"Steve White - The Disinherited" - читать интересную книгу автора (White Steve)

too?
“Yes,” Arduin amplified. “The last of the supply caches is in place.
And I’ve managed to arrange for the transfer of the remainder of the
units whose commanders I can be sure of. There’ll be a resistance
fleet operating in the asteroids when you return.” A fresh wave of
anguish crossed his blunt features; he was discovering what it was
to serve two masters, and it was anathema to him. When he spoke, it
was to blurt out the final appeal that Varien had known he must
make. “Varien, you don’t need to do this! Turn the new drive over
to the government! Maybe we can still put it to use, stop the
Korvaasha before…”
“We’ve been over this ground already, Arduin,” Varien interrupted,
his voice unwontedly gentle. “Many times, in fact. I put it to you:
has the situation changed since our final decision was reached? Do
you have any new information that invalidates the logic of that
decision?”
“No,” Arduin admitted.
“Then,” Varien went on remorselessly, “our conclusions still stand.
The Korvaash fleets are advancing at a rate limited only by their
own caution—I imagine they still haven’t fully grasped how feeble
their opposition is.” He raised a forestalling hand. “Forgive me, old
friend, but the time for good manners is past. No one doubts the
courage of your young men and women. They will go on till the
end, trying to shelter Raehan behind a wall of their own corpses.
But they are, quite simply, amateurs—products of a society for

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswij...nten/spaar/Steve%20White%20-%20The%20Disinherited.html (4 of 306)23-2-2006 21:14:56
White, Steve - [The Disinherited 01] - The Disinherited


which war has been nothing more than the fading memory of an old
nightmare. And they are fighting an enemy who sees himself as
being permanently at war and organizes his society accordingly, and
who commands resources that dwarf ours.”
“But,” Arduin argued stubbornly, “our technology is more
sophisticated than theirs! Given your new drive…”
“… We could do far more damage to them than we otherwise
would,” Varien finished for him. “Maybe even provoke them into
making exceptions to their usual guidelines for dealing with newly
conquered planets—exceptions we wouldn’t like. But we could not
stop them. No technological advantage can win a war without a
viable military force to take advantage of it. To give the drive to our
government now would merely make it part of the spoils the
Korvaasha will take when they occupy Raehan.” He paused for
breath, and then gazed somberly at the other two.
“I haven’t used this argument until now, partly because”—a wintery
smile—“it is so out of character that you both would have suspected
I was up to something. But I ask you to consider this. We now know
we are not the only intelligent race in the cosmos. So we are acting
not only for ourselves, but for all that lives and thinks! To give the