"Simon R. Green - Deathstalker - 1 - Deathstalker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

herself for the impact, and only slowly realized that nothing was happening.

She ran through the launch sequence again, crying out at the pain in her hands, but
still there was no response. Panic flared up in her, and the cramped confines of the
escape pod were suddenly unbearably claustrophobic. She started to get up out of
the crash-webbing and only stopped herself with an effort of will. There was no

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Green, Simon R. - Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker (v1.0) (html)


point in leaving the pod; the Shard was a death ship now. Her only hope for
survival was to make the pod work. The panic began to die away as she made
herself study the problem logically. There was nothing wrong with the pod itself
or it would have showed up on the control panels, which meant the problem lay
outside. In the launching systems. Systems controlled by the ship's AIтАж Hannah.

Hazel accessed the AI through her comm implant, but there was only silence. The
lack of response was somehow more worrying than the previous gibberish. Hazel
called again. There was someone listening; she could feel it. When the answer
finally came, it was like a whisper at midnight, as though the sound was traveling
from somewhere impossibly far away.

"Hazel, everything feels wrong. Parts of me are missing, and I can't find them. I
can't think properly. There are shadows in my memories, running loose like rats in
a barn. Help me, Hazel. Stop them. Please stop themтАж it's so cold in here, and I'm
afraidтАж"

"Hannah! Listen to me, Hannah. I'm stuck in escape pod seven. I need you to run
through the launch sequence for me. Can you hear me, Hannah?"

"Forget the AI," said Captain Markee calmly, patching into the channel. "She's
falling apart, like everything else on this ship. The Shard's on her last run, going
out in a blaze of glory. I've activated the pod launch from the bridge. You'll be on
your way in a moment. Just as well. You'd never have made a good clonelegger,
Hazel. Too soft where it matters. If you get out of this alive, raise a drink to me
and the Shard. She was a good ship."

His voice faded out at the end, and before Hazel could say anything, the escape
pod blasted out of its hatch and plummeted toward the planet below.

On the bridge of the Darkwind, Captain Silence studied the small craft on his
viewscreen as it slowly closed the distance between them. The Darkwind's
disrupters had hammered away most of the pirate's force shields, and it was only a
matter of time now before they failed entirely. And once that happened, it would
all be over in seconds. It was a miracle the pirate's shields had lasted this long.
The Captain must have drained the ship's batteries dry to power them. The ship
continued to drift closer, and Silence frowned thoughtfully. The pirate was up to

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