"Feintuch,.David.-.Seafort.06.-.Patriarchs.Hope.Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feintuch David)

I glanced at the huge holoscreen, and the magnificent vessel that dominated its
view. Lights blazing, she floated high above the planet, off Earthport Orbiting
Station, at whose Naval wing she'd been built.

I shook my head. After the fiasco with UNS Wellington many years past, there was
no thought of assembling a throng of dignitaries on ship for her dedication.
We'd been lucky to escape with our lives that day, after the fish attacked. The
aliens were gone now, victims of the caterwaul stations I'd devised. From time
to time, in the dark nights when Lord God reproached me, I wondered whether to
add genocide to the roll of my sins.

"Could even SecGen Seafort have imagined just twelve years ago, as he began his
second administration, when the world was reeling from the Transpop Rebellion
and not yet recovered from the attacks of the dread fish mat he did so much to
abate—"

My bream came in a hiss. Arlene's bony fingers squeezed my right elbow in
warning.

I scowled at her. 'The damned sycophant! Did you hear what—"

My wife leaned close, the ghost of a smile smoothing the wrinkles that caressed
her still-bright blue eyes. "Cover your lips, Nick. They'll read you."

"By Lord God, let them. I—" Common sense finally intruded. I subsided, seething.

To my left, a cough that might have been a chuckle. I shot Derek Carr a steely
gaze that would have withered him as a Naval midshipman, but unfortunately those
days were decades past My old friend had a laser glare of his own mat had held
him in good stead since he'd become First Stad-holder of Hope Nation, and he was
unimpressed by mine.

"... with her vast cargo holds, a crew of eight hundred ninety, transporting
over three thousand passengers, bristling with armaments, she'll carry U.N.
prestige and authority to our far-flung colonies across the infinite reaches
of..."

Derek leaned close. "He does go on."

I turned to Jeff Thorne, whispering. "Do you hear? Now the idiot's making
policy. 'Carry U.N. authority' indeed. As if we need a warship these days to
deal with our own dominions."

"With some of them, you might." He raised a hand to forestall my reply. "I think
Dubrovik's wrapping it up."

"... and so, to commission UNS Galactic, I have the honor to present His
Excellency Nicholas Ewing Seafort, Secretary-General of the United Nations."
Turning, the Admiral flashed me a pleased smile, like a toddler expecting a
parent's approval.