[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.The light-haired ensign on the left had a scrape on his left hand; surely by the time it healed she'd have another reason to know him.The jigs seemed a bit stiff, as if they were afraid of her.They must have heard about the court-martial, but was that all?"Lieutenant Suiza, did you really meet Admiral Serrano?" That was an ensign, not the blond one but a thin dark young man with green eyes.Custis, his nametag said."Yes, I did," Esmay said.Ensign Custis opened his mouth to say more, but the blond ensign elbowed him visibly and he shut it again.A brief silence followed, during which Esmay ate steadily.Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Custis glancing at her from time to time.Finally he got his courage up again."You know her grandson's aboard.Barin Serrano.""Toby!" That was the blond, disapproving.Esmay didn't rise to that bait, but she did wonder if coincidence or Serrano influence had anything to do with a young Serrano's assignment."If you'd eat without talking, you wouldn't get your foot in your mouth," said one of the jigs further down the table.Esmay looked up in time to see a Look pass from that jig to another one.Great.Something mysterious which would, no doubt, end up on her shoulders.She put her fork down; her appetite had disappeared."Admiral Serrano's a very interesting person," she said.That was always safe.she hoped.From the startled looks of the two jigs, perhaps it wasn't."Not that it wasn't an alarming situation." Now everyone was looking at her.A year ago, she might have felt her face flushing, but the publicity around the court-martial had taken care of that.She smiled around the table."Any of you ever serve with Admiral Serrano?""No, sir," said the senior jig."But she's a Serrano, and they're all pretty much alike." His tone tried for superior, that of the one with secret knowledge, but its very smugness defeated its intent.Esmay knew exactly what he didn't know.For the first time she realized she could enjoy this."I don't think I'd put it that way," she said, leaning forward a little."Frankly, having served under both of them—" She had served under Admiral Serrano only remotely, and briefly, but this was no time for precision on that point."Admiral Vida Serrano, that is, and Commander Heris Serrano.file:///F|/rah/Elizabeth%20Moon/Moon,%20Eliz.rano%20Legacy%2004%20-%20Once%20A%20Hero.txt (73 of 207) [5/20/03 11:35:10 PM]." Thus reminding everyone that a lineup of all the admirals and commanders Serrano would take up a fair length of deck."I thought them quite individual.Nor is the difference all seniority."Let them make what they could of that."But isn't Commander Serrano—Heris Serrano that is—the admiral's niece?"Esmay let her eyebrows go up at this appalling lack of manners."What, precisely, are you suggesting?""Well.you know, they all stick together.Being related so close, I mean."Esmay had not imagined that kind of prejudice aimed at anyone but Fleet outsiders like herself, those who had enlisted from some planet.The Serranos were Fleet royalty, one of the fourteen private military forces that had combined into the Regular Space Service of the Familias Regnant.Through the white rage she felt, her mind reacted as if pricked, correlating remarks made months ago, even years ago, as early as her second term in the Fleet prep school.She had always ignored them, labeled them pique or envy or momentary annoyance.If those people had been serious.if there were serious resentment of the Serranos—and possibly some of the other First Fourteen—someone should know.She should know, and she should not lose her temper and shove this brash youngster's face in the stew.Her temper bucked, like one of the green colts in training, and she rode it down, hoping her eyes showed none of the strain."I think with a little more experience you won't either think or say things like that, Jig Callison," Esmay said in the mildest tone she could manage.Callison turned red, and looked down.Someone snickered; she didn't spot who.Conversation, naturally, died, and she pretended to eat the rest of her dinner.When the senior lieutenant tapped on his glass for attention, Esmay felt more relief than curiosity.She found it hard to keep her attention on the announcements of who had the duty, and almost missed her introduction.She stood, off-balance mentally if not physically, and nodded to the faces that seemed only pale and dark blurs.After the meal, she left for her quarters as soon as she could.She was annoyed with herself for her immediate prickly response to the mention of the Serrano name.And why was she so blurry?Usually she could focus on new people without much trouble.When she thought about it, she realized that she had actually run about thirty standard hours without sleep.Her transport ship had come in on its own schedule, skewed a full shift and a half from the Koskiusko.Shiplag.luckily she never had much trouble with it.One night's sleep seemed to rearrange her internal timer.but right now she wanted that sleep badly.She wasn't on the watch schedule yet, so she set her personal timer to allow ten hours.Her compartment filtered out most of the noises.she could just hear the bass thump of someone's music cube, DUM-da-DUM-DUM, over and over.She didn't like it, but it wouldn't keep her awake.She logged off the status board, and stretched out on her bunk.She had just time to wonder if she would have nightmares when she fell asleep.Beside her, Peli leaned out to toss a gasser into the passage.A blue line traced the air just above his head and he jerked back.Esmay pressed the filters snugly into her nostrils and peered through the helmet visor.When the smoke obscured normal vision, her helmet sensors gave her a wiggly false-color view of the corridor.She snaked out into it, hoping that whoever'd been shooting at them didn't have a similar helmet.They thought they'd gotten to the locker before the traitors, but none of the juniors knew how many helmets were supposed to be in that locker.Ahead, someone braced into an angle of a hatch, weapon at ready.Esmay couldn't see the features, but she could hear, with the clarity provided by the helmet external pickups, the words "Get this bunch of little fuckers, and we'll have only Dovir to worry about—"She braced her own weapon and fired.The wiggly pink-and-green image blew apart; something wet and warm splashed her arm.She ignored it.Through the dense stinging fog, she slithered on, attention focussed on the helmet's input.aware that behind her Peli and the others followed, that file:///F|/rah/Elizabeth%20Moon/Moon,%20Eliz.rano%20Legacy%2004%20-%20Once%20A%20Hero.txt (74 of 207) [5/20/03 11:35:10 PM]somewhere Major Dovir still led the few other loyalist officers.The fog lifted in ragged wisps.ahead she could see the scorched lines on the bulkheads.she did not look at the deck except when she had to, when she would have fallen over the obstructions.but even so she saw them.Heaps of old clothes, dirty and stained, scattered here and there.she would not think of it now, she would not, later was soon enough.She woke in a sweat, heart pounding.Later.Later was now, when she was safe.She turned on her bed light, and lay staring at the overhead.They had not been heaps of clothes; she had known it even then.Her father had been all too right—warfare was ugly, no matter where.Guts and blood and flesh stank the same in a spaceship as in the aftermath of a street riot.And she herself had added to that stench, that ugliness [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]