"Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - StarShield Book 1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

granite pedestal of stone on which it was built until it covered the entire union of the three rivers
beneath it. Flying buttresses from the sides of the river supported this foundation from which sprang
the elegant and intricate towers known as RhishanтАЩs Crown. These thin spindles stood at the edge of the
foundation, protecting the two inner circles which surrounded the central court. The courtyard itself
was a vast open space of fitted stones so skillfully placed that a razorтАЩs edge couldnтАЩt be worked
between one stone and another. This was all the more magnificent for the mosaic which the stones
formed of the ancient goddess Rhishan sundering the stones of the Krevish Mountains in her grief and
rage.
Evon Flynn, however, stood at the edge of the courtyard and pondered how nearly all of this
ancient glory was completely obscured, however, but the huge starship hulking down in the center of
the mosaic. It wasnтАЩt that he particularly was concerned for any sacrilege that the presence of the
behemoth represented as it stood on this holy ground nor did he feel any concern for the possible
damage that such a machine might represent to this monument to a stonefitters craft now long lost.
EvonтАЩs concern was strictly limited to Evon.
Evon had rather cheerfully been piloting the small levitation pallet up from HтАЩsik with this
weeks grocery for the team. Evon was man of moderate height and an athletic build. He wore his black
hair a little longer than most and sported a mustache which he tried to keep in trim as best he could. To
look at him, the robes of the Librae just didnтАЩt seem to fit him or he them. Others on the team might
grumble about the trek down the mountain in search of fresh provisions in the city marketplace but not
Evon. He loved the walk and had a talent for cooking which his companions were more than willing to
take advantage of. He was a talented sifter, able to pick out the pattern in different reports and then
bring them together into a clear picture better than most people on the team тАФ itтАЩs just that his heart
wasnтАЩt in it. The work, he often told the others, would still be there for him when he got back and he
rarely, if ever, got behind in his analysis. Why not take a little time for something fresh to eat?
Only now his levitation cart, filled beyond its capacity with food, was blocked by a starship.
The ship was obviously from one of the Federated Stellar States тАФ FSS technology all seemed
to fall along straight, rather box-like lines which confused the appearance of complexity with its value
of function. The ship was primarily designed to operate in a strictly T52/87 zone, Evon thought, trans-
lating his appraisal into the standard Flynch-Halpert Q-dex notation for a high technology level coupled
with a low tolerance for spiritualism and mystic force channeling. That was pretty close to the T53/
74:M32/56 zone that the DтАЩRakan Empire operated in тАФ a reasonably good choice for operating in this
region. However, the Federated Stellar States were nearly a quarter of the galactic disk away from the
DтАЩRakan and the latest weather report he had heard over Omnet showed a rather massive T12/28:M66/
93 zone had established itself between two massively occluded quantum fronts gripping the Pluzhiak
Imperium. That meant that standard FSS drives wouldnтАЩt have operated there and would require some-

┬й Copyright 1997 by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman / All Rights Reserved. Page 16
thing a bit more on the fantastical side in terms of operations to get the ship to function across the
Pluziak space, cross another quantum front and eventually arrive in the DтАЩRakan Empire and sit in the
middle of EvonтАЩs monastery courtyard.
Evon nodded sagely at the glass globes with copper coils barely protruding from the back of the
ship. They looked hokey and completely fake тАФ just the kind of drive system that would function
perfectly in an M66/93 zone. They werenтАЩt added on as an afterthought, either, Evon noted with a
practiced eye. The massive N-gravity discs on the bottom of the hull were so advanced that even
technophile Evon had not even heard of its like before. This ship was built to come to Brishan from
nearly a quarter of the galaxy away and arrive without making so much as the sound of a bird landing.
Ships like this brought only bad news, Evon thought. He knew somehow that the ship was
going to drag him from his rather pleasant, interesting and completely non-dangerous work into some-
thing that he would regret getting involved in. Maybe I could just slip around this evil omen into the
kitchen, Evon thought. No one would notice me until after the dinner was cooked and by then, perhaps,