"David Weber - Worlds of Honor 4 - Service of the Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

certain assumptions.
None of Ephraim's wives could read. Therefore, no effort was made to secure the library
against them. None of his wives could use the computer beyond activating the simple pictorial
icons used for routine household chores. Certainly, none of them could manage anything as
complicated as programming.
Judith, however, could read. She was familiar with the more complicated computers used by
the Graysons, and her parents had taught her elementary programming. This last, combined with
ready access to Ephraim's household databanks, made it possible for Judith to continue her
education.
Her mother's dying warning had also provided a hint as to along which path lay Judith's
freedom. If the Masadans did not want her to know anything, then she would seek to know
everythingтАФand to keep her acquisition of that knowledge from them.
Judith's programmed safeguards would not have stopped a careful security check, but where
there can be no mice, no one sets mousetraps. She had another advantage as well. She was not her
husband's favorite wife. Indeed, in many ways she was his least favorite, but Ephraim did not
dispose of her because she was a prize.
To his fellows, who hated the Graysons with singleminded fanaticism, Judith was presented
as a soul redeemed from sin, a vessel who would carry within her womb those who would prove
the undoing of their own forbearers. For this reason, Ephraim often took Judith with him when
his duties took him away from home. She was a trophy: living, breathing proof that the Masadan
struggle to conquer Grayson would not be in vain.
Initially, Judith, then only twelve, had hated these voyages. They forced her into increased
intimacy with her husband, for Ephraim didn't bring any other of his wives. However, once Judith
realized that during her voyages on Aaron's Rod she was free from observationтАФfor jealous
Ephraim kept her locked in the captain's quarters lest she incite unholy lust among his crewтАФshe
took advantage of her isolation.
Hacking into the ship's computer was Judith's first challenge, but one for which her education
on Grayson's more sophisticated systems had given her the tools. Once she had access to Aaron's
Rod's computer, and safeguard programs in place, Judith immersed herself in the joys of
forbidden knowledge.
While she was supposed to be praying or memorizing scripture, Judith familiarized herself
with the ship's systems, starting with the basics of life support, engineering, and communications,
moving from these into the more arcane specializations of weaponry and astrogation. Later, when
she was fourteen, she began studying elementary tactics.
Had Ephraim but known, his youngest wife at fifteen was as well-educatedтАФat least in
theoryтАФas any member of his crew. Instead he thought her something of an idiot, for her
inability to memorize the scripture passages he set for herтАФeven with the incentive of a beating
for her failureтАФwas nearly beyond belief.
But Ephraim didn't have energy to waste worrying about the deficiencies of a woman who,
after all, hardly needed a mind to serve her purpose. As he had been when Aaron's Rod took the
merchant vessel that had carried Judith and her parents, Ephraim continued to serve as a Masadan
privateer.
Ephraim was very careful which ships he hunted. Most of the time he was content to
masquerade as an armed merchantman, even to the extent of carrying regular cargos. The missile
tubes and laser batteries that were part of his vessel could be turned to other purposes than self-
defense, however, and when the situation was deemed propitious, unarmed ships fell before
Aaron's Rod's might.
Judith, of course, did not take part in these battles. When Aaron's Rod went into battle, she
remained locked in the captain's quarters. Ephraim valued her sufficiently to provide a vac suit
lest she die from a breach in the hull, but that suit was an uncertain refuge. Ephraim had no wish