"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автора

him most of all. Under the Empire's rule, the Xucphra and Zaltin corporations
had been given a monopoly on the production of bacta. Thyferra served as the
heart of the operation, with alazhi harvesting and kavam syn-thesis taking place
primarily on Thyferra, but also at a few colony worlds elsewhere. The monopoly
had resulted in both corporations becoming slothful and greedy-with their
prof-its guaranteed, there was no need for expansion or diversifi-cation. As a
result, people rose to positions of importance with no eye toward merit, just
seniority.
Vorru's installation as Minister of Trade had given him oversight over the
production and sale of bacta. His initial review of the whole production and
distribution process had revealed to him hundreds of places where potential
profit was being ignored. For example, bacta produced at a satellite fa-cility
would be shipped back to Thyferra before being trans-shipped to a world a dozen
light-years away from the facility where it was produced. The only reason for
such an activity was so the shipping firm, which was owned by Xucphra, could
earn a profit, which ended up back in the pockets of the owners of Xucphra
anyway-though it had been pared down by the cost of ship maintenance, crew,
bookkeepers, and oth-ers.
This hardly surprised Vorru because of the way the Zal-tin and Xucphra
corporations had been set up. Ten thousand humans formed the management cadre
for the corporations, and they oversaw the operations carried out by
approxi-mately 2.8 million native Vratix laborers. The Vratix were very
efficient, requiring little or no supervision, so the galaxy-wide operations
hardly required the legion of administrative personnel in place. Each
corporation discouraged mixing and mingling with individuals from the other
corporation, hence they became insular and fierce rivals. While their isolation
had not caused problems with genetic inbreeding-though Vorru thought that was
only a generation or two away- there certainly was philosophical inbreeding that
led to sine-
cures being created for incompetent members of the corpo-rate family.
/ assume my last order to eliminate some of these fief-doms is the reason
Iceheart wants to see me. Xucphra had displaced Zaltin in the recent coup and
installed Ysanne Isard as the world's leader. Most of the Zaltin folks had fled
or been killed, making the Xucphra family the sole masters of a world they had
long shared. As such they had no desire to listen to or comply with the orders
of an offworlder like him. Even so, they were so thoroughly socialized to accept
a hier-archy of command, that they would complain about him to Isard, another
offworlder. It made no sense to Vorru, and in this lack of comprehension he felt
fortunate. The day I start thinking like my charges is the day I choose to die.
Rounding a corner, Vorru strode past the desk of Isard's secretary, refusing to
allow himself to be distracted by her spare costume. That is a pleasure I will
save myself for solace after Iceheart is through with me. The secretary, a woman
whose long black hair covered more than her clothes, smiled at him, but made no
attempt to stop him or even announce him.
The Imperial Royal Guards flanking the doorway to Isard's office did not react
to him at all, which reinforced the pity Vorru felt for them. Unlike everyone
else on the planet, they still wore the uniforms they brought with them from
Imperial Center. A thick scarlet cloak covered the red armor and though no
puddles formed at their feet, Vorru knew they had to be roasting inside it. Even
more burdensome to them, though, had to have been the orders to relent and not