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

sixty/sixty. Respiration slow and steady.
Then it dawned on him. While he'd been flying a pattern designed to
test the limits of Human physiology, his passenger had gone to sleep.
 Chapter Two

"STAFF Sergeant Kerr?"
"Yes, sir." The lieutenant waiting outside the fighter bay had hair
and eyes the palest blue Torin'd ever seen on a di'Taykan. His Class Cs
had been perfectly creased, his boots and brass magnificently shined,
even his masker gleamed.
He seemed momentarily disappointed that her spit and polish
matched his.
"I'm Lieutenant Stedrin, General Morris' aide. The general wants to
see you right away."
She'd been traveling for the last fifteen hours. What she wanted was
a shower—although perhaps wanted wasn't the most accurate word.
Stedrin's eyes darkened, as though he were trying to see her
expression in more detail. Then he stepped back and gestured to the
right. "The Corps' attachment is this way."
They walked in silence, watched covertly by the Berganitan's crew.
Torin and a warrant exchanged nods as she passed his work party, but
the lieutenant might as well have been moving through an empty ship.
She wondered if he'd have shortened his stride had she not been tall
enough to keep up and decided, after casting a quick glance at the rigid
muscles of his jaw, he probably wouldn't. Must make him real popular
with the Krai. Why the hell didn't he just message my implant?
"The general thinks highly of you." Stedrin made the sudden
announcement in a tone that suggested the general was alone in that
regard. "He says that without you, it's doubtful we'd have gained the
Silsviss as allies." The pause was too short for a reply.
Too long to have been anything but deliberate emphasis. "I think
you've taken as much advantage of that as there is to be taken. Do you
understand me, Staff Sergeant Kerr?"
"Yes, sir." And that answered the message versus personal touch
question. He'd come all the way down to the fighter bay to warn her to
play nice or she'd have him to deal with. The overachieving, armament
up the butt attitude was unusual for a di'Taykan.
Willing to lay odds that he had a minimum of eight letters in the
unmentioned half of his name—which would put his family low in the
Taykan caste system—she kept her face expressionless under the
weight of his regard.
"I get the impression you're not taking this seriously, Staff
Sergeant."
Stepping forward, she checked that the lock lights were green and
opened the hatch separating the Marine attachment from the
Berganitan proper. "Sorry, sir."
"For what?" he demanded, walking over the seals with the self-
conscious care of one who'd spent very little time in space.
"For your mistaken impression, Lieutenant." She dogged the hatch
closed and turned to meet his eyes.