"Drake, David - Leary 04 - Way To Glory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

THE WAY TO GLORY
by David Drake


DEDICATION
For Gina Massel-Castater
With respect and affection
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Dan Breen continues as my first reader, I'm happy to say. He has particular merit on clerical issues, but he's very good on matters of size as well.
I'm occasionally asked how I keep details straight while writing complex novels in several subgenres in quick succession. The assumption tends to be that I have a cross-indexed file of names, etc, to which I refer frequently. That would indeed be a good way to do it.
What I actually have is a retentive memory and more recently a team of continuity checkers who do a much better job than I could if I were to concentrate on names instead of story. Dorothy Day and Evan Ladouceur carried out this duty splendidly on The Way to Glory. The mistakes remain my mistakes, however.
Incidentally, occasionally an error will lead to a bit of found art. When I realized that the I'd given the Alliance vessel Moltke fewer, larger guns than a Field Marshal Class heavy cruiser should mount, I didn't go back and change the equipment. Instead I renamed her Scheer and left her a pocket battleship, which opens possibilities for later books in the series.
My webmaster Karen Zimmerman both archived my daily files and provided (generally in a matter of minutes) information which I suddenly needed. Well, wanted: was it important that I have the real Haitian national anthem before me (in Creole and English versions) when I wrote a throw-away scene? I guess the answer is that it was important to me. There's a lot more story background in my head than ever gets onto the page... but if it weren't in my head, what was on the page would be thinner and paler. I think.
Andre Norton gets a specific note of thanks for noting how useful lizards could be as pets on a spaceship. I say 'specific' because I probably wouldn't be writing adventure stories of this sort if I hadn't read Andre's when I met science fiction.
I had computer problems. My son Jonathan fixed them. An acknowledgments page reminds me of how very lucky I have been in life.
My wife Jo bore with me as I wrote another novel and my immediate neighborhood became a deepening morass of books, documents, and pictures. (I use a lot of references while I'm working.) I try to clean up my mess in the short intervals between novels, but I'm aware that it isn't a perfect existence for an ordinarily neat person.
My thanks generally to all those who've brightened my life by their presence in it.


AUTHOR'S NOTE
The general political background of the RCN series is that of Europe in the mid-18th century, with admixtures of late-Republican Rome. (There's a surprising degree of congruence between British and Roman society in those periods.)
Major plot elements in The Way to Glory, however, come from the 19th century. Those of you who know some American history may note echoes of the Somers Mutiny, and if you're really well-versed you'll understand how greatly I simplified the details of political factions both in Washington (Whigs, Democrats, and the intimates of President Tyler whose own party had repudiated him) and in the US Navy. Real history is a great deal more complex than anything I could make up.
The situation of the British North America and West Indies Squadron, based in Bermuda, would've been much as described during the 18th and even 17th centuries, with one important difference: Haiti didn't gain its independence till 1804. From that point through the 1880s (from which I've drawn several plot incidents) much of the squadron's work involved interceding in Haiti on behalf of British citizens (many of whom brought no credit upon their status) and refugees in general. One could scarcely ask for a better description of the term 'thankless task'. This one came with cockroaches.
In more recent times, the US has taken over the former British role in Haiti. I suspect the roaches are still there; certainly nothing else has changed.
I'll note again that I don't invent systems of weights and measures for the background of the RCN series: the practice would neither advance my plot nor make the world a better place. I don't assume that people thousands of years in the future will still be using the systems in use today. Those who would quarrel with my choice here might usefully ask themselves, however, how long feet and inches have been in use thus far.
Dave Drake
david-drake.com


EPIGRAPH
Not once or twice in our rough island-story
The path of duty was the way to glory.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington


CHAPTER 1: Xenos on Cinnabar
The pair of footmen at the head of the stairs bowed to Daniel, the older one said, "Senator Kearnes will be most pleased that you're able to attend, Lieutenant Leary."
"Pleased to be here," Daniel said. He smiled as he passed into the ballroom which took up most of the second floor of the Kearnes townhouse. Indeed, he was pleased.
The invitation to Lira Kearnes' fortieth birthday gala specified that officers were to wear full medals rather than ribbons. The request might well have been intended to display Lt. Daniel Leary at his most splendid; certainly it had that effect.
The Republic of Cinnabar Navy was the sword of the republic, not a weapon of party politics. High RCN officers couldn't attend this ball because Bruno Kearnes was the central figure in several political battles of the sort that the RCN kept out of. The unspoken ban on attendance didn't apply to a twenty-four year old lieutenant. The fruit salad on the breast of Daniel's Dress Whites would've been impressive even for an admiral, however.
Daniel, lately commanding the corvette Princess Cecile, had returned with dispatches from Admiral Keith's squadron just in time to give Senator Kearnes his show. Daniel in turn was getting the kind of adulation that came to those whom the citizens of Cinnabar decided were genuine heroes. It was Lira Kearnes' gala, but it was Daniel Leary's night.
Daniel scanned the crowd, chcking for anyone he might know among those present. The invitation had been to all four officers from the Princess Cecile: Midshipmen Dorst and Vesey, and First Lieutenant Conn Medorn, who not coincidentally was the nephew of Admiral Keith.
The Princess Cecile's signals officer, Adele Mundy, had been invited also--but not because she was an RCN warrant officer. Adele was Mundy of Chatsworth, head and sole survivor of one of the most noble families in the Republic. Her father--before his execution for treason--had been leader of the Popular Party. That was the territory if not precisely the title which Bruno Kearnes appeared to have marked for his own.