"Serrano Legacy - 03 - Winning Colors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

"Remember the commissioning banquet?" the clone asked. George flushed.
"Surely you don't hold that against meЧI thought you were himЧthe prince, I mean."
"I know who you mean," the clone said. "Why does that matter? You were willing to do thatЧ"
"Everyone gets drunk at the commissioning banquet," George said, glancing at Ronnie for support. Ronnie lay back on the bed, eyes shut, but George was sure he wasn't asleep. He couldn't possibly sleep so much. "And afterЧand the pranks are all traditionalЧ"
"Are you going to try to convince me you drew my nameЧexcuse me,his nameЧfrom a hat?" The clone made a display of cleaning his fingernails with the stiletto. Overdramatic, George thought; the bathroom had modern facilities. Then he thought about lying; how could the clone know the name he had really drawn?
"Noа.а.а." he said at last, choosing honesty for no reason he could name. "I drew someone else's, butЧI thought I had a grudge."
"Have you ever been glued into your underwear?" The tone was light, but the menace of that blade needed no threatening voice.
"As a matter of fact, yes," George said. "At camp one summer, when I was twelve. Ronnie and I both."
"They were trying to toughen us up, they said," Ronnie said, without opening his eyes. "They'd found out that I liked the wrong kind of musicЧthat I evenplayed music." He opened his eyes, and a slow grin spread across his face. "They glued us back to back; we must've looked really silly. Took video cubes, the whole thing. The counselors finally trashed the cubes, after they'd watched them and snickered for a day or so. George and I spent the time in the infirmary, growing new skin."
"Oh." The clone seemed taken aback. "IЧwe weren't active then."
"That's why I diluted the mix," George said. "You weren't nearly as stuck as I was."
"What did you do to them?" the clone asked, seeming to be truly interested.
"Nothingа.а.а. really." Ronnie had closed his eyes again. George admired the tone he achieved and waited. Let Ronnie tell it. "There was another boy, not even an R.E., but smarter than all of us put together. He could bypass the read-only safety locks on entertainment cubes."
"You trashed their cubes?"
"Not just that. We replaced their music withа.а.а. other things." Ronnie heaved a satisfied sigh. "Remember, George, how mad that cousin of mine was, Stavi Bellinveau?"
"Yes. And Buttons, tooЧit was before his stuffy stage," he said to the clone. "He wasn't at all stuffy at fourteen."
"I blame myself," Ronnie said, putting a hand over his heart. "I think it was having to spend the next three weeks listening to an endless loop of all thePomp and Circumstance marches. I should have put at least one waltz on that cube."
The clone glared. "If you're trying to make it clear that you and George share a life I never knew except secondhand, you've succeeded. It doesn't make me like you better."
"Noа.а.а. I can see that. But it's not our fault you're what you are. If we'd known, we might have made things easier for you, or harderа.а.а. depends. We were all kids, with kids' idiocies. Rich kidsа.а.а. we could be idiots longer than some. It wasn't until my aunt's new yacht captain straightened me out that I began to grow up."
"Heris Serrano," the clone said.
"Yes. You met herЧyou understand."
а
Chapter Eight
Aboard the Sweet Delightа
Lady Cecelia had debated for several days where to go first after Zenebra. Heris left her to it. She had spent enough time thinking about horses. Now, as the yacht worked its way out of the crowded traffic patterns of Zenebra's system, she concentrated on the crew's training. Koutsoudas worried her, especially in light of her aunt's message. No one but Livadhi knew what he could really accomplish with two bent pins and a discarded chip. An undetectable hyperlight tightbeam comlink, for instance. Cecelia's concern that she could not see clearly where Fleet personnel were concerned warred in her mind with her aunt's trust in her judgment. She would like to believe her aunt, but if she did that, she might as well believe her aunt on everything. Her mind shied away from the implications like a green horse from a spooky fenceа.а.а. and that image brought her back to Cecelia.
Inspection. It was more than time for an inspection. Heris checked the set of her uniform before she headed down the passage to crew quarters. As she would have anticipated, the ex-military crew kept their quarters tidy, almost bare of personal identity. The programmable displays that other crew left showing tropical reefs, mountain valleys, or other scenery had been blanked.
Heris continued into the working areas of the ship. The new inspection stickersЧreal ones, not fakesЧmade bright patches on the gleaming bulkheads. She checked every readout, every telltale, the routine soothing her mind. Even the memories of violence on the shipЧhere Iklind had died, from hydrogen sulfide poisoning, and down this passage his distant relative Skoterin had nearly killed Brig Sirkin and Lady Cecelia. Redecoration had removed any trace of corrosive gases, of blood. The memory of faces and bodies that floated along with her were no different from those that haunted any captain's days.
In the 'ponics sections, she found Brun replanting trays, a dirty job that always fell to the lowest-level mole.
"What are you growing this round?" she asked.
Brun grinned. "Halobeets," she said. "I hadn't realized how much sulfur uptake ship 'ponics need."
"There's a ship rhyme about it," Heris said. "Eat it, excrete it, then halobeet it. And it's always confused me that we call the sulfur-sucking beets halobeetsа.а.а. you'd think they sopped up the halocarbons, but they don't. How are you getting along with Lady Cecelia's gardener?" Lady Cecelia's gardener produced the ship's fresh vegetables. Ship's crew produced only the vegetation needed to normalize the atmosphere. Brun wrinkled her muddy nose.
"I think he worries that I'll steal his methods for Dad's staff. You know I'm supposed to check the oxygen/carbon dioxide levels on his compartments, but he hovers over me as if I were after industrial secrets."
"Are you telling me you're never tempted to sneak a tomato?" Heris asked.
"Wellа.а.а. perhaps." Brun's wide grin was hardly contrite.
Heris left Brun to the tedious work, and continued her inspection. She was not surprised to find Arkady Ginese on his own tour of inspection, checking the weapons controls interlocks. The yacht had once had spacious storage bays, far larger than it needed for the transportation of a single passenger. Now those bays were stuffed with weaponry and its supporting control and guidance systems, with the jamming and other countermeasures that Heris hoped would serve as well as shields if someone were shooting back. They had not had the volume to mount both effective weapons and strong shields; Heris hoped she'd made the right choice.
"All's well, Captain," Ginese said. "I did want to ask youЧKoutsoudas says there's a new wrinkle in ECM that we could probably rig onto what we have, if you wanted."If you really trust Koutsoudas hung in his words.
Heris thought a moment. "Do you understand it? Does it make sense to you?"
"YesЧit's a reasonable extension of the technology. I don't see why it wouldn't work."
"And how do you feel about Koutsoudas?"
Ginese looked around. "WellЧ"
"Of course he may have ears everywhereЧthe better to hear the truth, Arkady. He's smartЧhe has to know we don't completely trust someone from Livadhi. How do you feel?"
"IЧlike him more than I thought I would. He's like all scan techs, clever and sneaky. But he doesn't give me that bad feelingа.а.а. then again, I missed Skoterin."
"So did we all," Heris said. "But I think all our sensitivities are flapping in the breeze now. Let's go on and make that changeЧsend my desk a complete description, and I'll file it. If anything comes upЧ"
"Of course, Captain." Ginese looked happier, and Heris went on to complete her inspection.
By the time she reached the bridge again, Lady Cecelia had sent a messageЧshe had chosen their destination, a planet called Xavier. Sirkin already had the charts up on display for Heris, with a recommended course.
"Looks good so far," Heris said. "I'll want to checkЧsome of those intermediate jump points may have restriction codes on themЧ"
"Yes, ma'am, they do," Sirkin said. "Four of them are heavy traffic; we'd have to file here before we jump for clearance through them. Xavier itself is in the frontier zone; we have to file with the R.S.S., a letter of intent. I've done a preliminary file, in caseЧand there's an alternate course that doesn't use any restricted jump points, though it will add sixteen days."
Sixteen additional days times the daily requirements for food, water, oxygenа.а.а. Heris ran the numbers in her mind before checking them on the computer. "We can do it, but it's already a long trip, especially counting the long insystem drop at Xavier. You're right, Sirkin, that short course is the best. What's the maximum flux transit you've plotted?" That, too, was within acceptable limits; Heris reminded herself again that Sirkin had not made the mistakes she'd been blamed for. On her own she had always done superb work.
"FineЧcomplete that application for the restricted jump points, file the letter of intent as agricultural products purchase, wholesale, and tell me when you anticipate we'll start the sequence. Good work." It was, too. Most navigators would still be setting up a single course.
"Thank you, ma'am." Sirkin might have been her old self, the bright, vibrant girl Heris had first met, but there was still the wariness of old injuries in her eyes. That was maturity, Heris told herself, and nothing to regret. Nobody stayed as young as Sirkin had been and lived to grow old.