"John Maddox Roberts - Cingulum 03 - The Sword, The Jewel and the Mirror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts John Maddox)

Prince-Admiral's quarters, back when Eurynome had been a royal yacht-cum-light
cruiser. Haakon knocked at the exotic-wood door.
"Go away! I hate you!" Rama squalled from inside.
"How did you know it was me?" Haakon asked.
"There is nobody out there I don't hate," Rama said. "Well, come in if you
must."
Cautiously, Haakon entered. Rama was a Felid, and Felids were among humanity's
deadlier variations. She was vicious at the best of times and lately she had
been impossible. Besides that, when she was in a bad mood her smell could
raise bubbles on durasteel. Haakon checked his nose filters as he came in.
Rama lay in her immense bed, her silver-and-black-striped hair in disarray,
her claws unpainted. She was wearing only the lower half of a filmy pajama
suit, which was probably all she had that would fit these days.
"You see?" she hissed. "Does it give you satisfaction to behold the ruin of my
beauty?" She gestured at her immensely swollen belly, her distended breasts
with their
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John Maddox Roberts
elongated, black nipples. Even the double row of vestigial nipples that dotted
her ribs had become enlarged slightly. Her whole white-skinned body was
enveloped in a net of blue veins. She glared at him with her slit-pupiled
eyes. "Go head, you horrible person, gloat!"
"You don't look half bad, Rama," Haakon said. "Once the baby's born, you'll be
right back up to snuff in a few days." He wasn't sure what snuff was, but it
seemed to be a good thing to be up to. In fact, even in this condition, Rama
was still beautiful enough to take his breath away. Why did the cat-woman have
to be such a pain?
"Do you really think so?" Rama asked, a little mollified. "I would hate to
think of my magnificence being dimmed permanently. What did you come to tell
me?"
"We leave orbit in about twenty minutes. Mirabelle has all the data. Our next
scheduled stop is Krishna in about a month, so we can take a side trip to
Balder. It's about time we had a little fun." Balder was the spacer's
paradise, an unexampled den of iniquity.
"Have fun if you must," said Rama tragically. "I am denied such things now.
The demands of the species override that kind of self-indulgence." She wiped
away a tear, which Haakon knew was fake since Felids could not weep.
"Look, Rama," he said confidentially, "there are a lot of bets on the ship
whether it's going to be a boy or a girl. If you'd just tell me, we could
splitтАФ"
"Get out of here, bald one!" she shouted, flinging a pillow. "My offspring
shall never be the mere object of
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THE SWORD, THE JEWEL, AND THE MIRROR
your greed! Go! And seventy-five/twenty-five my favor is the best deal you'll
ever get from me!"
"To hell with that," Haakon said. "Strap your distended bulk Jn. We're on our
way."
He whirled and stalked out. She radiated a wave of scent that he couldn't
smell through his filters, but it was strong enough to feel through his skin.