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

to avoid several formal engagements in favor of quiet evenings with her brother.
Even when Beth couldn't get free, Queen Mother Angelique might be available, and Roger
always wanted a chance to play. For a few days, Michael could almost forget that his was a
family any different from any other.
One evening after Justin had gone to put Roger to bed, brother and sister sat playing chess.
Their only audience was Beth's treecat, Ariel, who sprawled drowsily across his human's lap. To
Michael's complete surprise, Beth extended one long finger and tipped over her king, conceding
the game to him.
"I haven't checkmated you yet!" Michael protested.
"You would have in two moves," Beth said, "and I have something I need to discuss with
you."
Michael heard an odd twang in his sister's voice, a barely suppressed tension that warned him
that the Queen was going to confide in him information that at least some of her advisors would
rather she didn'tтАФand that she was worried that their judgement, rather than her own, might be
right.
 Michael kept his observation of Beth's mood to himself, reaching instead for the chess pieces
and beginning to methodically fit them into their velvet-lined niches in the polished hardwood
box.
After a few moments, Beth continued, "I know where Intransigent is being sent."
Michael cocked an eyebrow at her. He'd been told that his new posting, the light cruiser
Intransigent, was being sent to Silesia. He didn't know which sector, but he expected they'd be
taking over one of the standard anti-pirate patrols. If that was the case, though, why did Beth look
so thoughtful?
"Don't be a pig," Michael prompted when her silence stretched on. "Give."
Beth smiled at the bantering note in his voice.
"Intransigent isn't going to Silesia," she said, "at least not right away. She's being diverted to
deliver new orders and relief personnel to a diplomatic contingent we have negotiating with the
government of the Endicott System."
"Endicott?" Michael asked, not certain he had heard right.
Beth nodded. Stealing a few chess pieces from their velvet niches, she worked up a makeshift
map on the board that still rested between them.
"This queen," she said, setting the carved ebony figure at one extreme, "is the Star Kingdom.
This," she said, setting the white king at the other extreme, "is the People's Republic of Haven."
"They wouldn't appreciate your using a king," Michael teased. "They're a republic, not a
decadent, top-heavy monarchy like us."
Beth grinned, but she didn't exchange the piece. Instead she drew imaginary, curving lines
marking the sphere of influence ruled by each piece. The area ruled by the black queen was
markedly smaller than the one ruled by the white king.
"Between our two less than harmonious governments," Beth went on, "is a certain amount of
stellar real estate not claimed by either us or the Peeps. Unlike the People's Republic, the Star
Kingdom of Manticore does not advocate a policy of forced annexation."
The Queen spoke lightly, but there was steel beneath her words, steel that had been forged
and tempered through numerous battles in the political arena against those of Beth's subjects who
felt that Elizabeth the Third, like her father before her, was a bit too fond of acquiring new extra-
system responsibilities for the Star Kingdom. The conflict had come to a head with the
acquisition of the Basilisk System in the very year Elizabeth had been born. Despite the passage
of twenty-some years and the increasingly obvious predation of the PRH, the arguments against
keeping the Basilisk System had not quieted in the least.
For Michael, his term at the Academy had only made him more certain, not less, that the
policy followed by the Crown was the only sensible one. The words "Star Kingdom" might sound