"Tanya Huff - Valor 2 - The Better Part of Valor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

General Morris managed to keep the lid on.
Impressive if only because the Marines had arrived in more than one
contested system to find the media there first.
At her final node, Torin had her link to herself and at the end of the
line stepped out onto an empty platform. Four Katrien bounced out of
the link behind her and one out of the link behind that. Although she
hadn't paid much attention to fur patterns, the dark glasses on the
single Katrien, now hurrying to join the others, seemed familiar.
I'm in friendly territory, Torin reminded herself. No reason to
assume I'm being followed. Two different people could easily be
wearing the same expensive eyewear.
But she crossed the platform toward them anyway—paranoia and
survival instinct were two sides of the same coin when the job
description involved being targeted by projectile weapons. The single
Katrien cut off a high-pitched and incomprehensible flow of sound as
she reached the group, and all five turned toward her.
She scowled down at the source of her disquiet.
"Do I know you?"
 A heavyset individual—Torin didn't know enough about the Katrien
to assume gender—spread hands that looked like black latex gloves
extending from the sleeves of a fur coat, and replied in a friendly
sounding torrent of its own language.
*Translation not available.*
"Do any of you speak Federate?"
A second torrent, even friendlier sounding than the first.
*Translation not available.*
All five were now smiling toothily, the Katrien who might or might
not have been following her, a little toothier than the rest. Torin knew
better than to make cross-species generalizations, but it looked smug.
If they were living on station, they spoke Federate; no question they
were being deliberate pains in the ass.
Maybe they disliked the military on principle. Many of the Elder
Races were pacifists—to the point of extinction when the Others
showed up which was, after all, why the Humans, Taykan, and Krai
had been invited in.
Maybe the Katrien was the same Katrien she'd seen in the lounge.
Maybe it told the others to play dumb for the soldier. Fuk it. It was a
free station. She was not going to get involved in the game.
But this time, she noted the fur pattern. If she saw this particular
smugly smiling Katrien again, she'd know it.
Her answering smile was less toothy but more sarcastic, "Thank you
for your time."
They shouted something after her as she left the platform. Torin
tongued off her implant before it could tell her once again that a
translation was unavailable. Some things didn't need to be translated.


There was a vacuum jockey leaning against the orange metal
bulkhead outside SD-31. Torin wondered how the Navy flier could
look so boneless and still remain upright. He straightened as she