and thereтАЩs no such thing
as evading official censorship. TheyтАЩd heard about the genocide, the wicked but
romantic An; the ruined world, the rescue plans. They had no idea exactly what had
driven the rebel Ki to such desperation, and they werenтАЩt going to find outтАФ

All the Diaspora Parliament knew was spin.

And the traditional Ki, the people we were dealing with, were collusive. They
didnтАЩt like being killed and eaten by their aristos, but for outsiders to find out the
truth would be a far worse evil: a disgusting, gross exposure. After all, it was only
the poor, the weak-minded, and the disadvantaged who ended up on a
plateтАжAcross from the VisitorsтАЩ Gallery, level with my eyes, hung the great
Diaspora Banner. The populated worlds turned sedately, beautifully scanned and
insanely close together; like one of those ancient distorted projections of the
landmasses on the Blue. The тАЬrealтАЭ distance be-tween the Blue system and
Neuendan (our nearest neighbor) was twenty-six thousand light-years. Between the
Neuendan and the Balas/Shet lay fifteen hundred light-years; the location of the
inscrutable AleutiansтАЩ home-world was a mystery. How would you represent that
spatial relationship, in any realistic way?

тАЬWhy do they say it all aloud?тАЭ asked Baal idly.