"Nancy Kress - Art of War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

ART OF WAR
NANCY KRESS



I
n addition to beauty, Art—and especially the value of Art—are things that are most
definitely in the eye of the beholder...

Nancy Kress began selling her elegant and incisive stories in the mid-seventies,
and has since become a frequent contributor to Asimov’s Science Fiction, The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni, SCI FICTION, and elsewhere.
Her books include the novel version of her Hugo- and Nebula-winning story,
Beggars in Spain, and a sequel, Beggars and Choosers, as well as The Prince of
Morning Bells, The Golden Grove, The White Pipes, An Alien Light, Brain Rose,
Oaths & Miracles, Stinger, Maximum Light, Crossfire, Nothing Human, and the
Space Opera trilogy Probability Moon, Probability Sun, and Probability Space.
Her short work has been collected in Trinity and Other Stories, The Aliens of
Earth, and Beaker’s Dozen. Her most recent book is the novel Crucible. In addition
to the awards for “Beggars in Spain,” she has also won Nebula Awards for her
stories “Out of All Them Bright Stars” and “The Flowers of Aulit Prison.”

****

“Return fire!” the colonel ordered, bleeding on the deck of her ship, ferocity
raging in her nonetheless controlled voice.

The young and untried officer of the deck cried, “It won’t do any good,
there’s too many—”

“I said fire, goddammit!”

“Fire at will!” the OD ordered the gun bay, and then closed his eyes
against the coming barrage, as well as against the sight of the exec’s mangled
corpse. Only min-utes left to them, only seconds. . .

A brilliant light blossomed on every screen, a blinding light, filling the
room. Crewmen, those still standing on the battered and limping ship, threw up
their arms to shield their eyes. And when the light finally faded, the enemy base
was gone. An-nihilated as if it had never existed.

“The base. ..it... how did you do that, ma’am?” the OD asked, dazed.
“Search for survivors,” the colonel ordered, just before she passed out from
wounds that would have killed a lesser soldier, and all soldiers were lesser than
she…

****

No, of course it didn’t happen that way. That’s from the holo version, available by
ansible throughout the Human galaxy forty-eight hours after the Victory of 149-Delta.