[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
."I take exception to the old and ugly part, though.Pigheaded did not refer to your exterior appearance.""Thank you—I think."It pleased her to amuse him even that little."It is the job, isn't it?" she said."Can you talk about it at all?"His lips compressed."In confidence—although that seems to be your natural state, I don't know why I bother to emphasize it—it looks like we could have another war on our hands before the end of the year.And we're not nearly well enough recovered for it, after Escobar.""What! I thought the war party was half-paralyzed.""Ours is.The Cetagandans' is still in good working order, however.Intelligence indicates they were planning to use the political chaos here following Ezar Vorbarra's death to cover a move on those disputed wormhole jump points.Instead they got me, and—well, I can hardly call it stability.Dynamic equilibrium, at best.Anyway, not the kind of disruption they were counting on.Hence that little incident with the sonic grenade.Negri and Illyan are now seventy percent sure it was Cetagandan work.""Will they.try again?""Almost certainly.But with or without me, consensus in the Staff is that they'll be probing in force before the end of the year.And if we're weak—they'll just keep right on moving until they're stopped.""No wonder you've been.abstracted.""Is that the polite term for it? But no.I've known about the Cetagandans for some time.Something else came up today, after the Council session.A private audience.Count Vorhalas came to see me, to beg a favor.""I'd think it would be your pleasure, to do a favor for Rulf Vorhalas's brother.I gather not?"He shook his head unhappily."The Count's youngest son, who is a hotheaded young idiot of eighteen who should have been sent to military school—you met him at the Council confirmation, as I recall—""Lord Carl?""Yes.He got into a drunken fight at a party last night.""A universal tradition.Such things happen even on Beta Colony.""Quite.But they stepped outside to settle their affair armed, each one, with a pair of dull swords that had been part of a wall decoration, and a couple of kitchen knives.That made it, technically, a duel with the two swords.""Uh-oh.Was anyone hurt?""Unfortunately, yes.More or less by accident, I gather, in a scrambling fall, the Count's son managed to put his sword through his friend's stomach and sever his abdominal aorta.He bled to death almost immediately.By the time the bystanders had gathered their wits sufficiently to get a medical team up there, it was much too late.""Dear God.""It was a duel, Cordelia.It began as a mockery, but it ended as the real thing.And the penalties for dueling apply." He rose, and paced the room, stopping by the window and staring out into the rain."His father came to ask me for an Imperial pardon.Or, if I could not grant that, to see if I could get the charges changed to simple murder.If it were tried as a simple murder, the boy could plead self-defense, and possibly end up with a mere prison term.""That seems.fair enough, I suppose.""Yes." He paced again."A favor for a friend.Or.the first crack in the door to let that hell-bred custom back into our society.What happens when the next case is brought before me, and the next, and the next? Where do I begin drawing the line? What if the next case involves some political enemy of mine, and not a member of my own party? Shall all the deaths that went into stamping this thing out be made void? I remember dueling, and what things were like back then.And worse—an entry point for government by friends, then cliques.Say what you will about Ezar Vorbarra, in thirty years of ruthless labor he transformed the government from a Vor-class club into some semblance, however shaky, of a rule of law, one law for everyone.""I begin to see the problem.""And me—me, of all men, to have to make that decision! Who should have been publicly executed twenty-two years ago for the selfsame crime!" He paused before her."The story about last night is all over town, in various forms, this morning.It will be all over everywhere in a few days.I had the news service kill it, temporarily, but that was mere spitting in the wind.It's too late for a coverup, even if I wanted to do one.So what shall I betray this day? A friend? Or Ezar Vorbarra's trust? There is no doubt which decision he would have made."He sat back beside her, and took her in his arms."And this is only the beginning.Every month, every week, there will be some other impossible thing.What's going to be left of me after fifteen years of this? A husk, like that thing we buried three months ago, praying with his last breath that there may be no God? Or a power-corrupted monstrosity, like his son, so infected it could only be sterilized by plasma arc? Or something even worse?"His naked agony terrified her.She held him tightly in return."I don't know.I don't know.But somebody.somebody has been making these kinds of decisions right along, while we went along blissfully unconscious, taking the world as given.And they were only human, too.No better, no worse than you.""Frightening thought."She sighed."You can't choose between evil and evil, in the dark, by logic.You can only cling to some safety line of principle.I can't make your decision.But whatever principles you choose now are going to be your safety lines, to carry you forward.And for the sake of your people, they're going to have to be consistent ones."He rested in her arms."I know.There wasn't really a question, about the decision.I was just.kicking a bit, going down." He disengaged himself, and stood again."Dear Captain.If I'm still sane, fifteen years from now, I believe it will be your doing."She looked up at him."So what decision is it?"The pain in his eyes gave her the answer."Oh, no," she said involuntarily, then bit off further words.And I was trying to speak so wisely.I didn't mean this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]