"Jeff Kirvin - Unification Chronicles 1 - First Contact I" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kirvin Jeff)

were shoved in late in the construction, ordered on board by the President over ChenzokovтАЩs
objections.

Envoy was a mission of peace, after all. The ship was the brainchild of Daniel Cho, the first
President of the Terran Republic. Cho understood that most of the fighting in the history of the
human race was over territory. If humanity was to stay at peace, united by a single
government, it would have to spread out, move into the stars.

The first phase of ChoтАЩs plan was the colonization and terraforming of Mars. This was
working out until six years before, when a presidential assassination gone bad destroyed the
largest colony dome on Mars, killing millions of civilians. Jack had foiled the assassination but
failed to prevent the explosion. He and the President lived, but waiting centuries under
pressurized colony domes to terraform a planet was deemed too dangerous to continue.

Cho had started another project after his presidency ended that ran in parallel to the Mars
Project. Project Envoy was more ambitious, but would give mankind the stars if it succeeded.

The idea was to build a faster than light engine that would allow true star travel, then use
that to power a colony ship that could settle other star systems. The Tunnel Drive had been
invented when Jack was just a boy, but took decades to perfect it and build a ship to use it.

After the Mars incident, politicians in the Terran Republic decided that Envoy would be
used to find earthlike, habitable worlds. It made the search longer, more difficult and orders of
magnitude more expensive, but safer.

President James Staten disagreed, despite what heтАЩd experienced on Mars. When it became
clear that the Senate would mandate a search for Earthlike worlds over his objections, he
fought to put Jack Killian on board the Envoy.

Jack took his appointment to protect the Envoy and her crew seriously, even if he was
unwelcome. HeтАЩd seen enough danger in his career to know that nothing was safe, no matter
how innocuous it looked.

He brushed his fingertips over the pendant, then started changing from his dress uniform
into the combat harness heтАЩd wear underneath his armor.


* * *


The drop bay of the Envoy was the largest single room on the ship. Only the tunnel drive
itself was bigger, but it wasnтАЩt a room. The drop bay was situated on the EnvoyтАЩs тАЬequatorтАЭ and
was shaped like the inside of a doughnut, with the central pillar housing the Tunnel Drive.
Along the outer edge, it had multiple doors that opened into space. Facing most of these doors
were shuttles, large bulbous ships designed to carry as many passengers and equipment as
comfortably and safely as possible.

One ship was different. The MarinesтАЩs drop ship was a sharp, angular and wicked looking
ship, apart from the gleaming white civilian shuttles. The snub-nosed cockpit gave way to
massive тАЬshouldersтАЭ that housed 30mm chaingun arrays. The dorsal side of the dropship was