"GOLDEN, CHRISTIE - THE LAST ROUND-UP" - читать интересную книгу автора (Golden Christie)

idea what Kirk was getting at.

"Anybody know what was incorrect about Cadet Lasskas's answer?" He could
all but see their sharp minds turning as they tried to find the factual
flaw in Lasskas's statement. They were all being too literal. Not even
Skalli's hand was up this time.

Her pale purple face was screwed up in frustration.

Kirk didn't enlighten them at once. He began to walk around the area,
carefully.

"We're in a place of death, cadets. Even safely in our environment
suits, we can feel it, can sense it. This is sacred ground.

A place where lives were sacrificed in order to preserve noble ideals.
One day, any of you might be looking at a similar scenario.

I want you to take a moment and put yourself in Commander Lowe's
position. Imagine yourself as commander of a colony of over a hundred
people--people who looked to you to keep them safe ... their families
safe. Most of them hadn't signed on for this out of a desire for
adventure or even any particular sense of loyalty. There was good money
to he had for hard work on this planet."

They were quiet now, attentive. For the first time since he started this
class at the beginning of the semester, Kirk felt that he was finally
managing to get through to them. Hitherto, he had thought them too
starry-eyed to really listen. It had taken this--a risky visit to a
devastated world that still leaked radiation from its death throes--to
do it, but he thought he had succeeded.

If they understood this one message, it wouldn't matter to him what they
had scored the rest of the semester.

"And then you hear from one of your scouts, who is attacked and killed
shortly after he sends the message, that Romulans are on the way," Kirk
continued, his voice ringing in this silent place. "Romulans. You've
never even seen them, only heard vague rumors about these faceless
beings hitting outposts hard, then vanishing. And now, they're coming.
For you."

A few of them shifted uneasily. Others gazed at him raptly.

Chief among these was Skalli. Kirk quickly looked elsewhere.

Skalli never needed much encouragement.

"They're coming for you," he repeated, "and your home planet can't do a
damn thing to protect you. You're too far away.