"Kerrion Empire - 03 - Earth Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

To Chaeron Ptolemy Ken-ion, stepping out of the
ground-to-space multidrive on Earth had been like step-
ping into antiquity. Finding his wife, Shebat, dispensing
portents from a cave like Delphi's long-vanished
priestesses only heightened his sense of the illusory. At
any moment, it seemed, she would pull out a sprig of bay
leaves, shake it at him, chew one, and tell him his
destiny. . . .

But no, it was A.D. 2251 and he was here to uplift the
masses, in default of which task he could never return to
far Draconis, stars away. His exile was virtually com-
plete; his wife need not share it.

Yet there, across a low-burning fire, she sat, in a cowl
and madonna's smile. She had thrown back her woolen
hood. Her eyes burned like charcoals through the cave's
shadows, forcing darkness back though the fire grew no
higher.

Chaeron said, "Why did you choose to come here in
secret? It could have been a dangerous move, shipping
into an embattled space like this one without even identi-
fying yourself to the Stump's traffic authority. And they
do not love me, my new subordinates. Up there," he let
his eyes flash heavenward, where beyond ridge and sky
the Stump and its ring of subsatellites hung in orbit,
"things are little better than here."

"That is why my cruiser advised me come in unob-

EARTH DREAMS

3

trusively and unannounced, take a low space-anchor, and
see what could be seen. The Marada," she spoke her
spacefaring vessel's name with affection akin to love,
"was concerned. So much activity, up there. So much
construction. What are you doing, Chaeron?"

In answer, he pulled out a scrambler, activated it, and
set the unfolded V-shaped unit between them. "There."
He smiled his patrician smile. Then: "I am jettisoning the
Stump. It is worthlessЧworse, dangerous. It is no better
than a museum of a habitational sphere. And so many
systems on it went down in the upheaval connected with
its transfer into Kerrion hands that it's more economical
to scrap it. By the end of the next month, the platform
Acheron will be operational; during the month after that,