"RUSCH, DEAN WESLEY SMITH KRISTINE KATHRYN - TREATYS LAW 4TH IN THE DAY OF HONOR SERIES STARTREK B" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Prologue

KERDOCH MOVED with a steady, solid pace across the large family room to
his chair. He wore the same clothes he had worn on this day twenty
cycles earlier.

Frayed work clothes that still fit, even though his body had thickened
with age. They were the clothes of a proud Klingon farmer, but on that
special day twenty cycles ago, they had also been the uniform of a
warrior.

The air was warm and still full of the smells of the huge meal prepared
and eaten earlier. The tension of anticipation of a wonderful story
about to be told blanketed the room, coloring everyone's sight with a
special glow, as if Kahless himself were about to visit them. Kerdoch
felt it. He let the sensation fill him with strength, reinforcing his
tired old bones, bones worn by a lifetime of working the fields to feed
the warriors of the Empire. His job was a proud one. He and his family
were respected in the region.

The seventeen Klingon adults and the thirty-one Klingon children who
filled the room were silent, almost not breathing. Waiting.

Kerdoch settled himself in his big chair, then looked over the group.
They were his family. His entire family. Around his feet, his youngest
grandchildren sat cross-legged, staring up at their grandfather. They
too anticipated his story, and he knew it.

They all knew the story by heart. Kerdoch had repeated the story every
year on the same day, and he had never tired of it. His children and
grandchildren were not tired of it, either; that much was clear. A good
sign for the future, in his opinion. His story was important, about a
day and a fight of honor that should be remembered by all Klingons.

Kerdoch's black eyes never missed a detail, not in the fields, and not
in this large room on this special day. His gaze bored through his
grandchildren and his older children until it came to rest on his wife,
standing near the back. He smiled, and she returned his smile. She
also remembered this day twenty years earlier. It was a day on which
she feared she had lost her husband, her children, and her own life. She
too knew the importance of his story.

The tension in the room seemed to grow as everyone knew the story of the
great fight was about to begin. The excitement of hearing it again was
almost too much for the younger children to bear. Many of them squirmed
and shifted their position. Kerdoch forced himself not to smile at
them.

He took a deep breath, then started, letting his deep