"Edmond Hamilton - The Star Hunters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

"We've got to get Oliphant back to Terra before he dies. He's the key to everything."

Stack shrugged hopelessly. тАЬAldebaran is one of Orion's main fleet bases. They'll know we're coming.
Communic beams are faster than ships."

Mason said harshly, тАЬI know all that. In case you've forgotten, I was a flight officer before I went into
Intelligence."

Stack flushed, тАЬNo offense."

Mason turned then. He was thirty-two and he felt like a hundred-and-two, a dark man with stubble on
his face and a desperation in his eyes. He said, тАЬWe're both beat to pieces. Forget my crack. If we start
slandering each other, we're licked. We've got to think fast."

Stack gestured toward the great star ahead that like a bloody eye watched them come.

"Their cruisers will fan out east, west, zenith and nadir from Aldebaran. We have to go around
Aldebaran's planetary system, yet if we swing wide around their cruiser screens we'll run into ships
coming up from Aleph and Charmar."

Mason looked at the star-blazing firmament and said, тАЬOnce past Aldebaran, the Terran frontier isn't far.
But you're right, we can't swing wide around their cruiser screens."

"So we have to hit their net and try to crash through it,тАЭ said Stack.

"They'd blow us out of space,тАЭ said Mason. His jaw tightened. тАЬThere's only one hole, one way through
them."

"There won't be any hole,тАЭ said Stack. тАЬFrom Aldebaran system out every direction, they'll be so tight a
fly couldn't get throughтАФ

Of a sudden, looking at Mason's drawn face, he was silent. Then, in an altered voice he said, тАЬNow I get
it. One hole. Right through Aldebaran's planetary system itself."

"That's it,тАЭ nodded Mason.

Stack mapped his brow, and the pilot turned and flashed a startled glance at them. Stack said, тАЬYou
know what our chances will be, at these speeds?"

"I know we haven't any chance at all, any other way,тАЭ said Mason. тАЬSet it up on the computers. I'm going
back to see Oliphant."

He left the crowded control room and went back along the narrow companionway that was the axis of
the SC-1419. A Scout-class starship had barely room for its machinery and its eight men. Its whole
metal fabric seemed to vibrate in every atom from the thrust of its massive drive-units, as it bolted at
milli-light-speeds toward the frontier.

Mason squeezed between towering ion-drive assemblies that smelled of hot metal, and into the tiny
cubby where Oliphant lay strapped in a bunk. One of the crew, young Finetti, was sitting beside him and