"Liaden Universe - 04 - Plan B" - читать интересную книгу автора (Miller Steve)

She glanced at him suspiciously. "Ah, is it? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Miri," he said meekly; and grinned in shared joy when she laughed.

"So, partner, seeing as we both agree I'm cured, how 'bout you bust this tub outta orbit and we get a move on."

"It must certainly be my first wish to please my lady and my lifemate," Val Con said, coming to his feet and offering-her a hand in graceful Liaden courtesy. "But I wonder if you can suggest where it is we should get a move on to?"

"Had to ask, didn't you?" She rose lightly, gripping his fingers for the pleasure of contact rather than because she required assistance. "Let's go up front and get some tea." She led the way, hand stretched behind her to his as they moved through the narrow corridor to the control cabin.

"Family of yours is on the lam, right? When's this Plan B thing go outta force?"

He hesitated. Miri considered herself Terran, though she carried a Liaden house-badge among her dearest treasures, and had agreed, perhaps too hastily, to share life with a Liaden. She had not been raised to the tradition of clan-and-kin, and the first eight months of their mating had been spent on an Interdicted World, learning to survive and prosper in a culture alien to them both.

"Plan B," he began slowly, feeling his way along thoughts that seemed to shift nuance and urgency as he tried to convey them in Terran. "Plan B may be called into effect by delm or first speaker in the instance ofЧimminent catastrophic damage to the clan. It is thus not established lightly, nor do I think itЧgoes out of forceЧuntil the dangerous situation has been resolved. I believe this may be its first use."

"Imminent catastrophic damage to the clan," Miri repeated, gray eyes sharp on his face. "What's that mean? Who's the enemy? And how do we get past them and connect with your family?" She frowned, chewing her lower lip. "I take it youwant to connect up?"

"IЧyes." Such clear knowledge of his own will was still unsettling to him, who had only shaken off the mind-twisting Agent training with the help of Miri and the luck. "It is possible that the danger is the Department of Interior," he said. "After all"Чhe waved a slender hand at the neat little ship enclosing themЧ"the Department managed to locate us and send an Agent after, and we were most wonderfully lost."

"Much good it did them," Miri commented, meaning the Agent, dead at the Winterfair on the far-below surface.

"Much good it very nearly did us," Val Con retorted warmly, meaning the wound she'd taken and the Agent's too-near success in completing his mission.

"Yeah, wellЕ" she shifted, reached to take his hand again. "You talked to your brother Shan, you saidЕ" and that made her uncomfortable, he could tell from the subtleties of her mind-heard song.

"I am not," he said gently, "an expert at speaking mind-to-mind. In fact, the whole exchange must have been on Shan's skill, without anything at all from me. I can't even bespeak you, Miri, as closely as we are linked."

"Tried it, have you?" She grinned briefly. "But didn't your brother tell you what kind of danger?"

"Just that Plan B was in effectЕ"

"Moontopple," Miri muttered and Val Con laughed even as he shook his head.

"Things were rather confused at the time, recall. The Agent was hunting me, you and I were separated, Shan was talking inside my headЧand very annoyed he was, too! We hardly had time to set up a rendezvous before contact was cut."

"So you did set up a meeting!" Approval lightened her face. "Where?"

He took a deep breath and looked her steadily in the eyes. "At the home of your family, Miri."

"My famЧ" She stared at him, dropped his hand and backed up, shock rattling the constancy of her song. The back of her knees hit the edge of the co-pilot's chair and she sat with a slight bump, eyes still wide on his face.

"Look, boss," she said finally, "I ain't got a family. My mother's deadЧdied my second year in the mere. And if Robertsonain't dead he oughta be, an' I don't wanna be the one does the deed."

"Ah." Sorrow touched him: Clan-and-kin, indeed. He perched on the arm of her chair. "The family I meant was Clan Erob."

Her hand dropped to the pouch built into her wide belt. "Clan Erob," she said huskily, "don't know me from Old Dan Tucker. Itold you that."

"Indeed you did. And I told you that Erob would not shun you. You haveЧwhat? Twenty-eight Standards?"