"Jacqueline Lichtenberg - Dushau Trilogy 03 - Outreach" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lichtenberg Jacqueline)

Krinata squirmed away from Jindigar's touch on her forehead, and instantly her dizziness swept through
the Oliat. //She should have a medic's attention.//

Here was yet another reason it was insane to use a human as an Oliat Officer, even temporarily. The
Dushau immune

system had never met anything it couldn't handle quickly and permanently. Jindigar resolved to take much
better care of Krinata in the futureтАФbut was afraid he wouldn't be able to. He hadn't deliberately abused
her this time. Yet their lives were dependent on her beating this disease.

He tucked the blanket around her, reflecting that humans were evolved predators. She didn't seem so
fearsome now, but he knew she could be deadly. How many times had her aggression saved his life?
How many times had she risked her life and honor to save his? He supposed he would count them
someday, but he would also have to count the times her best efforts had sent them to the brink of
destruction. There was no other individual in the cosmos whom he admired more, and none whom he
feared more.

//Jindigar!//

Darllanyu's plea pierced him. They had all followed the gist of his feelings, though not his thoughts. But
none of them had lived through what he and Krinata had. He glanced at the high windows where spring
lightning danced across the rain-darkened sky. Moving Krinata through that would only make matters
worse. //Don't worry,// he assured them. //I wouldn't think of bringing a human medic in here. It would
destroy the worldcircle, and I don't think any of us can tolerate an invasive touch.// After that nightmare,
even Trinarvil would jeopardize them.

He coughed again. //Very likely whatever has attacked Krinata is a mutation of what I'm fighting.// They'd
brought the microlife of their interstellar civilization with them, and it had long since developed the knack
of mutating to live in new metabolisms. Throughout the galaxy, standard practice was to use Dushau
blood to make antibodies effective for other species.

//I think Krinata can be brought sufficiently close to consciousness so we can adjourn fully, // he decided.
//We're straining her system even now. Dissolution would be better for her,

but we'd need her active cooperation. So I'll go to the lab and have serum made for her.//

They argued, but there was really no choice. Darllanyu stayed out of it, disqualifying herself because of
her feelings. As Eithlarin applied cold towels to Krinata's face and neck, and Jindigar gathered up the
linkages to work the adjournment, Darllanyu finally commented, //The wedding flames have burned out.
We'll have to start over now.//

//It will be a while until Krinata's well enough,// cautioned Jindigar, feeling her anguish as well as his own
cold emptiness. Darllanyu was the deepest into Renewal onset, the most unstable. Everything in him
yearned to surrender to her, to let her systems trigger his own. //We mustn't let this loose among us now.
Come, it will help a little to be adjourned.//
His link to Krinata was dull and wispy, though her eyes were open a crack and he could feel her mind
struggling to orient. He shut down all the linkages to match that one, then summoned the image of
spaceship pressure hatches closing across each corridor that stretched between them.