"J. Robert King - Invasion Cycle 01 - Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (King Robert J)

 Invasion

Tiny figures stood on her wind-ravaged deckтАФhuman
figures.
Behind a gleaming ray cannon on the forecastle was
strapped a man with black hair and angry eyes.
He shouted into a speaking tube, "Coordinates,
Hanna!"
A powerstone embedded in the mouth of the tube
snatched up his voice and hurled it a hundred feet aft to
the glass-enclosed bridge.
The words raked out over a slim, hunched woman.
Rules and styluses were clutched in one of her hands. The
other jotted slide-rule calculations in a hasty column.
Blowing an errant strand of blonde back from her face,
Hanna did her own shouting into the tube, "Working on it,
Commander Gerrard!" Across her navigation console,
compasses and gyros reeled. Hanna's eyes spun as she
watched them settle. "Good luck finding another navigator
who can pinpoint longitude without stars."
"I don't want another navigator," Gerrard answered
from the forecastle. He threw a grin back toward the
bridge. "I just want my favorite navigator to get us to
Benalia."
Hanna summed three columns of figures and assigned
functions to them. "We're still twelve hundred miles out,
this time north by northwest."
"Damn! That's the farthest of the three," Gerrard said.
"Where's the problem?"
"Not here," Hanna replied, confirming the calibration
of her altimeter.
"Not here, either," reported another woman, standing
at the helm. Her corded shoulders and ebony skin seemed
part of the ship's wheel she clutched. "Rudder, keel,
airfoilsтАФeverything's performing perfectly, including me."



2
 J. Robert King

"I know, Sisay тАФ" Gerrard answered, quickly addingтАФ
"Captain. But something's throwing us off course. Karn, is it
an engine problem?"
The call echoed down tubes into steamy darknessтАФthe
engine room. A vast drive-core dominated the space. Mana
conduits added their green light to the tepid glow of bolted
lanterns. Two crewmembers worked a giant torque wrench,
closing a valve. They did not pause to answer the
commander. A third crewmember, who seemed simply