"Kay Kenyon - Tropic of Creation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenyon Kay)

He hardened his heart toward Luce Marzano and strode out of the tent to deal with his civilian
passenger.

"Let's walk, Mrs. Olander," he said, according her a nod, and then striking out at a brisk pace across the
floor of the wadi, toward the hexadron. But it was no good act-ing busyтАФand damn it, he was busy.
Cristin Olander at-tached herself to him like a burr, matching his long strides, jumping to the point:

"Captain, we don't need all this." She waved at the crews at work in the wadi. "You've done your
mission, and it's got nothing to do with theseтАж balls of junk. I've got business at home. We're overdue."

"Yes, ma'am, I'm well aware." / have my duty, he wanted to remind the daughter of the general. A duty
to bring her home and also to swing into the binary systemтАФ where the Fury was known to have been
headed when last heard fromтАФand look for clues to the ship's fate. Now, with the leisure of the
armistice, MIAs were a priority to the armyтАФif not to this general's daughter who had the wealth to earn
a doctorate in math and the leisure to pre-sent a paper at a seminar of alphas with more neurons than
they knew what to do with.

"If you were well aware, we'd be halfway home by now." She stopped with Eli some paces from the
hexa-dron, eyeing it with loathing.

The engineering teamтАФMarzano's crewтАФwere stripped down in the heat to undershirts and fatigue
pants, flaunt-ing their regen forearms, deltoids, fingers. They waved desultory salutes at Eli.

"There she is," Cristin Olander said, pointing into the distance where Sascha could be seen with her
father, sil-houetted against the caustic blue sky, scrounging in the dirt for specimens. "She'll be ruined by
the time we get home. No matter what I do."
Eli looked at Mrs. Olander, wondering how much she could know of ruin.

She gave him a twisted smile, eyes making contact. "I know what you think of me, Captain. That I throw
my weight around." The smile broadened at his discomfort. "You must think so. Even I do sometimes."
She gazed off in the direction of her daughter and husband up on the rise. "You must wonder why I fret
over SaschaтАФwhy I don't just let her muck in the dirt, let her study biology."

Eli knew that biology was no avocation for a lady. He'd learned that much cooped up with Cristin
Olander on the three-month junket from Keller's star.

She continued, "It's because my general father won't permit it." She gave him another twist of her lips, a
surro-gate smile. "You think people like us can do what we will, but you don't know a thing."

Before she could unburden her privileged woes any further, he said, "I have the responsibility to
investigate that ship, Mrs. Olander. The careers of 112 officers and enlisteds are on the line." When she
had the grace to re-main silent, he added, more softly, "Perhaps you could send your paper on ahead."

"With radio out?"

"We'll be outbound in a few days. Send it then?"

They held each other's gaze. Finally Cristin nodded, saying, "Fine," in a tone that made it clear it wasn't.
She glanced out at the ridge. Sascha was disappearing down its far flank. "Maybe you could talk to her,
Captain. She'll listen to you. She likes you."