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

He strode off looking as if he belonged on the ship and she watched him go. It was
naturalтАФsensibleтАФfor a soldier to orientate himself before arriving in uncertain territory. Shan hesitated
to use the word enemy, but the Eqbas mission wasnтАЩt any more universally welcome than it had been
when fighting broke out over it when it was first announced. Maybe the Australians had gone through a
few changes of mind about the invitation to land on their turf and sort out Earth, too. But they probably
realized what every world the Eqbas visited realized sooner rather than later: once invited, once their
attention was focused, Eqbas didnтАЩt turn around and go home.

тАЬShit.тАЭ She wandered over to Aras and put her hand on his back. тАЬI wish IтАЩd stayed out of the cryo.
Lots of catching up to do now.тАЭ

Aras indicated an interior bulkhead. It formed into a viewing screen at a gesture from him, and suddenly
she was looking at a vaguely familiar logo and a scene she almost recognized. It took her a few seconds
to work out that it was the latest incarnation of BBChan; the setting was familiar.

тАЬJejeno,тАЭ said Aras. тАЬIтАЩve been catching up on EddieтАЩs broadcasts over the last twenty-five years. HeтАЩs
been prolific. And Jejeno hasтАжchanged.тАЭ

It was all coming back too fast. Shan found herself looking at the once-crowded isenj homeworld of
Umeh, the city of Jejeno, where every meter of land had been covered with high-rise buildings, every
living thing that wasnтАЩt isenj or a food crop obliterated, every natural system destroyed and replaced by
an engineered climateтАФuntil the Eqbas had shown up, and millions of isenj had died. By now, it was
probably billions.

Aras was right: it had changed.

In shot, EddieтАФa much older EddieтАФwas walking around an open area in the city that looked as if it
was grassed parkland. On Earth, that would have been totally unremarkable. On Umeh, it was a miracle.

Isenj, black and brown egg-shaped bodies on spider legs, mouths fringed with small teeth like a
piranhaтАЩs, tottered through the background. They were an orderly people who looked nothing like
humans, but who had far more in common with them than with their neighbors in the Cavanagh system,
the wessтАЩhar. Some of them paused to watch Eddie doing his piece to camera, just like humans. The
audio was muted, but the normality of the scene was shocking.

тАЬWhat happened?тАЭ Shan asked. But she knew: Jejeno wasnтАЩt the dystopian urban landscape she
recalled because most of the isenj population had been removed the hard way. тАЬGod. So they really did
it.тАЭ

But it wasnтАЩt the outcome of the war sheтАЩd walked away from that really shattered her composure. It
was seeing Eddie Michallat now pushing seventy years old. HeтАЩd been younger than her when sheтАЩd last
seen him.

Time was a bastard. It took everyone in the end, and this was somehow harder than first leaving Earth
on a momentтАЩs notice and knowing everyone she cared about would be dead or senile by the time she
was revived again.

But thatтАЩs what cтАЩnaatat тАЩs like, too. ItтАЩll keep you going, repair you indefinitely, while everyone you
knowтАФeveryone without the parasiteтАФages and dies.