"John Rankine - Dag Fletcher 1 - The Ring of Garamas" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rankine John)

тАЬIt's serious enough for her to be ready to kill herself.тАЭ

тАЬThey're a funny lot. I don't pretend to understand them. Half the time, you'd swear they hadn't a human
emotion. Then something comes up and a character you'd believed was pig iron all through, turns out as
neurotic as a flea. I can tell you, the present government is only in on sufferance. It's a coalition of
moderates, represents a minority overall I would say. Given any external threat and the backwoodsmen
would be in at full strength. Then there'd be a resurge of traditional habits. Your friend Yola would be
back pulling a plough before you could say universal suffrage.тАЭ
тАЬCan't I.G.O. do anything about it?тАЭ

тАЬIt suits to let things ride. Garamas is a clearing house for all sorts of information. Too much pressure
would give the extremists a lever on a national pride ticket. Don't worry. Human life has been with us a
long time. You have to think in millennia. Not easy for the military mind.тАЭ

Dag Fletcher reckoned that he was getting training in it. Making his daily report visit to the I.G.O.
complex, he got the stall he had been given for the last seven days. No posting through and the official
report on Terrapin still not published.

That was an odd one. He went back in his mind over the session in Varley's command cabin on the
squadron flagship Europa. There has been no suggestion that it was anything other than an open and shut
case. There had been four officers on the board; Admiral P. J. Varley in the chair with Group
Commander Frazer, captain of Europa beside him. Then Cameron, Commander of Hawk and Cooper,
Commander of Drake both involved in the action. The decision to sacrifice Terrapin had been at
squadron level. She had been damaged beyond repair in the engagement. Fletcher and the surviving
members of his crew had been brought off by Hawk within minutes of the escalating power pack passing
a point of no return.

At the Tribunal, there had been an air of simple formality. They all knew the score. Terrapin had been
spearhead in a complex and difficult manoeuvre, for the corvette screen that had intercepted a roving,
free-lance cruiser, long a menace on the shipping lanes and brought her to bay, until Europa herself could
come up with the final solution.

Ever sensitive to his rating in his own and other people's estimate, Fletcher had been sure in this case that
his handling of the corvette could not have been faulted. Cameron, Commander of Hawk, had said,
тАЬBloody marvellous, Dag. But I thought you were a goner for a sure thing. We'd never have held the
bastard, if you hadn't gone in close. Varley ought to give you a medal. Which is not to say that you still
won't get a raspberry.тАЭ

Well, maybe that was it. Now the detail was blurred and the action cold, he was less sure that he had
done all he could to save the ship. A delayed raspberry might be filtering through the channels.

When it came, it took a form that he did not expect. The I.G.O. official pushed over the signal with a
social smile, but there was a definite temperature drop in the plushy office.

The form of words was civil enough. тАЬIt seems Commander, we are to have the pleasure of your
company for some time yet. I am to inform you, if there are any local duties which you can carry out.тАЭ

The signal itself was brief enough. тАЬCommander D. Fletcher. Release of findings of tribunal on loss of
Terrapin is postponed pending further enquiry. Await posting instructions in Kristinobyl.тАЭ It was signed