"Diane Duane - Harbinger 2 - Storm At Eldala" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duane Diane)

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-85787


9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21

ISBN: 0-7869-1334-7

21334XXX1501


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 When Heaven is about to confer great office upon a man, it first exercises his mind with
suffering, and his sinews and
bones with toil:
it exposes him to poverty and confounds all his undertakings. Then it is seen if he is ready.
..

Meng-Tse, Sol, 6 B.C.




Chapter One


STRUGGLING INSIDE Sunshine's fighting field, Gabriel Connor flung himself and their small ship
through space while the plasma bolts of their pursuers arrowed past on either side of him, so close he
could have sworn he could feel the heat straight through the hull. He stared frantically around him into the
darkness, but there was nowhere to go. They were surrounded.

This time, for sure, this time we're going to die.

We cannot keep this up much longer, Enda's seemingly disembodied voice came to him from
somewhere on the other side of the field. She was handling gunnery, having a talent for it, but the gift
seemed not to be serving her well today.

There are too many of them left, she said, and we are running low on power.
Gabriel glanced at the power readouts inside the gunnery field. They were down to ten percent on both
sets of weapons. His big gun, the rail cannon on top of Sunshine, was recharging, but not quickly
enough. It wanted another thirty seconds, and whether it was going to get them was uncertain.
Gabriel tumbled the ship to make sure of the field of fire. One of the little ball bearing ships that had
chased them out into the depths of the Corrivale system came plunging through his sights. He took aim
with the plasma cannon and fired.
Clear miss.
He cursed, the sweat running down his back and tickling, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Slow down, Enda cried, make them count!
He saw her take aim and fire at another of the ships as it plunged past them. She scored a hit, but not a
killing one. The ship arced away, leaking atmosphere in a ghostly silvery veil, but its engines were
untouched.
How many now?