"Elizabeth Moon - Familias 04 - Once A Hero" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

other junior officers were already there, stowing their duffels in the
lockers and looking glum.
"Well, she didn't eat you alive," Peli said. "I suppose my turn's
coming. What's she like?"
"A Serrano," Esmay said. That should be enough; she wasn't
about to discuss an admiral's character on board a ship. "There's a court
coming—but you know that." They had not so much talked about it, as
touched the subject and flinched away.
"At the moment," Peli said, "I'm just as glad you had the seniority
and not me. Though we're all in trouble."
She had been glad to lay down command, but just for a moment
she wanted it back, so she could tell Peli to be quiet. And so she would
have something to do. It took only a minute or two to stow her own
meager duffel in the compartment she'd been assigned, and only another
to wonder how much the officer evicted from it would resent having to
double up with someone else. Then she was faced with blank walls—or
an empty passage—or the cluster of fellow mutineers in the tiny
wardroom which was all the common space they would have until the
admiral decreed otherwise. Esmay lay back on her bunk and wished she
could turn off the relentless playback in her head, that kept showing her
the same gruesome scenes over and over and over. Why did they seem
worse each time?

"Of course they're listening," Peli said. Esmay paused in the
wardroom entrance; four of the others were there, listening to Peli. He
looked up, his glance including her in the conversation. "We have to
assume they're monitoring everything we say and do."
"That's standard," Esmay said. "Even in normal situations." One of
her own stomach-clenching fears was that the forensic teams sent to
Despite would find out that she talked in her sleep. She didn't know, but
if she had, and if she had talked during those nightmares . . .
"Yes, but now they're paying attention," Peli said.
"Well, we didn't do anything wrong." That was Arphan, a mere
ensign. "We weren't traitors, and we didn't lead the mutiny either. So I
don't see where they can do anything to us."
"Not to you, no," Peli said, with an edge of contempt. "From this,
if from nothing else, ensigns are safe. Although you could die of fright
facing the court."
"Why should I face a court?" Arphan, like Esmay, had come to
the Academy from a non-Service family. Unlike Esmay, he had come
from an influential non-Service Family, with friends who held Seats in
Council, and expected family clout to get him out of things.
"Regulations," Peli said crisply. "You were a commissioned officer
serving aboard a vessel on which a mutiny occurred: you will stand
before a court." Esmay didn't mind Peli's brutal directness so much when
it was aimed at someone else, but she knew he'd be at her soon enough.
"But don't worry," Peli went on. "You're unlikely to spend very long at
hard labor. Esmay and I, on the other hand—" he looked up at her and
smiled, a tight unhappy smile. "Esmay and I are the senior surviving
officers. Questions will be asked. If they decide to make an example,