"Karen Traviss - Wess'Har 06 - Judge" - читать интересную книгу автора (Traviss Karen)

The Eqbas pointed the way with an awkward human gesture. Shan followed the line of his finger to in
the accommodation decks, neat rows of body-sized chambers stacked at a slight angle like tilted
honeycombs. There were still dark shapes in some, but the two individuals who mattered most to herтАФa
Royal Marine sergeant and a five-hundred-year-old alien war criminalтАФwerenтАЩt among them. She
couldnтАЩt pick up their respective scents in the melee of smells flooding the ship, and she had to stop a
passing ussissi to ask for directions. The meerkatlike creature, chest-tall andтАФto use EddieтАЩs
descriptionтАФlike a foul-tempered Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, indicated aft with a jerk of his head.

She found Ade and Aras leaning against a patch of transparent bulkhead and gazing down at the planet
beneath them just as she had, like a couple of kids who were desperate to go out and play in some
exciting new place. They struck her as oddly alike despite the fact that Ade still looked like a regular man
and ArasтАФhowever much human DNA his cтАЩnaatat had scavengedтАФwould never pass for a human.
CтАЩnaatat liked tinkering and rearranging its hostтАЩs genome, sometimes visibly, sometimes not.

тАЬSo we made it back.тАЭ Ade managed a smile, looking her up and down. тАЬJesus, Boss, you look rough.тАЭ

тАЬThe sodding cryo didnтАЩt put me out for the count.тАЭ Shan was too self-conscious to greet either of them
with a kiss. Somehow being the GuvтАЩnor and showing affection in public still didnтАЩt mix. тАЬIтАЩve been
awake on and off for most of the bloody journey. You?тАЭ

тАЬDead to the world. Out like a light.тАЭ

Aras seemed more interested in the spectacle below. тАЬI recall nothing of being in suspension.тАЭ

тАЬSo when did you find out that Eddie had stayed behind?тАЭ

Aras turned to look at her, eyes neither wessтАЩhar nor human but charcoal-black and sad like a dogтАЩs.
тАЬWhen I went to look for him. I checked on everyone I knew in cryo.тАЭ

тАЬDidnтАЩt you think of thawing me out and telling me?тАЭ

тАЬWhy? What could you have done? There was no going back.тАЭ

WessтАЩhar were scrupulously pragmatic. In a human, that behavior would have been riddled with ulterior
motive, the kind of thing that corroded trust; but in Aras it was exactly what he said, no more and no less.
He had occasionally lied by simple delay, but for all the changes that cтАЩnaatat had made to him over five
centuries, his core was still wessтАЩharтАФliteral, uninterested in deception, and nose-bleedingly honest to the
point of offense.

He was right, of course. SheтАЩd just have been impotently angry. Ade snapped back into sergeant mode
and distracted her.
тАЬHow long do you think weтАЩre going to be here, Boss?тАЭ He still called her that, as if she was his senior
officer, and she found it touching now rather than embarrassing. тАЬJust asking. Stuff I need to do.тАЭ

It was a reminder that he had a life that she knew little about beyond the memories that cтАЩnaatat had
transferred to her. She found it odd to be that intimate with another personтАФthere was no relationship
closer than one between cтАЩnaatat hostsтАФand relive his most traumatic moments as vividly as if she were
him, and yet have no idea where he grew up or what heтАЩd regretted leaving behind. SheтАЩd have to find
out. It mattered.