"Elizabeth Moon - Serrano 6 - Change of Command" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

mainland, but it didn't really matter. Let him liveтАФand let him realize someday just what he'd
seen, in their brief exchange.

The ceremony over, Pilar summoned her staff. They were unwise enough to look surprised; she
allowed herself a tight smile on the way to her office, thinking how soon they would learn what
she was like.



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On the mainland, at Main Base, autumn had not yet moderated a brutally hot summer. It had been a
dry year, and now fine reddish dust turned the sky dirty brown as the wind lifted it high into the
atmosphere.

In this kind of weather, everyone who could get offbase privileges spent hours in Q-town's bars,
drinking whatever was coldest. Even combat veterans accepted the crowd in their favorite watering
hole. It was too hot, and too miserable, to complain.

Margiu Pardalt, newly graduated from the Academy, and the only Xavierine in her class, had a habit
of coming tops in her classes. She had to; she had to do something to make up for her sister
Masiu, killed by raiders years ago. Masiu had been the family genius: brilliant, brave, everything
a family could hope for. Margiu was second-best, and knew itтАФa poor replacement for the fallen
heroтАФso it was up to her to make her mark, to be Masiu's memorial. Her place in the Academy had
been a gift from the Familias in memory of Masiu. Her place in the universe was to be her gift in
return.

She had earned an evening's liberty by coming first in her class yet again at Copper Mountain, and
she thought it fitting that her free hours came at a time when no rational person could enjoy
them. She'd have stayed in her quarters, but her training CO had told her to get off the baseтАФand
orders were orders.

Another gust of wind howled down Q-town's main street and filled her nose with hot stinging dust.
She sneezed, and her eyes watered. It reminded her too much of the Benignity's scorch of Xavier,
when she and her family had wrapped torn sheets around their heads for weeks to filter the dust
and ash.

Ahead, on the right, she spotted a doorway just opening as someone came out, and a gush of cooler
air brushed her side. She turned into it.

It was only moderately crowdedтАФless crowded than the two bars she'd glanced into and leftтАФand
smelled of food as much as drink. Margiu made her way to one of the open booths, and slid in, then
looked around. The tables and seats looked a little strange, until she realized they were meant to
look like ship parts. No, they were ship parts. Her quick glance took in the long dark
barтАФobviously hull material. The modelsтАФobviously military vessels. The battle honors hung on the
walls, the photographs.