"John Maddox Roberts - Cestus Dei" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts John Maddox)

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Cestus Dei by John Maddox
Roberts
Chapter One
Archbishop Hilarion occupied his rightful seat in the Great Hall of
United Faiths with the stoicism of many years of experience. On the floor,
a minor imam of some obscure Islamic sect was droning a speech
welcoming the new representative from Shriva, which, despite its name,
was a planet settled entirely by Mormons. The archbishop yawned
expertly, without moving a muscle of his face.

The real business of the day would not begin for some hours. It would
be the knotty question of which among the great faiths had right of
control over the Magsaysay System, a complex of more than two hundred
rich planets settled two millennia before by colonists of every faith known
to mankind. The debate had been raging for fifty years and was at last
heading toward some sort of resolution, a resolution toward which
Hilarion had been planning for the quarter century since his predecessor
had passed the problem on to him. Hilarion looked forward to an
eminently satisfactory conclusion. It was with some complacency that the
archbishop surveyed his colleagues of the United Faiths, the most
powerful assembly of humanity since the Great Decadence.

The first impression a visitor or pilgrim had of the Great Hall was of
size, the second of color. The oval amphitheater of seats ascended one
hundred meters to the edge of the Dome of Tcherbadayev, the faerie
structure that symbolized peace and a sort of qualified brotherhood to all,
or nearly all, of rediscovered humanity. Within this huge covered cup sat
the concentrated sanctity of this world, which still held all the holiest
places of the human race. The saffron robes of the Buddhist monks glowed
brightly among the emerald turbans of the Imams of the Medina
Caliphate. The breastplates of the priests of the Third Temple glittered in
sharp contrast to the somber colors of the various orders of the
Re-established Church of Rome. The habits of a dozen minor faiths added
a rainbow sprinkling to the whole. The ascetics of the loose Hindu Oneness
added no color. They wore only loincloths, and those only out of deference
to the sensibilities of the other faiths. The Hindus displayed solely the
warm tones of brown flesh, the common denominator of earthborn
humanity these days. Only out among the stars were to be found the
variety of racial traits that had once been a part of the wealth of
humanity.

It was unusual for Archbishop Hilarion to occupy his seat so early in