"Doohan, James & Stirling, S M - Flight Engineer 02 - The Privateer 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doohan James)

At last the board was finished with Captain Montoya, which is to say that
Admiral Grettirson had vented as much spleen as he possibly could on her
innocent head.

Paddy Casey, the Dauntless's red-haired and, at the moment, furiously
red-faced, engineering chief was called.

He lumbered up to the table, a solid six foot slab of heavy-world muscle,
and sat, fixing the admiral with a glare that should have dissolved the
strong, weak and electroweak forces maintaining the integrity of his
atomic structure. He folded his big hands before him, the knuckles white
from the pressure of his grip.

Grettirson glowered back, but without nearly the conviction, making the
staring contest a hollow gesture. The Chief didn't remain on the stand
long, perhaps because every one of his quiet, polite answers sounded
threatening somehow. And it was well known that Paddy was an impulsive man
with a long and sorry history of physically attacking senior officers.

Something to keep in mind, given that the admiral was far less fair to
Montoya than he might have been, Peter thought.

Fortunately for Grettirson, Paddy was deeply in love with Lieutenant
Cynthia Robbins and was determined to get into officers' school so as to
pursue their relationship. Otherwise the rule-bound Robbins would be
forever beyond his grasp.

"You-did-what?" Grettirson enunciated carefully.

"I jury-rigged a magnetic bleed from a Speed's acceleration system and
brought it over to the Dauntless in one of her abandoned lifeboats," Peter
said matter-of-factly.

"You abandoned your post in the middle of a battle?" the admiral asked
slowly, in genuine horror.

"I made certain that I had people in position to take over for me," Raeder
assured him.

"You are the senior officer in charge of the Main Deck, Commander! No one
can cover for you!" A blood vessel in Grettirson's temple writhed. He
glared over Peter's head at the audience behind him. "I shall have to ask
Captain Knott why you were not put on report." He lowered his gaze to meet
Peter's. "You may step down, Commander. But you haven't heard the last of
this, I assure you."

Raeder nodded and rose, giving a quick glance over the other members of
the board. Gretsky and Trudeau looked at him in disgusted disbelief,
Anderson looked disappointed. But Scaragoglu . . . Scaragoglu looked
interested.