"CAREY, DIANE - STAR TREK CHALLENGER" - читать интересную книгу автора (Carey Diane)

 Chapter One

"How couLD threat vessels get so close without tripping our sensors?"

"What do you expect from me? Look at the monitors. Completely
gamma-seized."

"Then we better saddle up and learn to ride blind."

The sci-deck of Starfleet Cruiser Peleliu stank and smoldered. Part of
the carpet was on fire, but nobody was bothering with it. Hot dwnage
crawled like parasites through the mechanics under the sensor boards'
tri polymer skin. Burst connections caused tiny volcanoes of acid in
ripped-open sheeting. A third of the pressure pads and readouts had
quit working or were crying for damage control.

Nick Keller swiped his uniform's dirty sleeve across his forehead, bent
over the sensor boards, and tried to focus his stinging eyes. A fleck
of insulation hung from a wing of his briar-patch-brown hair and
blocked part of his view. For an hour they'd fielded attacks from
enemies they couldn't see, couldn't target, and hadn't expected How
had any hostiles known they were on their way out to Belle Terre? Or
was this some new enemy that nobody in Starfleet or out at the colony
even knew about yet?

The question went unanswered. Sensors couldn't see through the bath of
gamma radiation spewed by a pulsing neutron star so far away that even
working long range sensors wouldn't have picked it up.

Beside him, Tim McAddis dribbled sweat from his pale forehead onto the
sensor dials. His blond hair glistened with a frost of perspiration.
"I'm used to seeing things a solar system away, not a lousy five
hundred yards. Now that our deflectors are on fun, we can't even pick
up phantom data like before."

It was a hard thing for ascience officer to admit.

Keller pressed a hand to McAddis's hunched shoulder. "Look at the
bright side. You'll get the blame instead of me."

McAddis grinned nervously. "The mighty second mate stands defiant."

A knock on the cold-molded lattice grid near his knee got Keller's
attention. He found the first officer's reassuring face peering up
from the command deck seven feet below, through the lattice fence that
prevented crewmen or tools from failing under the scideck rail.
"What've you two got up there? How'd they come up on us?"

Without a good explanation, Keller knelt to meet him under the rail and