"Kathy Tyers - Firebird 2 - Fusion Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tyers Kathy)

CollegeтАЩs break way strip to set down.

Brennen helped her down the stepstand in the parking loft. тАЬNot bad, Major. YouтАЩre almost due for a
promotion.тАЭ Then he strode off to seek out his colleague in aerospace training.

A young man wearing unadorned midnight blue and the narrow gold ring of a student-apprentice Sentinel,
or sekiyr, walked Fire-bird to the Medical Center, the highest and blockiest building on the grassy
grounds. It was a peaceful campus. The lines of every structure seemed to harmonize with those of every
other: a small cluster of rounded, red stone buildings, the cumulative effect of its network of architecture,
lawns, and waterways more calming and otherworldly than she could explain.

After painful decades of distrust, these part-Aurian telepaths had made a secure place in Thyrian society
by binding themselves with a code of ethics so stringent that the non gifted had no need to fear
manipulation and by establishing this College, where they were rigorously trained. Centuries later, the
starbred Sentinels now constituted a major force in the Federacy: in medicine, in education, in
intelligence.

In the skylit, glass-walled central atrium of the medical center, her guide found Master Aldana Spieth.
The silver-haired woman sat either asleep or deep in thought on a stone bench, below a huge,
brown-boled tree hung with ferns and vines. FirebirdтАЩs guide motioned her forward.

She stepped up confidently. It had been different, the first time she met Aldana Spieth. She had come for
treatment, a series of protein injections and low-frequency irradiations, to clear her ovarian tissue of
Aurian makkah antigen. That time, her delighted awe to be standing in the SentinelsтАЩ College had been
balanced by apprehension, a sense of isolation, and dread.

Now, as she crossed a steaming, faintly sulfur-scented pool on broad stepping stones, the Master
opened her eyes and stood, shaking down one full white pant-leg that clung to her calf.

Firebird heard the youth step away behind her. тАЬAm I disturbing you, Master Spieth? I know IтАЩm early.тАЭ

Spieth adjusted the belt of her tunic. тАЬNot at all. You are gladly expected. Come along.тАЭ

Firebird followed her out another door cut through the glass walls of the misty, otherworldly atrium, and
into a very ordinary gravity lift.

==========

When Spieth finished the second-trimester examination, including a blood test for plague antigen
remaining after her treatment, she motioned Firebird to a dark green chair in the office end of her station.
Firebird still stood, however, at the edge of the slick laboratory flooring.

Spieth, like Brennen, wore a MasterтАЩs star, hers closing the shoulder of a pure white medicтАЩs tunic. тАЬYou
are more comfortable standing, Mistress Caldwell?тАЭ

Firebird stepped onto the short weave carpet and took the seat. Very well, then: she had come to know
Spieth well enough to hazard her question. She settled her hands in her lap. тАЬMaster Spieth, this is very
awkward for me, and perhaps out of line, but might I ask you a question in professional confidence?тАЭ

After a brief silence, Spieth barely smiled. тАЬMaster Brennen is not to be included in this?тАЭ