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

they wouldnтАЩt need me for whatever horrible business . . .
тАЬEvon!тАЭ
Evon closed his eyes, trying to ignore the voice behind him. It wouldnтАЩt go away.
тАЬEvon! Put down that controller and get your kit together!тАЭ Oscan chirped from the casements.
тАЬWeтАЩre headed for Tentris.тАЭ
Evon turned, disbelief in his face. тАЬTentris? Are you out of your mind! ThereтАЩs a civil war
brewing and you want us to leave this nice backwater world and drop into one of the most hotly
contested planets in the Empire?тАЭ
тАЬPerhaps weтАЩre supposed to stop it,тАЭ Oscan offered as more of a question than an affirmation.
тАЬI report history, not make it,тАЭ Evon stated stubbornly. тАЬIf they want someone to intervene in
this war, then Omnet can well send out someone else.тАЭ
тАЬBut they did,тАЭ Oscan replied, showing no signs of either taking a hint or going away on his
own. тАЬVestis ShnтАЩdar is the one who is requesting our assistance.тАЭ
Evon gritted his teeth. A green Vestis of the Inquisition, he thought, has come back to drag his
old school chums into the maelstrom with him. Evon had never had much use for Queekat ShnтАЩdar
when the man was a coworker in the monastery and frankly never did understand his most glorious
promotion.
He turned and glanced longingly at his cart filled with yellow, red and orange vegetables and
longed for the feast they would no longer make.
тАЬAre you coming?тАЭ Oscan was annoying.
тАЬNo!тАЭ Evon turned and strode purposefully past Oscan, who stood stunned in his wake. тАЬMa-
dame Neskat may be in charge during the absence of the EтАЩtoris but IтАЩm not in the mood to put my
blood on the line just because her old boyfriend shows up and wants to make a roadtrip into the middle
of a minefield.тАЭ
Evon stormed down the curving hall in search of Merinda Neskat. The woman was uptight with
everyone and, Evon knew, she had gone too far. HeтАЩd make her listen. He began rehearsing all the
reasons why this sudden pullout of the sifting team to aid on some fool errand of the inquisition was a
mistake. Why even if the mission was critical, he certainly wasnтАЩt. Why it made more sense to leave
him behind than to take him along.
He was still coming up with reasons when, a few hours after a short, heated and ultimately one-
sided debate with acting-EтАЩtoris Neskat, he found himself and his field kit sitting in the cramped pas-
senger compartment of Vestis Shn-darтАЩs starship rising into the night sky with his vegetables left far
behind.



┬й Copyright 1997 by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman / All Rights Reserved. Page 17
Chapter 3: Inflight
Merinda leaned forward in the command chair of the Khindar, as she had discovered Queekat had
named his ship, gazing intently through the large view plates that were situated below her. The chair
itself was situated on a low railed platform which thrust out from between the pilot and navigation
stations at the rear of the ships bridge, suspending the command chair above a bank of clear ports in the
lower hull. Forward and above her position, Merinda could survey the various crystal display ovals
arranged about the compartments forward angular walls. These gave a cascade of information from the
ships synthetic mind, which watched over their journey and their comfort as well. The information and
images shifting on the surface of those crystals were like windows into dreaming mind but it was not
their hypnotic patterns which held her attention
Below her the great Cestiline Nebula drifted in a breathtaking display of color and light. The
tendrils of stardust shifted below her at an unimaginable distance. Shafts of light, giving promise to the
new stars aborning within cast sheets of blue and salmon light across the ethereal face of the interstellar