"Edward M. Lerner - Part II of IV - A New Order of Things" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lerner Edward M)

She was surprised, if only a little, to emerge as ka of the mission.
****
Working the soil was calming, but it is not always a ka's fate to be calm. It was not these plants' fate to
remain healthy.

Gwu returned from the serenity of the farm to the small cabin given her by the K'vithians. Showered and
dried, she pressed the vidphone control. "We have problems," she told the K'vithian junior officer who
answered. Gwu felt little need for courtesy to her captors, nor had they interest in any non-utilitarian
communication with their captives.
A translator AI converted Firh Glithwah's short answering warble. "Explanation?"

"Eco-malfunction. The farm, hydroponics, biorecycling--they all suffer increasingly from sulfur-dioxide
contamination." In such close proximity with K'vithians, contamination was unavoidable. Gwu trusted
familiarity with the phenomenon would make the latest flare-up appear routine. All it took was
carelessness in decontamination after maintenance trips into K'vithian-occupied parts of the ship.

"Repairable?"

That was mildly unexpected. Most crew would just order her to fix it. "Not this time. We need to flush
and recharge parts of the system. We need new supplies."

Gwu had never been told Harmony--in her thoughts, this ship would never be Victorious--had arrived,
let alone its current location. But the laws of physics cannot be denied. The drive operated along the
ship's major axis; coasting between the stars, the ship's simulated gravity depended upon spin around that
same axis. There could be no disguising the preparatory times between, when there was no gravity, when
chambers throughout the vast structure of the ship were turned in their gimbaled mountings to prepare for
the coming acceleration. Given the years between, the capabilities of Harmony, and the arrangement of
nearby stars, the result was clear. The ship could have arrived at one of but three possible destinations.

Would those who had stolen Harmony return it with its crew captive, with no way to refuel, to the
Double Suns? Inconceivable. What of the planetless red dwarf star at a similar distance from K'vith?
There could be no hope of refueling there; such a trip would be only an epic exile. That left the human
solar system.

All Gwu cared about now was the opportunity to obtain supplies--and the chance, however remote, that
the composition of the supplies ordered would itself send a message.

Silence stretched. "Notification to the Foremost, with priority," Firh Glithwah finally decided.

The screen blanked midway through Gwu's still-reflexive, "Thank you."

T'choi Swee qwo had entered the cabin during the conversation, staying discreetly out of the camera's
field of vision. The visible camera's field of vision. "Is it bad?" he asked.

They had never bonded with a child-bearer; one's absence, and the subsequent lack of children in their
family, had made the two of them that much closer. And Swee was more than her husband; as qwo, he
was also the ship's chief facilitator. On every level, she owed him honesty. That was impossible in their
quarters, which were certainly bugged. "Walk with me?"

They spoke of minutiae: assignments for upcoming work schedules, team standings in games whose sole