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.But Straha remembered that Yeager was also addicted to the stuff, and claimed it had helped give him his unmatched insight into the way the Race thought.Straha reckoned that one more proof of how strange the Big Uglies were.“I greet you, Shiplord,” Yeager said as Straha came to the door.“The two emissaries from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will be coming in an hour or so.I hope you do not mind.”“Would it matter if I did?” Straha asked before remembering his manners: “I greet you, Major Yeager.”Not directly answering the exile’s bitter question, Yeager said, “I hoped you might be able to tell them useful things about how the Race conducts itself, things they could take back to their homeland with them.They will be returning soon.”“It is possible,” Straha said.“I do not claim it is likely, but it is possible.And what shall we discuss before these other Big Uglies arrive?”“Come into the study,” Yeager said obliquely.“Make yourself comfortable.Can I get you alcohol? Can I get you ginger?”“Alcohol, please—rum.” Straha used an English word.“Ginger later, perhaps.I have been trying to cut back on my tasting lately.” He hadn’t succeeded, but he had been trying.“Rum.It shall be done.” Yeager attended to it.He had some himself, with cubes of ice in it.Straha did not care for drinks so cold.After they had both sipped, the Tosevite asked, “And have you heard anything new about who might have attacked the ships of the colonization fleet?”“I have not,” Straha answered, “and, I admit, this perplexes me.You Big Uglies are not usually so astute in such matters.The incentive here, of course, is larger than it would be in other cases.”“Yes, I would say so,” Yeager agreed.“Whoever did it, the Race will punish—and whoever did it deserves to be punished, too.I wonder if your contacts with males—maybe even with females now, for all I know—in the occupied parts of Tosev 3 had brought you any new information.”“As far as who the culprit may be, no,” Straha said.“I have learned that one of the ships destroyed carried most of the specialists in imperial administration.Whether the guilty party knew this in advance or not, I cannot say.My sources cannot say, either.I would be inclined to doubt it, but am without strong evidence for my doubt.”“I think you are right.The attack came too soon for Tosevites to have known such details about the colonization fleet—I believe,” Major Yeager said.“But it is an interesting datum, and not one I had met before.I thank you, Shiplord.”“You are welcome.” Straha drank more rum.Another minor treachery to his kind.After so many larger acts of treason, one more was hardly noticeable.Yeager did not scorn him as a traitor, not where it showed.He did not think Yeager scorned him at any deeper level.The Big Ugly was too interested in the Race in general to do anything of that sort: one more part of his character that made him so unusual.Before too long, the Chinese Tosevites came.Yeager introduced them as Liu Han and Liu Mei.They spoke the language of the Race fairly well, with an accent different from the American’s.Straha noted that Yeager’s son, who had paid little attention to his own arrival despite fascination with the Race, joined the group and made polite conversation for a time after the new Big Uglies arrived.From their voices, both of them were female.Did Jonathan Yeager find one of them sexually attractive? If so, which? After a while, Straha remembered that Liu Mei was Liu Han’s daughter.Since Jonathan was younger than Sam Yeager, that made him more likely to be interested in Liu Mei—or so Straha thought.The subtleties of Tosevite behavior patterns were lost on him, and he knew it.Presently, Sam Yeager spoke in English: “Enough chitchat—time to talk turkey.” Straha didn’t follow the idiom, but Jonathan evidently did, for he left.Liu Mei stayed.Maybe that meant she didn’t find him attractive.Maybe it meant she put duty above desire, which Straha found admirable.Or maybe it just meant the exiled shiplord didn’t fully grasp the situation [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]