"John C. Wright - Guest Law" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wright John C)

pointed along the captain's axis (an old saying ran: "the captain's head is always up!"), whereas Smith was
offset 90 degrees clockwise, legs straight, present-ing a broad target. (This he did for the same reason a
man under acceleration would bow or kneel; a posture where one could not move well to defend oneself
showed submission.)
Smith could see the stranger's ship in the viewing well. She was a slim and handsome craft, built
along classical lines, an old, a very old design, of such craftsmanship as was rarely seen today. She was
sturdy: built for high accelerations, and proudly bearing long thin structures forward of antennae of a type
that indicated fearlessly loud and long-range radar. The engine block was far aft on a very long and
graceful insulation shaft. The craft had evidently been made in days when the safety of the engine serfs still
was a concern.
Her lines were sleek. (Not, Smith thought secretly, like Procrustes, whose low speed and lack of
spin allowed her to grow many modules, ugly extrusions, and asymmetric protu-berances.)
But the stranger's ship was old. Rust, and ice from frozen oxygen, stained the hull where seals had
failed.
Yet she still emitted, on radio, the cheerful welcome-code. Merry green-and-red running lights were
still lit. Microwave detectors showed radiations from the aft section of her hull, which might still be
inhabited, even though the fore sections were cold and silent. Numbers and pictoglyphs flickered on a
small screen to one side of the main image, showing telemetry and specific readings.
Smith studied the cylinder's radius and rate of spin. He calculated, and then he said, "Glorious
Captain, the lowest deck of the stranger ship has centrifugal acceleration of exactly 32 feet per second
per second."
The officers looked eye to eye, hissing with surprise.
The chancellor nodded the gaudy plume that grew from his hair and eyebrows. "This number has
ancient significance! Some of the older orders of eremites still use it. They claim that it provides the best
weight for our bones. Perhaps this is a religious ship."
One of the younger knights, a thin, dapple-bellied piebald wearing silk speed-wings running from his
wrists to ankles, now spoke up: "Great Captain, perhaps she is an Earth ship, inhabited by machine
intelligences ... or ghosts!"
The other nobles opened their fans, and held them in front of their faces. If no derisive smiles were
seen, then there was no legal cause for duel. The young knight might be illiter-ate, true, most young
knights were, but the long kick-talons he wore on his calves had famous names.
The captain said, "We are more concerned for the stranger's nobility, than her ... ah ... origin." There
were a few smirks at that. A ship from Earth, indeed! All the old horror-tales made it clear that nothing
properly called human was left on Earth, except, perhaps, as pets or specimens of the machines. The
Earthmind had never had much interest in space.
The chancellor said, "Those racks forward ..." (he pointed at what were obviously antennae) "...
may house weaponry, great Captain, or particle beam weapons, if the stranger has force enough in her
drive core to sustain a weapon-grade power flow."
The captain looked toward Smith, "Concerning this ship's energy architecture, Engineer, have you
any feelings or intuitions?" She would not ask him for "deductions" or "con-clusions," of course.
Smith felt grateful that she had not asked him directly to answer the question; he was not obligated
to contradict the chancellor's idiotic assertions. Panicle beam indeed! The man had been pointing at a
radio dish.
Very polite, the captain, very proper. Politeness was crit-ically important aboard a crowded ship.
The captain was an hermaphrodite. An ancient law for-bade captains to marry (or to take lowlife
concubines) from crew aboard. The Captain's Wife must be from off-ship, either as gift or conquest or to
cement a friendly alliance.
But neither was it proper for the highest of the highlife to go without sexual pleasure, so the captain's
body was modi-fied to allow her to pleasure herself.
Her breasts were beautiful—larger, by law, than any woman's aboard—and her skin was adjusted