"Christopher Stasheff - Warlock 04 - The Warlock Unlocked" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

"I take it, then, that this Rodney d'Armand discovered a Lost Colony on
Gramarye."

"Yes, but the Lord only knows which one," the Pope sighed. "You'll notice that
the PIB sheet doesn't tell us anything about the inhabitants of the planet."

Father Al looked. Sure enough, any human information on the planet was
summed up in one word at the bottom of the page: CLASSIFIED. It was
followed by a brief note explaining that the planet was interdicted to protect its
inhabitants from exploitation. "I'd guess it's a rather backward culture."
Excitement thrilled through Father Al's veinsтАФwere they backward enough to
still believe in magic?

"Backward, indeed." The Pope peered at another paper on his desk. "We checked
our own data bank, and found we did have an entry on the planetтАФjust a very
brief report, from a Cathodean priest named Father Marco Ricci, that he'd
accompanied an expedition by a group calling themselves the 'Romantic
Emigres." They found an uncharted, Terra-like world, seeded a large island with
Terran bioforms, and established a colony, four or five hundred years ago. Father
Ricci requested permission to establish a House of the Order of St. Vidicon of
CathodeтАФyour own Order, I believe, Father Uwell."

"Yes, indeed." Father Al tried not to let his disappointment show; the
Cathodeans had to be engineers as well as priests. No planet could be too

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backward, if they were there. "Was he granted permission?"

His Holiness nodded. "So it says; but apparently the Curia was never able to
convey the news to him. The Interstellar Dominion Electorates fell about that
time, and the Proletarian Eclectic State of Terra was established. As you know,
one of the first things PEST did was to lose the Lost Colonies. There was no way
to communicate with Father Ricci."

"Well, mat's hopefтАж I mean, that might create problems."

"Yes, it might." The Pope fixed him with a glittering eye. "We may have another
splinter sect there, calling themselves Roman Catholics, but out of touch with us
for centuries. No telling what heresies they'll have dreamt up in that time." He
sighed. "I'd hoped to have a rest from that sort of thing for a while."

Father Al knew what the Pope meant. Just before he'd been elevated to the Chair
of St. Peter, Cardinal Kaluma had conducted the negotiations with the
Archbishop of Burbank, a Lost Colony that had been found about twenty years
before. They'd managed to keep the Faith fairly well, except for one heresy that
had taken firm root: that plants had immortal souls. It turned out to be a
fundamental point of doctrine on Burbank, since the whole planet was heavily