"Maxine McArthur - Time Future" - читать интересную книгу автора (McArthur Maxine)

The same person muttered, "What's new?"

"By the same token," Garnet said loudly, "the Seouras ships' sensors
will not work either."

There was complete silence. The Seouras ships surround our station and
block communication with the outside
 galaxy. One remains in a close companion orbit with the station and
at least three more cover the approaches to the system with efficient
menace.

"The only window of opportunity for this exercise will be..." Garnet
waited until the comet was just past the pale planet in the map,
"here." She halted the simulation to give everyone a view of the tail
streaming past Jocasta. "If we set a probe to follow the tail out of
the system, it might be able to avoid interception by the Seouras ships
before the tail itself dissipates. The probe will then send a message
to the Confederacy as it continues along a course set to intercept a
major trade route."

Assuming, of course, the Confederacy of Allied Worlds is still there to
listen to us. The invasion might have happened there, too.

She touched the last known positions of the gray Seouras ships, which
appeared as tiny triangles, greatly out of scale on the map, but much
too small for the weight they occupied in our minds.

"Any questions?" She moved quickly to this last segment because we'd
agreed that people wouldn't absorb information unless it was directly
related to their own jobs.

"Why not send a crewed ship?" the Earth Fleet ensign asked.

Our main defenses, two squadrons of Earth Fleet fighters, had been
decimated in the initial Seouras attack. The remaining personnel now
worked in other areas, but many, like this ensign, itched to do
something more.

"We're not that certain it'll work," I said, and a couple of people
chuckled half-heartedly. It wasn't a laughing matter. Six months ago
when the Seouras attacked, most of the residents with the means to do
so had attempted to leave. All of them died when the gray ships fired
on them. Since then we've tried to sneak a couple of small ships out
at various intervals, but so far we've lost them all.

"Do you require any particular cooperation from my department?" asked
Veatch, the station manager, in his aggrieved drawl. His department
was Administrative Affairs.

Garnet returned normal lighting to the room as she answered. "Only the