"Alan Dean Foster - Damned 2 - the false Mirror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

Though only sixteen, he was often nominated to serve as leader during important
exercises. This was almost unheard of. Strategy leaders were inevitably chosen
from the ranks of seniors: seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds. Fully conscious of
such honors, he carried them well. Coupled with exceptional organizational
skills, his drive and deter-mination rarely disappointed those who placed their
faith in him. His ability was a fact his peers recognized and applauded.
He took pleasure in his accomplishments because he saw how much they pleased his
parents. To him, appro-bation meant little. He was interested only in the job at
hand, and in doing it well. For that reason he looked for-ward eagerly to the
coming graduation finals.
Until those were passed there was always the chance of failing, of not being
awarded full soldier status. Even accomplished students like Ranji had been
known to crack under the pressure. No opprobrium attached to such individuals.
They simply served the war effort in some other fashion more suited to their
actual skills.
Ranji was calm and ready. He had no intention of fail-ing. He could not fail.
Not only did he want, like any healthy member of his species, to be a soldier:
he head to be. He knew, sensed, felt, that he'd been born to it. To kill and
chance being killed in the defense of civilization. To fight the enemy for real,
not merely in simulations.
He always tried to approach the schooling simulations in that state of mind,
striving to convince himself that he was not participating in simple tests but
was actually engaging in combat against the monsters; killing for real,
destroying them one after another to protect his civiliza-tion, his friends, his
world.
Not to mention revenging his real mother and father.
Along with the parents of most of his friends, they had perished when the
monsters had invaded and destroyed Houcilat. He, his brother, and his sister had
been adopted and raised on Cossuut.
He had studied the history of the incident from an early age, and the details
had long ago burned themselves into his memory. How the monsters had swept down
without warning to ravage and obliterate every structure, every vestige .of
civilization in their lust for destruction. How they had seared the planet's
surface so badly that it could no longer support higher life. And most
meritoriously, how a few shuttles had darted gallantly through the withering
enemy fire to rescue what survivors they could, including himself and his
siblings, and carry them to the safety of waiting starships and an eventual life
of comparative peace on Cossuut.
His teachers had put off explaining his history to him until he was old enough
to comprehend, if not to under-stand. Only when he asked for the information was
it supplied. As he studied, and learned, he developed the determination which
had characterized him throughout his adolescence.
He carried the horrific images of vanished Houcilat with him into every test,
every trial. They added resolve to his efforts, enabling him to rise above even
those of his mates, whose histories were no less tragic than his own.
There were twenty-five of them, the same number as in an actual commissioned
attack squad. They had practiced together, trained together since childhood,
defeating one school team after another. Now the culmination of those untiring
efforts was at hand. Some of his friends were apprehensive, others uncertain. As
for Ranji, he burned with anticipation.