"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 8 - Eclipsing Binaries" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

words very carefully.

"Yes, ma'am," she said slowly. "I am completely loyal to you. No one can doubt
that. I've
obeyed you completely from the first moment I met you on Gastonia. It's just
... I didn't
expect ... I ... I was surprised . . . I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Another eternity passed as those intense green eyes pierced all the way to her
soul.
Then slowly Lady A lowered the younger woman to the floor and loosened her
grip on
the front of the tunic. Boros was shaken. She had not known her superior was
that
strong. Even now, looking at the other woman's slender frame, she found it
difficult to
believe.

"You must never question me or my motives again," Lady A said in calm tones as
she
resumed her place in the glowing egg. "I have reasons for everything I do and
say. It's
not your place to understand them, merely to obey commands. If you do, you'll
be richer
for it; if you don't, you'll be dead. That should be reason enough."

"Yes, Gospozha."

The traces of a smile returned to Lady A's lips. "That's much better. Always
respect your
elders, child. Now that I've made my point, I will explain some of my thinking
not because
you asked, but because I think it's better if you know something of what's
going on.

"As I was saying, the failure of Operation Annihilate hurt our cause badly. We
are not
strong enough to make another frontal attack on the Empire for quite some
time. We're
far from defeat-the Empire still does not realize how thoroughly we have
infiltrated and
undermined their structure-but we'll have to return to more guerilla-style
tactics for a
while.

"What we need primarily is time to build up our strength again. We were able
to do that
the first time because SOTE spent so much time chasing your father we could
work in
virtual obscurity. Given those conditions, we could rebuild our forces in just