"William Forstchen - Wing Commander 4 - Heart of the Tiger" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forstchen William R)

Thrakhath growled angrily. "That has never been our way. It is without
the joy of the kill."

"I know, I know. But this war has changed beyond all our
understanding, thanks to these humans. Let me make this plain to you.
We can not sustain this war another year. It is not the humans. No, I
believe the reports that they are crippled as well. We are two fighters who
have battered each other into exhaustion. It will take but one more blow
to finish them. The real threat now is what we fear lurks beyond our
distant borders on the other side of the Empire."

"They are stirring?"

The Emperor nodded. "New reports came in while you were gone. They
are still years, perhaps eights of years away, but they are coming in our
direction again. When they arrive we must be ready, our other borders
secured. All our resources must now be marshaled for that threat. For that
reason alone I order that this war with the humans be finished, whether
you like the methods or not. Secondly, and more immediate, is the clans.
One more defeat like the last one and I fear the grasp of our family upon
the imperial throne will be finished."

Thrakhath stood in silent rage at the mere suggestion that those
beneath him could even dare to dream of overthrowing his clan's rightful
claim to rule. The last baron who dreamed of it was now dead, and he had
thought the infection of this alien thinking was gone with him.

"I demand that this new weapon be tested as soon as possible," the
Emperor announced. "The humans are to be exterminated like the vermin
that they are. Honor and the taste of blood are things of the past. Test this
weapon, and if it works you are to kill them all, kill them all without
warning."

The Emperor hesitated and then grinned, his teeth bared. "And once
that is done, if any of the clans dare to resist me, we shall turn this new
weapon on them as well."


CHAPTER I
Shuttle Horatio Nelson
Torgo System

"ETA for TCS Victory now ten minutesтАж mark." The soft
computer-generated voice in his ear made Colonel Christopher Blair shift
uneasily in his seat. He didn't like being a passenger aboard any small
craft, even a workhorse orbital shuttle like this one. For eighteen years
now Blair had been a fighter pilot in the Terran Confederation Navy, and
he had flown everything in the Navy's arsenal short of a frigate. It was still
difficult to sit back and leave the controls to someone else, especially when
his monitor screens functioned intermittently at best. Having a computer