"Michael McCollum - The Void" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

Cochrane gave a silent order over his helmet commlink and his party immediately assumed convoy
positions. Tessa grasped Cochrane's equipment harness and let him tow her toward the axis hatchway
using his suit's maneuvering thrusters.

The habitat's interior was as nondescript and common as its exterior. Here and there, the inhabitants had
attempted to personalize it with pictures and potted plants. Like all such installations and every ship of
space, the place smelled of people and machinery forced into too close proximity.

Academician Vannick's office was just one hatch out of many that lined the outer curve of the main
equatorial passageway. It would have been indistinguishable from all the others save for the two
Warwind marines who flanked it. The hatchway retracted into the bulkhead at their approach, and
Tessa pulled herself hand over hand into the office beyond.

Vannick was cadaverously thin, with wisps of white hair that floated akimbo in microgravity. He glanced
up as the hatch opened and watched his captor make her way to the anchor frame in front of the desk.
There was a look of barely controlled rage on his face.

"Are you the leader of this band of hooligans?" he demanded as she wrapped her legs through the anchor
frame.

"I am Captain Tessa Hallowell, commanding Hegemonic Star Cruiser Warwind ."

"You're from the Hegemony of Stars?" Vannick asked, incredulous.

"I am and you, sir, are my prisoner."

Tessa could see the astronomer's expression change as he processed this new bit of information. The
Hegemony had begun life as little more than a regional lobbying group, an association formed by the new,
raw star systems at the fringes of human space to blunt the influence of the older, more civilized systems
that clustered around ancient Sol. There had been talk of secession for generations. Lately the talk had
turned serious. To find himself face to face with someone who claimed to represent the navy of a
sovereign state told Vannick that the political situation was far worse than the news reports from New
Rome indicated. The Communion of Humanity, with its capital at New Rome, had not had a competitor
for almost 200 years, not since the Antares Republic had submitted following a brief, bloody war in the
28th century, in fact.

"The Hegemony has seceded?"

"It is I who ask the questions here, Professor," Tessa said coldly. Onboard her ship, such a response
would have halted all protest instantly. Rather than quiet the astronomer, her rebuke only drove him to
fury.

"Goddamn it, have you people seceded?"

Tessa frowned and made a conscious effort to hold her temper. In general, scientists did not respond
well to authority and her greatest need was for a quick, orderly evacuation of the station. She made a
quick calculation that she would complete her mission most expeditiously with the appearance of being
reasonable. There would be plenty of time later for the professor and his people to learn who
commanded.