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

"Not until Krinata's well. We understand."

"NoтАФthe Holot infants."
"TrueтАФthey are already very hungry. But nobody expects you toтАФeveryone knows you can't go on."

"We mustтАФonly without experienced Outriders...."

Cyrus had paced along behind Jindigar, knowing that his straggle to revive his speech faculty would be
easier with someone he'd known longer. Now Cyrus put in, "I won't quit until Krinata can."

Jindigar was pleased with himself when he was able to turn and acknowledge that. To Storm he added,
"Your child needs you. I will accept other Outriders you may train."

"No," said Storm. "One careless step by an Outrider and you might all die. There are others willing to
nurse the baby. We'll see this through."

Jindigar knew the others who would take the baby were not of Storm's religion, and it would pain him to
give the child up. But Storm generally spoke for his co-husbands, as Jindigar did for the Oliat. Jindigar
added, "It should only be a day or two until we find a food for the Holot infants that won't attract another
clickerhive."

They had come to the spaceship graveyard, and to the bottom of the ramp leading into the ship they had
powered with salvaged parts. As they climbed that ramp, Jindigar turned to survey the colony. More than
two thousand had survived the winter. Dushau had brought them to Phanphihy to fulfill the grand vision of
Raichmat's OliatтАФthe first offworlders to explore this planet.

Jindigar had been Raichmat's Outreach, his first exploring Oliat Office. Finding the Native hive-dwellers
building a civilization from their multispecies hives and knowing how the hives' psychic gift would be
exploited by the fledgling Empire, Raichmat's had decided that, to protect them, they must establish a
Dushau colony on Phanphihy. From that idea had grown the vision of the Dushau-dominant multicolony.
Though the multispecies colony form had been successful on many worlds, if one species was present in
larger numbers, Dushaun had never colonized. Here, however, it was apparent that the multicolony was
the only form that could work. And it was time for Dushaun to establish a colony.

But of the seven Raichmat's Officers who had pledged to come here, only Jindigar, the youngest of them,
had made it.

No point dwelling on that. Ducking into the open hatch, Jindigar led the way to the medical lab. The
room was divided by a counter behind which lab benches were strewn with equipment. He would have
preferred to do the specimen processing himself, but there were several competent Cassrians and
Lehiroh at work. Storm explained their mission to a white-smocked Cassrian whose carapace
decorations showed his military service rank.

The Cassrian's face, though immobile, revealed much to Jindigar's awareness. There was awe for the
Oliat and a measure of fear of Cyrus, who had faced down the Cassrian Guard Commander.
Nevertheless, the technician extracted a specimen of Jindigar's blood expertly, without the slightest
squeamish-ness at handling an endoskeletal arm, then vanished into an adjacent lab to process the
specimen for human use.

Jindigar was feeling fine now, so his antibodies for this disease were high enough that there would be no