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

pleaded, "Krinata, what has happened here?"

She gazed at the instrument in her hand, at her scarlet tunic, bloused black pants, black boots. Oh, yes,
things had changed since Kamminth's had departed for the unknown,

"Just after you left, food riots devastated the Vincent and the Shashi Route Interchange Stations which
made the Tri-Species Combine threaten to secede from the Allegiancy. Rantan Lord Zinzik took charge
with all the legendary dazzle and charm of his several-times-great-uncle, Emperor Turminor, and put
down the riots, provided food supplies from nowhere, and convinced the Tri-Species Combine not to
secede."

Krinata met his eyes, trying not to inject her personal bias into the news. "People compared him to
Turminor. Since Turminor was the last Emperor before the throne was vacated, they said Rantan was his
obvious successor. After all, Rantan was doing as miraculous a job as Turminor hadтАФand Turminor
brought eight decades of prosperity.

"After three hundred years of doing without an Emperor, people were saying the Allegiancy needed a
new Emperor. Suddenly, Rantan was crowned. He reinstated aristocratic privilege, and even I got
promoted without earning it first. Nobody seemed to understand."
As she spoke, Jindigar's expression lightened to comprehension and the underglow of fear dissipated.
"Of course! It's so obvious!" He set the piol on top of Ms head where it perched, happily grooming itself.
Then he said something Dushauni to the others of his Oliat who relaxed along with him. To Krinata, he
added, "I'd have grasped it sooner but for Dissolution and having to..."

To spare him, she offered, "Finemar told me why you had to go back to being Outreach." Jindigar had
been the first Oliat Outreach she'd ever debriefed. It was only after her third debriefing of him that he'd
shifted to being Receptor of his Oliat, and she'd thought she'd never speak to him again. Only the
Outreach of the team could bear the stress of talking to outsiders. Right now, the other three survivors of
Kamminth's were withdrawn around Kamminth herself, their Center. And Jindigar had maneuvered
Krinata so her back was to them. In essence, she and Jindigar were alone.

"Do you understand Dissolution? You haven't been a programming ecologist very long."

It wasn't an insult. Her ten years seniority was but the blink of an eyelash to a Dushau who could expect
to live ten thousand years and had already lived over six. "I suppose I do, as well as any non-Oliat." She
named the books she'd read on Oliat function, and courses she'd taken. She didn't confess how, since
girlhood, she'd lulled herself to sleep at night fantasizing that she was in an Oliat, exploring a new planet,
the ends of her nerves humming with the living vibrations of a thousand life forms, instinctively
understanding their interrelationships. Her current job was the closest a human could ever come to that.

"An impressive list of credentials. I'd no idea..."

"I told you I was serious about getting an appointment to a new colony. I want to work as an Oliat
liaison."

"You have my vote," he said cutting her off, "if you can learn to handle traumatic Dissolution in the field."

Her heart leaped. Vistas of hope for her career opened where there had been only a dead-end job. "I
know I can."