"Gregory Kern - Cap Kennedy 01 - Galaxy of the Lost" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kern Gregory)

"A routine flight from Genghara to Kran. Yes, the route was known."

"So if the ship wasn't found then it couldn't have been following it."
Kennedy paused, thinking. "It is barely possible," he mused, "that the
captain or maybe his crew decided on some crazy plan of their own. To
steal the ship, maybe, or to set up a new colony on some new world. Was it
carrying anything of value?"

"Mining equipment, dipoles of krillium, mutated seeds, concentrates of
perfume, some dehydrated fungi тАФ-the usual stuff. Makeweight mostly;
the Wankle was primarily a passenger ship. Forget about the crew stealing
the vessel for the value of the cargo."

"Ransom, then?"

"A batch of pilgrims, some tourists, a few business types, a troupe of
dancers." Chan shrugged. "The usual assortment. I suppose the captain
could have gone crazy, but if he did what about the rest of the crew? And
if they had mutinied the message would have said so. Anyway, why should
they have done that? They had a good, clean berth, a regular routine; and
life can be easy on such a craft You're picking at straws, Kennedy."

"I'm examining all possibilities however remote," he corrected.
"Logically the ship couldn't have vanished, but it did, so obviously we're
overlooking something."

"As I see it there's only one thing leftтАФthe ship was taken by outside
forces."

"Raided? Boarded, gutted, a fake message arranged and the ship taken
to some remote world?" Chan nodded. "We thought of that. But how? And
why?"

Questions to which he had no answer, but nothing in the universe
happened without a reason and, even though at first an event might
appear inexplicable, yet things became clear once sufficient knowledge
had been obtained. He lacked data, Kennedy decided, yet there was more.
His intuition told him that something was lacking. One ship, no matter
how mysterious its disappearance, would not have caused Terra such
concern.

Flatly he said, "What haven't you told me?"

"About the Wankle! Nothing."

"You're lying, Chan. Is this another of your damned tests?"

"No, IтАФ" Chan quailed before the fury in the other man's eyes, the cold,
hard determination which turned the face into the resemblance of stone.