"Joe Haldeman - The Forever War (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

land, so I kept my eyes on the bunker while I reached back to unclip another magazine- When the
laser hit my image converter, there was a red glare so intense it seemed to go right through my
eyes and bounce off the back of my skull. It must have been only a few milliseconds before the
converter overloaded and went blind, but the bright green afterimage hurt my eyes for several
minutes.
Since I was officially "dead," my radio automatically cut off, and I had to remain where I was
until the mock battle was over. With no sensory input besides the feel of my own skin (and it
ached where the image converter had shone on it) and the ringing in my ears, it seemed like an
awfully long time. Finally, a helmet clanked against mine.
"You okay, Mandella?" Potter's voice.
"Sorry, I died of boredom twenty minutes ago."
"Stand up and take my hand." I did so and we shuffled back to the billet. It must have taken over
an hour. She didn't say anything more, all the way back-it's a pretty awkward way to communicate-
but after we'd cycled through the airlock and warmed up, she helped me undo my suit. I got ready
for a mild tongue-lashing, but when the suit popped open, before I could even get my eyes adjusted
to the light, she grabbed me around the neck and planted a wet kiss on my mouth.
"Nice shooting, Mandella."
"Huh?"
"Didn't you see? Of course not.. . . The last salvo before you got hit-four direct hits. The
bunker decided it was
ItiL rUflLVI~t~ WAIl
~~3
knocked out, and all we bad todo was walk the rest of the
way."


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"Great." I scratched my face under the eyes, and some
dry skin flaked off. She giggled.
"You should see yourself. You look like-"
"All personnel, report to the assembly area." That was
the captain's voice. Bad news, usually.
She handed me a tunic and sandals. "Let's go." The
assembly area-chop hail was just down the corridor. There was a row of roll-call buttons at the
door, I pressed the one beside my name. Four of the names were covered with black tape. That was
good, only four. We hadn't lost anybody during today's maneuvers.
The captain was sitting on the raised dais, which at least meant we didn't have to go through the
tench-hut bulishit. The place filled up in less than a minute; a soft chime indicated the roll was
complete.
Captain Stott didn't stand up. "You did fairly well today. Nobody killed, and I expected some to
be. In that respect you exceeded my expectations but in every other respect you did a poor job.
"I am glad you're taking good care of yourselves, because each of you represents an investment of
over a million dollars and one-fourth of a human life.
"But in this simulated battle against a very stupid robot enemy, thirty-seven of you managed to
walk into laser fire and be killed in a simulated way, and since dead people require no food you
will require no food, for the next three Jays. Each person who was a casualty in this baffle will
be allowed only two liters of water and a vitamin ration each Jay."
We knew enough not to groan or anything, but there were some pretty disgusted looks, especially on