"Huff, Tanya - What Ho, Magic!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

"Kelly, they're preparing to fire. Do something!" "Don't rush me, I'm thinking!" That reassured Erik but it didn't do much for Val. "What we need now," said the ship calmly, "is a miracle."
"Most Exalted, we've picked up six other dreadnoughts!" "What?" The Atabeg whirled to face the screen. "My brother! Damn his interference! Hold your fire!"
"Vizier, we've picked up six other dreadnoughts!" "What?" Sakar whirled to face the screen. "The Atabeg! What's he doing out here? Hold your fire!"
For a moment, the twelve dreadnoughts and two cruisers hung in space. When it became apparent to their commanders that neither intended to provoke a civil war by firing the first shot at the other, they turned their attention again to the freighter.
But by then, the freighter was gone.
"Kelly?"
"Yeah, kid?"
"Was that a miracle?"
After flying a course guaranteed to send a human pilot into strong hysterics, Val swung into orbit around a gas giant with nine moons.
"Orbit?" Darvish asked incredulously. "Shouldn't we run for our lives?"
"Run where?" Val demanded. "I can't outrun, outshoot, or even evade hardware that size for long."
Kelly sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Then we'll have to out-think them."
"That leaves you, me, and Val," Erik said with a disdainful glance at his cousin. "Darvish isn't very strong in the think department." He tapped a finger against his forehead. "Man's got a black hole for brains."
"I can think circles around you!"
"You wouldn't know a circle if you tripped over one," Erik sneered. "I've seen dwarf stars less dense."
"Listen runtЕ"
"Runt?" Erik fought with the webbing that kept him from getting his hands on his cousin. "I don't have to take that from a dork who had his teeth capped."
Danish's face flared red. "That does it!" His position was less confining than Erik's. Bronze fingers wrapped around the boy's throat.
"Val!"
"You got it, Boss." Cables wrapped around the combatants, trapping their arms at their sides.
Kelly leaned back in her chair and regarded the cousins coldly. "I've had just about as much as I'm going to take from both of you," she told them, her voice ice. "From now on, if anyone does any hitting around here, it's going to be me."
To her surprise, Erik's face broke into a broad smile as he bounced as high as possible within the confines of the cables. "That's it!" he cheered. "We'll go to Grandmother. She's the only person my father's ever listened to."
"Mine too," Darvish added, enthusiastically. "She'll get us out of this."
"Grandmother's the greatest!" Erik's eyes glowed. "She can do anything."
Blonde brows rose. Realizing that Erik thought more of his grandmother than he did of her, Kelly felt a completely irrational stab of jealousy. She waved a hand and Val released her captives. "What brought this on?"
"Grandmother always saysЕ" Darvish began.
"Еthat if anyone does any hitting, it's going to be her." As Erik finished, they smiled at each other, for once in complete accord.
Kelly sighed. "I think I like her already. Do either of you know her co-ordinates?"
"I always had a pilot," Darvish admitted. "But I'd recognize the planet if I saw it."
"The Okmar IV system," Erik said, with a disgusted look at his relative and a careful move out of his reach. "Sixth planet. It's on the charts as uninhabitable 'cause Grandmother wants to be left alone. She fields her own army and everything."
"You get that, Val?"
"Plotted."
"Good. As soon as these two have strapped themselves inЕ" She paused for effect. "Еin the lounge, we'll leave orbit."
Darvish Ц who'd learned that when the captain said leave, she meant it Ц sidled out of the control room.
Erik leaned against Kelly's couch and stared up at her with big, adoring eyes. "Can't I stay, Kelly?" he pleaded. "I could help."
Kelly snickered.
Erik sighed. He hadn't expected the helpless little kid act would work but it was worth a try. He straightened. "I'd rather be where the action is," he pouted.
"I'd rather you keep an eye on Darvish," Kelly told him dryly. "I don't trust Val not to space him."
"Wish she would," Erik muttered as he scuffed out of the control room.
In spite of Val's best efforts, her scanners picked up the tracer and its accompanying imperial dreadnought while the fugitives were still a fair distance from Okmar IV.
"I can't lose;it," the ship said at last. "It's on me too tight." "Then outrun it," Kelly suggested. "I'm not sure I can." "You have to."
"Another dreadnought just reached the edge of my sensor range."
"The Atabeg?"
"Probably. They appear to be ignoring each other." "Pity. Too bad they haven't the decency to blow each other up." For over an hour the three ships moved toward Okmar IV, the distance between them steadily closing.
"It's no use," Val admitted. "By my calculations, we'll still be an hour out when they catch up. I'm just not fast enough. Looks like we've had it."
"Not yet." Kelly's jaw set. "Get our problem children into the control room and seal off the rest of the ship. Keep the life support going up here, but feed everything else into the Susumu drive." "Everything?"
"Everything. Don't even think too hard. Just pick up enough extra energy to buy us that hour." "What about the shields?"
"The shields go first; they drain more than the other systems combined."
"And if they catch up to us?"
"If they catch up to us," Kelly said, looking down at the screen where the enemy showed as angry red blips, "the shields would only prolong the inevitable."