"Eric Flint - Ranks of Bronze 2 - Carthago Delenda Est" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

pain/pleasure from its massage. For a moment, Agayan felt genuine envy. The ubiquity of the
vertebrate structure, whatever its limitations, meant that vertebrate Guildmasters could enjoy
more in the way of personal and intimate service than could members of his own species.

While Yuaw Khta grunted its pain/pleasure, Agayan took the time to examine its personal
attendant. Ossa were particularly favored for that purpose by genetic engineers. The
quasi-reptiles lent themselves as easily to phenotype surgery as they did to genetic
manipulation. And there was always a large supply of the things. Their sexual and procreative
energy was notorious, in their natural state as well as the multitude of bodily forms into which
they were shaped by Doge engineers.

Idly, Agayan wondered if this particular Ossa regretted its transformation. It was neutered,
now, to match Yuaw Khta’s current sexual stage. The Investigator kept two other Ossa on the
ship, one male and one female, to serve it/her/him as Yuaw Khta progressed through the cycle.

Agayan did not ponder the matter for more than a few seconds. Ossa, for him, were not
much more interesting than Gha.

He decided that he had been polite enough. “Are you going to be distracted by this exercise
in self-torture for much longer?” he demanded. “The affairs of the Guild press heavily.”

Yuaw Khta’s grunt combined satisfaction with irritation. The Investigator made a snapping
sound with its fingers and the Ossa attendant immediately departed the chamber.

After taking a long draught from its cup, Yuaw Khta said: “I fail to see your point, Voivode
Agayan. Regardless of their social discipline and cohesion, the humans are still primitives.”

He made a small waving gesture, which encompassed the entirety of the ship. “Even if they
managed—somehow—to seize the ship, they would have no way to fly it anywhere.”

“Unless they coerced the Pilot,” retorted Agayan. The Voivode spread both his forelimb
clusters, to give emphasis to his next words. “Unlike you, Yuaw Khta, I have personal
experience with the humans. I was their Commander, for a time, before my promotion to
Voivode. As you may or may not know, I passed through the Cacique ranks faster than any
Guildmaster on the record. Some of that unprecedented speed in climbing through the ranks,
of course, was due—”

He interlaced his finger-clusters modestly.

“—to my own ability. But every Commander of the human sepoys enjoyed rapid
promotion. The humans were, far and away, the best sepoy troops the Guild has ever had.
They were invariably successful in their campaigns, and did not even suffer heavy casualties.”

He took a drink from his tumbler. “As these things go,” he concluded. “In time, of course,
their numbers would have declined to the point where they would have been useless. But there
were many, many campaigns which the Guild would have profited from before their
liquidation was necessary.”
 “So?” demanded Yuaw Khta.

Agayan could not control the agitated flexing of his hindlimb clusters, he was so