"CAREY, DIANNE - CALL TO ARMS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Carey Diane)

Call to Arms
by
Dianne CAREY


"sir, the station's shields are holding!"

"impossible. federation shields have always proven useless against our
weapons ..." ah, battle and its surprises. damar's claim about the
shields was unexpected, yes, but somehow the vorta's response was a
charming satisfaction. how good it felt to see the elegant "ally"
confused. in the cramped command area of this smelly jem hadar ship, gul
dukat deliberately didn't look at the vorta representative. so many
complications--having to fly this breed of ship instead of a cardassian
fighter, crewed by the rocky, dim-witted jem hadar soldiers. the only
familiar face, the only cardassian face, was that of damar, now manning
the helm. and having this Эorta individual on his flagship, guiding the
touchy alliance between the cardassians and the race calling themselves
the dominion from halfway across the galaxy... little of this
arrangement settled well in a man's stomach. this was a bittersweet
situation, to have a vorta on each jem hadar ship. at least they didn't
insist upon also having a vorta on each cardassian ship. that would've
been almost impossible to shove down the throats of cardassian guls. he
watched as asteroid-sized cauliflowers of flame and energy bounced from
the shields of station terok nor as ships fired over and over. there was
something satisfying about that, about the invading jem hadar vanguard
finally feeling the sting of repellent force, giving gul dukat a surge
of pleasure even as his own weapon fire sheeted ineffectually out into
open space. and seeing the vorta's chiseled face and pale-jewel eyes
crimped in confusion, seeing the self-greatened political officer of the
dominion set back a pace, was worth the momentary loss. dukat raised his
chin--a childish but effective maneuver and gloated in the wake of the
setback.

"i've found it wise," he began,"never to underestimate the federation's
technical skills or captain sisko's resourcefulness." having blithely
thus dismissed the vorta, he turned to damar. "bring us around for
another pass." what a majestic sight--the chunky cardassian architecture
of terok nor, a clawed, leggy metal knot hanging in space, called deep
space nine by those who had occupied it for the past few years... the
united federation of planets.

soon the station would be terok nor once again, and there would be
cardassians running the powerful weapons, turning those arrays on
federation ships. that would be a good moment. dukat had spent many
years claiming that such a moment would come, and now it was imminent.
yet, for just an instant, the order to open fire had come hard from his
lips. over these years he had formed a strange kind of relationship with
many of these people, these enemies, upon whom now he would unleash the
power of a spaceborne armada. hesitation? regret? destructive energy