"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - The Room of Lost Souls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Long ago, I set up the Business and my single ship to communicate
with meтАФmostly to make sure I remain awake and alert when IтАЩm piloting
either ship. But I also use the links to communicate with the Business about
internal matters, so that IтАЩm not tied to the bridge.

The air has become cool as the environmental systems kick in. My
cabin still smells faintly of incense from an abortive and mistaken attempt at
relaxation on the last trip full of tourists. I make a mental note to have this
room cleaned top to bottom, and then I sit at the hardwired terminal.

ItтАЩs covered with a faint layer of dust. I havenтАЩt touched it in more than
a year. IтАЩm not even sure itтАЩll power up.

But it does. Then it runs its own diagnostics and shows me all the
security video from the cabin itself. I let the video play in a corner of the
touchscreen while I access my financials.
 I move 90 percent of the money that Riya paid me from my public
accounts to my private ones. In a day or so, IтАЩll create some new accounts,
and divide the money up even more.

Then I settle into my chair and order lunch from my personal store.

IтАЩm going to be here for a while. I have a lot of research to do and I
donтАЩt want it traced.

****

I start with the Colonnade Wars.

I learned long ago to research everything, especially something
youтАЩre certain of, because the memory plays tricks. And something youтАЩre
certain of is most likely to be the thing youтАЩll get wrong.

The Colonnade Wars lasted nearly one hundred years. The wars
began as a series of skirmishes on the far end of this sector. Then actual
war broke out toward the other end, on a small planet that had been
colonized so long that some believed the humans on that planet actually
evolved there.

Other battlesтАФwith different participantsтАФstarted throughout the
sector. At first, the weapons brokers and the mercenaries seemed to be
the only ones who knew about the various skirmishes, but then it became
clear that powerbrokers from several nation states were financing their
favorites in each conflict. And sometimes those powerbrokers backed both
factions at the same time.

The battle turned away from the petty internal squabblesтАФover land,
over entitlements, over religious shrinesтАФand turned against those who
funded the fights.