"Vinge Vernor & William Rupp - Just Peace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

struggle simply to maintain ourselves. And all the while weтАЩre weighed down by those sybarites.тАЬ She
waved her hand back toward Bossman PierтАЩs Utter, some fifteen meters away. тАЬThey drain our
resources. They fight us at every turnтАжтАЭ Her voice trailed off and she sat looking at Chente. For a
moment some new emotion flickered across her face, but then she became impassive. Chente suddenly
realized the reason for her silence: it was the second time around for Martha. No doubt she had sat in this
same vehicle eighteen months earlier, and had had the same conversation with his predecessor.

MarthaтАЩs hand moved toward him, then retreated. She said softly, тАЬYou really are ChenteтАж alive again.тАЭ
Her tone became businesslike. тАЬBe more careful, this time, will you please? Your knowledge, your
equipmentтАж many people would kill to get them.тАЭ She was silent the rest of the way into town.

==========

At sunset the heavy layers of dust in New CanadaтАЩs atmosphere transformed the pale-blue sky into
orange, red, and greenish brown. From where Chente sat within the Freetown banquet hall, the sky light
shone through narrow, horizontal slits cut high up in the west wall to play gentle pastels of orange and
green down upon the waiters and chattering guests. It was a most colorful tribute to volcanism.

The sky light faded slowly toward gray as the last unpleasant course of the meal was served. Above
them, electric lamps mounted on large silver wheels were lit. Clusters of rubies and emeralds hung like
clouds of colored stars around the glowing filaments. Occasionally the earth trembled faintly, causing the
wheels to sway as if a slight breeze had touched them.

The meal over, Bretaign Flaggon rose to deliver тАЬa few words of welcome to our star-crossed [sic]
visitor.тАЭ Chente couldnтАЩt decide whether the phrase was a pun or a malaprop. The speech droned on and
eventually the Earthman succeeded in ignoring it.

The hall's wide floor was covered from wall to wall with what could only be gold. The soft yellow metal
behaved like some slow sea beneath the weight of the banquet tables and constant passage of human
feet: tiny ripples barely a centimeter high stood frozen in its surface. New Canada, had everything the
Spanish Conquistadors had ever dreamed of. But this virtue was symptomatic of a serious vice. Heavy
metals were plentiful near the planetтАЩs surface simply because New CanadaтАЩs interior was much more
poorly differentiated than EarthтАЩs. The starshipтАЩs computer had reported this fact to its makers on first
landing here, but had failed to notice that the process of core formation was ongoing. The cataclysm that
hit the colony one hundred fifty years earlier was evidence of this continuing process. The abundance of
metallic salts on the surface meant that less than one percent of New CanadaтАЩs land area could be used
for farming. And those same salts made the sea life uniformly poisonous. In contrast to the opulent
banquet hall, the food served had been scarcely more than a spicy gruel.

тАЬтАж Mr. Quintero.тАЭ Applause sounded as Flaggon finished talking. The mayor motioned for Chente to
rise and speak. The Earthman stood and bowed briefly. The applause was equally enthusiastic from the
three groups seated at the horseshoe banquet table. On his right sat the Ontarian delegation, consisting of
Bossman Pier, three associates, and a crowd of scantily dressed odalisquesтАФall ensconced on piles of
wide, deep pillows. Chente had been placed at the middle of the horseshoe with the Freetowners, while
Martha Blount and her people sat along the left leg of the horseshoe. All through the meal, while the
Ontarian caroused and the Freetowners chattered, the New Providencian had kept silent.

Finally the applause died, and people waited. From above them the tiny lights burned fiercely, but the
stark shadows they cast held abysmal gloom. Chente saw a certain measure of fear in their attentive
silence. No doubt many of them had sat right here less than two years before, and watched a man