"David Drake - RCN 02 - Lt. Leary Commanding" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I'm using English and Metric weights and measures throughoutLt. Leary, Commanding, as I did inWith
the Lightnings . I wouldn't bother mentioning this, but the decision seems to concern some people. I'm
doing it for the same reason that I'm writing the novel in English instead of inventing a language for the
characters of future millennia to speak.

I'd like to note for those who're interested that the orders in Chapter Nine are a close paraphrase of
those which sent the frigate USSCongress to Hawaii in 1845. Here as elsewhere, I prefer to borrow
from reality rather than invent it.

David Drake
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david-drake.com

When the skies are black above them,
and the decks ablaze beneath,
And the top-men clear the raffle with
their clasp-knives in their teeth.

тАФRudyard Kipling



Chapter One
Lieutenant Daniel Leary rolled his uncle's wheelchair to the end of the catwalk and paused, gazing back
at the corvettePrincess Cecile nestled in the center of the graving dock. He turned the wheelchair. "Now
that you've inspected her, Uncle Stacey," he said, "wouldn't you agree there's no finer ship in the RCN?"

The battleshipAristotle in the next bay lowered over them: seventy thousand tons empty, with a crew of
two thousand and missile magazines sufficient for a day-long engagement. The eight-inch plasma cannon
of theAristotle 's defensive battery could not only divert incoming projectiles but also devour ships the
corvette's size in rainbow cascades of stripped nuclei.

Daniel was as oblivious of the battleship as he was of the wisps of cirrus cloud in the high heavens. For
him, the twelve-hundred tonPrincess Cecile was the only ship in Harbor Three. He'd commanded her,
after all. Commanded her and fought her andтАФby the grace of God and the best crew ever to come a
captain's wayтАФdestroyed an Alliance cruiser of many times the corvette's strength.

"Didn't we, Adele?" Daniel said, forgetting how little of his previous thoughts had made it to his lips. He
grinned over his shoulder at the severe-looking woman of thirty-one who'd joined him and Uncle Stacey
on their excursion.

Adele Mundy smiled in responseтАФit was hard not to smile when Daniel was full of happy enthusiasm, as
he was at most timesтАФbut her expression gave no sign that she knew what he was talking about. Like
Daniel she wore a 2nd Class RCN dress uniform, gray with black piping. Her collars bore the crossed