"Tuf Voyaging - 07 - Manna From Heaven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

УNo,Ф she said.
But Dax was looking at her, too. УYes,Ф Tuf announced to the envoys. He raised a single finger. УTherefore, I propose you take advantage of this present rough equality to capitalize on the opportunity I am offering you to solve the problem posed by SТuthlam without resort to nuclear bombardment and similar unpleasantries. Extend this armistice for one standard year, and allow me to seed SТuthlam with manna. At the end of that time, if you feel that SТuthlam still constitutes a threat to your homeworlds, feel free to resume hostilities.Ф
УNeg, trader,Ф the cyborg from Roggandor said heavily. УYou are impossibly naive. Give them a year, you say, and let you do your tricks. How many new fleets will they build in a year?Ф
УWeТll agree to a moratorium on new armsЧbuilding if your worlds will do the same,Ф Tolly Mune said.
УSo you say. I suppose we should trust you?Ф Ratch Norren sneered. УTo hell with that. You Suthies proved how trustworthy you were when you rearmed secretly, in express violation of the treaty. Talk about bad faith!Ф
УOh, sure, youТd have preferred it if we were helpless when you came to occupy us. Puling hell, what a damned hyprocrite!Ф Tolly Mune responded in disgust.
УItТs too late for pacts,Ф declared the Jazbot.
УYou said it yourself, Tuf,Ф the Skrymirian said. УThe longer we delay, the worse our situation becomes. Therefore, we have no choice but an immediate all-out strike at SТuthlam itself. The odds will never get any better.Ф
Dax hissed at him.
Haviland Tuf blinked, and folded his hands neatly on his stomach. УPerhaps you would reconsider if I appealed to your love of peace, your horror of war and destruction, and your common humanity?Ф
Ratch Norren made a contemptuous noise. One by one, the other members of the delegation looked away, demurring.
УIn that case,Ф said Tuf, Уyou leave me no choice.Ф He stood up.
The Vandeeni frowned. УHey, where are you going?Ф
Tuf gave a ponderous shrug. УMost immediately to a sanitary facility,Ф he replied, Уand afterwards to my control chamber. Please accept my assurances that no personal animosity of any sort is intended toward any of you. Nonetheless it appears, unfortunately, that I must now go forth and destroy your respective worlds. Perhaps you would like to draw straws, to determine where I might best start.Ф
The woman from Jazbo choked and sputtered.
Deep inside his haze of blurred holograms, the envoy from the Azure Triune cleared his throat, a sound as small and dry as an insect scuttling across a sheet of paper.
УYou would not dare,Ф boomed the cyborg from Roggandor.
The Skrymirian folded his arms in a chilly silence.
УAh,Ф said Ratch Norren. УYou. Ah. That is. You wonТt. Yes, but surely. Ah.Ф
Tolly Mune laughed at them all. УOh, he means it,Ф she said, though she was no less astonished than the rest of them. УAnd he can do it, too. Or the Ark can, rather. Commander Ober will be sure he gets an armed escort, too.Ф
УThere is no need for haste,Ф the woman from HenryТs World said in precise, measured tones. УPerhaps we might reconsider.Ф
УExcellent,Ф said Haviland Tuf. He sat back down. УWe will proceed with all deliberate haste,Ф he said. УA one year armistice will go into effect, as I have outlined, and I shall seed SТuthlam with manna immediately.Ф
УNot so fast,Ф Tolly Mune interjected. She felt giddy and triumphant. Somehow the war had just ended-Tuf had done it, SТuthlam was safe for at least a year. But relief did not make her entirely lightheaded. УAll this sounds fine, but weТll have to run some studies on this manna plant of yours before you start dropping spores all over SТuthlam. Our own biotechs and ecologists will want to examine the damn thing, and the High Council will want to run a few projections. A month ought to do. And of course, Tuf, what I said before still goes-youТre not just dumping your manna on us and leaving. YouТll stay this time, for the duration of the armistice, and maybe longer, until we have a good idea of how this latest miracle of yours is going to work.Ф
УAlas,Ф said Tuf, УI fear I have pressing engagements elsewhere in the galaxy. A sojourn of a standard year or more is inconvenient and unacceptable, as is a delay of a month before commencing my seeding program.Ф
УWait just one puling second!Ф Tolly Mune began. УYou can t justЧФ
УI can indeed,Ф said Tuf. He looked from her to the envoys, significantly, and then back again. УFirst Councillor Mune, allow me to point out the obvious. A rough balance of military force now exists between SТuthlam and its adversaries. The Ark is a formidable instrument of destruction, capable of wasting worlds. Just as it is possible for me to throw in with your forces and destroy any of the allied planets, so the converse is also within the realm of possibility.Ф
Tolly Mune suddenly felt as though sheТd been assaulted. Her mouth gaped open. УAre youа.а.а. Tuf, are you threatening us? I donТt believe it. Are you threatening to use the Ark against SТuthlam?Ф
УI am merely bringing certain possibilities to your attention,Ф said Haviland Tuf, his voice as flat as ever.
Dax must have sensed her rage; he hissed. Tolly Mune stood helplessly, bewildered. Her hands balled into fists.
УI will charge no fee for my labors as mediator and ecological engineer,Ф Tuf announced. УYet I will require certain safeguards and concessions from both parties to our agreement. The allied worlds will furnish me with a bodyguard, so to speak-a small fleet of warships, sufficient in number and weaponry to stave off any attacks upon the Ark from the Planetary Defense Flotilla of SТuthlam and to escort me safely out of the system when my task here is done. The SТuthlamese, for their part, will agree to allow this allied fleet into their home system in order that my fears may be laid to rest. Should either side initiate hostilities during the period of the armistice, they will do so in full knowledge that this will surely provoke me to a most awful fit of wrath. I am not overly excitable, but when my anger is indeed aroused, I ofttimes frighten even myself. Once a standard year has passed, I shall be long departed and you may feel yourself free to resume your mutual slaughter, if you so choose. Yet it is my hope, and my prediction, that this time the steps I am initiating will prove so efficacious that none of you will feel compelled to resume hostilities.Ф He stroked DaxТs thick black fur, and the tomcat regarded each of them in turn with his huge golden eyes, seeing, weighing.
Tolly Mune felt cold all over. УYou are imposing peace on us,Ф she said.
УAlbeit temporarily,Ф said Tuf.
УAnd you are imposing this solution, whether we want it or not,Ф she said.
Tuf looked at her, but did not reply.
УJust who the goddamned puling hell do you think you are?Ф she screamed at him, unleashing the fury that had been swelling inside her.
УI am Haviland Tuf,Ф he said evenly, Уand I have run out of patience with SТuthlam and the SТuthlamese, madam.Ф

After the conference was over, Tuf drove the ambassadors back to their diplomatic shuttle, but Tolly Mune refused to go along.
For long hours, she roamed the Ark alone, cold, tired, yet relentless. She called out as she went. УBlackjack!Ф she shouted, from the top of the moving staircases. УHere, Blacky, here,Ф she sang as she strode through the corridors. УJack!Ф she cried when she heard a noise around a corner, but it was only a door opening or closing, the whirr of some machine repairing itself, or perhaps the scurrying of some stranger cat, some familiar of TufТs. УBlaaaaackjaaaaaaaaack!Ф she shouted at intersections where a dozen corridors crossed, and her voice boomed and rattled off his distant walls and echoed back at her.
But she did not find her cat.
Finally her wanderings took her up several decks, and she emerged in the dimly lit central shaft that cored the vast seedship-towering, echoing immensity thirty kilometers long, its ceiling lost in shadows, its wall lined by cloning vats large and small. She chose a direction at random and walked, and walked, and walked, calling out BlackjackТs name.
From somewhere ahead she heard a small, uncertain meow.
УBlackjack?Ф she called. УWhere are you?Ф
Again she heard it. Up there, ahead. She took two hurried steps forward, and began to run.
Haviland Tuf stepped out from beneath the shadow of a plasteel tank twenty meters high; Blackjack was cradled in his arms, purring.
Tolly Mune stopped dead.
УI have located your cat,Ф said Tuf.
УI can see that,Ф she said coldly.
Tuf handed the huge gray tomcat to her gently, his hands brushing against her arms as he made the transfer. УYou will find him none the worse for his wanderings,Ф Tuf declared. УI took the liberty of giving him a full medi-probe, to ascertain that he had suffered no misadventures, and determined that he is in the best of health. Imagine my surprise when I also chanced to discover that all the various bionic augmentations of which you informed me have somehow mysteriously and inexplicably vanished. I am at a loss to explain it.Ф
Tolly Mune hugged the cat to her chest. УSo I lied,Ф she said. УHeТs telepathic, like Dax. Maybe not as powerful. But thatТs all. I couldnТt risk him fighting with Dax. Maybe heТd have won, maybe not. I didnТt want him cowed.Ф She grimaced. УSo you got him laid instead. WhereТs he been?Ф