"C M Kornbluth & Judith Merril - Gunner Cade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

BOOTS: Gunners march where the Emperor wills; that is their glory.
HELMET: The Order protects the Emperor—the Given Teacher, the Given Healer, the Given
Ruler—the brain and life of the Realm.
CLOAK: Like this the Order wraps the Realm and shields it.

Again he touched his gun to his lips, For the Teacher; to his chest, For the Healer, to his brow, with
awe, For the Ruler, the Emperor.

Briskly he released the waterclosures and dropped the gun into the belt on his hip. A gong sounded in
the wall, and Cade went to a cabinet for two steaming bowls of concentrate, freshly prepared in the giant
mash cookers far below. “Brother?”Harrow called across the open door.

Silence at this time was customary but not mandatory, Cade reminded himself—andHarrow was new
to this Chapter.

“Yes, Brother,” he said.

“Are there other Marsmen among us?”

“I know no others,” Cade said, and congratulated himself on that fact. “How would it concern you?”

“It would please me,”Harrow said formally. “A man likes to be among his own people in time of
battle.”

Cade could not answer him at first. What sort of talk was this? One didn’t call himself a man in the
Order. There were novices, armigers, Gunners, the Gunners Superior, and Arle himself, the Gunner
Supreme. They were your brothers, elder or younger.

“You are among your own people,” he said gently, refusing to allow himself to be tempted into the
peril of anger. “We are your brothers all.”

“But I am new among you,” the other said. “My brothers here are strangers to me.”

That was more reasonable. Cade could still remember his first battle for the Star of France, after he
left the Denver Chapter, where he spent his youth. “Your brothers will soon be beside you in battle,” he
reminded the newcomer. “An Armsman who has fought by your side is no stranger.”

“That will be tomorrow.” Harrow smiled. “And if I live through today, I shall not be here long after.”

“Where, then?”

“Back to Mars!”

“How can that be?” Cade demanded. “Mars-born Gunners fight for Earthly Stars. Earth-born
Gunners fight for the Star of Mars. That’s fitting.”

“Perhaps so, Brother; perhaps so. But a letter from my father at home says our Star has petitioned the
Emperor to allow him all Mars-born Armsmen, and I would be one of them.”

“Your Star is the Star of France,” said Cade sharply. He himself had received Harrow’s assignment