"Alan Dean Foster - Damned 1 - Call to Arms" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

Now was time to consider reproduction as well as the identity of those whose appearance had nearly
turned triumph into defeat. Whoever they were, they had fought extremely well. Had they arrived earlier,
the commander might now be contemplating disaster.
 It was clear the unknowns were technologically advanced. More dangerously, they understood the
components of warfare and were capable of employing them. Most races could not, being
psychologically unsuited to the manipulation of the patently mad. Only extensive bioengineering had made
the allies of the Amplitur combat-capable. What sort of methods did these unknown assailants use? It
was imperative to learn more about them. One-who-Decides issued directives to that effect.

Not all the enemy had succeeded in avoiding or fleeing destruction. One severely damaged vessel was
discovered drifting motionless in orbit, unable to move, unable to seek sanctuary in Underspace.

It was a great stroke of luck. The brief but intense moments of spatial combat between ships only
infrequently produced survivors. This was due to the types of weapons used and the unforgiving nature of
space itself, whose harsh conditions usually finished what complex weapons had begun.

A Segunian-commanded warship had located such a vessel. Whether its internal life-support systems
had survived intact and functioning remained to be determined, but One-who-Decides was hopeful.

Time and careful handling eased the captured vessel alongside the much larger flagship. Its shape was
different from those used by the Peoples, but not incomprehensibly so. It was possible to divine function
from observation. Its drive was inoperative, but external inspection showed no evidence of implosion. Its
builders were skilled.

Analysis revealed that the light which emerged from unbroken ports filled a normal chunk of the
spectrum, suggesting that the crew possessed good vision within familiar parameters. The presence of
oxygen and nitrogen in common proportions was noted.

Short of confrontation there was little means of judging physical shape, size, or capability. That was
shortly to be remedied by a boarding party. They would go in prepared to deal with resistance but
admonished above all else to secure live specimens.

Limited resistance there was, stubborn and frustrating. It was overcome by the introduction of a mild
soporific into the shipтАЩs ventilation system. A short while later it proved possible to extract the survivors
one by one, like so many seeds from a pod. It developed that the appearance of the SspariтАЩs unexpected
allies was to be but the first of many surprises.

Instead of finding representatives of one race as was normal, the boarders encountered individuals
representing several different species. That much was self-evident even to nonspecialists, who were used
to dealing with races whose types could include miniature workers, multiple sexes, or androgynous types
like the Amplitur themselves.

That was not the case on board the captured vessel. Its crew was clearly composed of members of half
a dozen different species, all working in apparent harmony and cooperation.

It was a discovery fraught with promise as much as threat. For while it meant that the Amplitur and their
allies might now have half a dozen new races to battle, it also introduced as many to be integrated into the
Purpose. The Amplitur were overjoyed. For the first time they had encountered a federation of races
other than their own. Here was a group of intelligences which had learned to cooperate among
themselves without the Purpose to guide them. There was much to be learned from this discovery. Not all