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

"Has Kamminth's reported in to donate blood yet? Have you done their physicals?"

"Kamminth's Oliat lost a member on location and returned badly disoriented. I'm treating them for
Dissolution shock. On order of Emperor Rantan, I have just released five of them, against my judgment,
to attend their HonorsтАФ"

"Which five?" demanded Krinata. "Is Jindigar..." Is he dead? A hollow panic seized her guts.

"The Receptor Jindigar is attempting to become the team's Outreach during the Dissolution." Finemar
named the surviving officers of Kamminth's Oliat, adding that the Outreach had been killed, and he had
the Inreach under heavy sedation, despite the Emperor's demands. "Do you think I'll get in trouble?"
fretted the Sentient.
"No," reassured Krinata, hugging a sense of relief to herself. "But get Doctor Phips to countersign your
order."

"Now, that's a good idea!" Finemar signed off.

Krinata grabbed her leptolizer, the jewel-encrusted symbol of her station, from the activation slot on her
console, secured it to her sash, and headed for the throne room, arguing with herself. Rantan has no
right to do this to an Oliat, no right! But he was so new to the throne, he probably didn't realize. Even
so, his advisors should have warned him. But obviously, they hadn't.

As Krinata crossed the open rotunda between Survey's office building and the refurbished palace, Honor
Guards saw her leptolizer and snapped salutes to her.

She couldn't get used to that. There had been no palace guards since she was a child. In the government
hierarchy, she was the most minor and powerless functionary. Her hereditary rank in the third oldest
family of Pesht, tenth Terran colony to join the Allegiancy Empire, had never meant anything to her. But
she'd gladly use it to spare Jindigar. Or any Oliat! she told herself.

Her costume got her past all the guards inside the palace along the route to her proper entry to the
audience chamber. But when she turned aside, she had to stay in the midst of the crowd heading to the
front of the chamber, where higher-ranking nobles sat. Finally, she turned into a deserted corridor,
carpeted in dark red, lit by mock torches, hung with the banners of the Emperors.

Before huge, carved seawood doorsтАФbathed by a falling sheet of waterтАФshe was stopped by guards
unawed by her.

They were a pair of Holot: six-limbed, heavily furred, formidable. "Public viewing of the robing chamber,"
said one, rolling his 'r's and gazing disdainfully over her head, "will recommence in the morning."

She fingered the jeweled wand and her belt. "I'm the Kamminth Oliat debriefing officer."

"Third rank enter the audience chamber from the blue doors, that way." He'd seen her three-circle badge.

"Thank you," she said, turning away while taking the leptolizer from her belt, "but I have business within."
Before the Holot could block her move, she spun and flashed the beam of the leptolizer at the sensor
plate on the doors. She wasn't sure it had been keyed to that high a security clearance, and if it hadn't
she'd be in real trouble.