"Jeffrey D. Kooistra - Dykstra's War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kooistra Jeffrey D)

***

Lieutenant Nachtegall was running late, which was evident from the way he tore down the corridors of
the High Command on his way to Dykstra's seminar.

"Where's the fire, Lieutenant?" an ensign called after him. He was ignored.

He'd planned to make the seminar in plenty of time. Chris hadn't said what he intended to present, but
had made it plain that at least one bombshell was in the offing. Nachtegall wouldn't have missed it for
anything.


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 - Chapter 1


He'd thought.

The call had come just before he was going to leave, direct from General Hadella, the Czar of Special
Operations. He'd gotten a mission! Top secret, very hush-hush. He'd be leaving for the Belt in a week as
pilot for a behind-the-lines raid.

He was finally going to get in the war big time.

The seminar was just starting. He slipped through the back door and quietly took a seat. Dykstra, cane in
hand as a pointer, was gesturing at some items on the presentation screen that were meaningless to the
lieutenantтАФall mystical symbols and misshapen letters, and here and there an equals sign. Dykstra
needed the cane anyway since the gravity in the room wasn't adjustable, but the old scientist was so
animated that Nachtegall never saw it touch the floor, except when Dykstra set it aside to deal with some
equipment on the table before him.

"Did you follow any of that?" Nachtegall heard one scientist whisper to another.

"Maybe half. Every other letter, I think," came the reply.

"Here we have the alien weapon," Dykstra was saying. The device was mounted on a stand. "You've
seen it many times already, and I have many of you to thank for determining a safe method for operating
it." He moved down the table to another device, this one unfamiliar to Nachtegall, and considering the
murmurings he heard, apparently unfamiliar to all.

"I know some of you wonder about my solitary working methods. I never meant to leave any of you out,
but I had a lot of catching up to do, and I do better on my own in such instances." Nachtegall smiled at
that. What Chris meant was that he didn't need a lot of dimwits in his way distracting him while he
sorted things out. "But I will be working closely with you from now on. I'd like to show you some of the
things I've found out."

Dykstra flipped a switch, and a light lit on the unfamiliar apparatus. "This is my attempt to copy the
alien weapon." Nachtegall studied the reaction in the room. No one said anything, but there was a
change in the atmosphere. A few faces were scowling, perhaps in disbelief that anyone, Dykstra
included, could have duplicated the weapon. None of them had been able to do so. Others waited with