"Jacqueline Lichtenberg - Dushau Trilogy 01 - Dushau" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lichtenberg Jacqueline)

His eyes were big, dark indigo pools. She nodded, swallowing against her dry throat, and took the piol.
Jindigar crumpled onto the white sheets as the medication they'd given him took effect.

She stood in the bleak, underground tunnel watching them disappear, feeling as if her only friend in all the
world were being taken to jail.

Bereft and confused, her nerves in turmoil, Krinata dragged herself back to her own office and locked
the door behind her, extinguishing her on-duty indicators so nobody would bother her.

Trying to steady her breathing and calm herself enough to think rationally, she fed the piol from her own-
lunch. Her appetite had fled.

She'd never seen deathтАФdead bodiesтАФbefore. Warm, scented flesh turning stiff and cold within arm's
reach of her skin had felt very different from seeing it on a news holo. And DushauтАФthey never died in
public.

Scared to death. An Oliat could die like that in the field, survivors returning to report it. But on the floor
of the palace? She shuddered and huddled over the piol as it alternately groomed itself and her.
Kamminth's Oliat had been torn apart, their minds lacerated by that savage ripping. She could imagine -
what it must have felt like.

Her admiration for Jindigar redoubled. He'd kept his head through all of it. He deserved to rest in the
infirmary. But he'd begged her to get him out. How? He's obviously in critical condition just like
Fedeewarn.

She sat up, pushing the piol aside. "Fedeewarn!" She died in the infirmary!

Suddenly, Jindigar's desperate fear became real to her. Whatever had been done to Fedeewarn had
decimated the Oliat. But Jindigar himself had warned her of the delusions that could afflict an Oliat in
Dissolution.

What were the facts? Was it rational to suspect Finemar, a Sentient computer, of not understanding the
proper way to treat sick Dushau? And if it wasn't ignorance... no! No. It couldn't have been murder!

She dismissed all thought of extricating Jindigar from the care that could help him overcome the mental
warping of the Dissolution. Returning to her desk, she sat down and powered up to get some work done
in the remainder of her day.

But no sooner had she brought up a file than her thoughts centered on Jindigar. What if he died?

Time turned bleak, barren.

And then, of course, there'd be no hope of retrieving the in-depth data on their new planet They'd have
only the holocordings and data arrays; nothing to attract prospective settlers. It took an Outreach to
provide that.

What would I feel like, abandoned helpless in the hands of the murderers of those closest to me?

She groaned an oath, and punched up the Dushaun ambassador's office. The screen flipped images and
settled on the rotating mobius-strip symbol of Dushaun. A cultured voice announced, "The Embassy