"02 - Battle Cry" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

Had Lieutenant Rick Hunter been privy to Captain Gloval's decision to alter the SDF-1's course (or had he been able to read the stars), he might not have been feeling so desperate, sitting there on a bench in Macross Central Park waiting for Minmei to show. But the way Rick had figured it, Earth was only a few months away, and he had to win Minmei before they arrived. For all its 50,000 inhabitants, Macross still felt like a small town; he stood a chance here. Once they were home it would be a different story.
Rick was not in the best of moods in any case. He was still burning from his most recent confrontation with Flight Officer Lisa Hayes, and now Minmei had kept him waiting for over an hour. He checked his wristwatch against Macross City's new midday sun. A little more magic from the EVE engineers and no one was going to care about returning to Earth, he said to himself.
Since the Miss Macross pageant, Minmei had been all but inaccessible; seeing her practically required a formal appointment, and on those rare occasions when Rick managed to cut through the red tape, their time together had been brief and awkward. She hadn't even bothered to visit him in sick bay after the recon encounter. Still, the field was clear; she wasn't dating anyone. Her picture adorned the radomes of many of the Veritechs, but only Rick Hunter had access to the real thing.
He checked his watch again and looked around the park. The three bridge bunnies were approaching him. Kim, Vanessa, and...he couldn't remember the young one's name. He didn't feel up to making small talk with them, but there was nowhere to hide.
They started right in on him:
"Well, hello there, Lieutenant Hunter."
"Who are you waiting for?"
"Do you have a date?"
"Been waiting long?"
"Is she really beautiful?"
"Prettier than we are?" the young one asked.
Rick took a good look at them as they struck mock poses for his benefit. They were all attractive, especially the brunette in shorts. But in his eyes Minmei had them beat. He gracefully sidestepped their further questions and a moment later was rescued by a robo-phone that was cruising around the park paging him. The persistent machine was arguing with someone on a neighboring bench when Rick called out to it. Once, then again and again, adding volume to each shout.
Finally the phone homed in on him, insulting some innocent as it left the nearby bench. Rick deposited a coin; Minmei's face appeared in the viewscreen. The three women moved behind him to get a better look. Rick didn't hear their surprised reactions at seeing Miss Macross on the screen and barely acknowledged their good-byes when they wandered off.
Minmei was apologizing. "...It's just that my singing lesson was set back an hour and I'm afraid I'm not going to make it now."
"That's great, Minmei. The one afternoon I'm not on flight duty and you've got singing lessons."
"Listen, Rick, they've decided to do a recording session-"
"Another new career for the `Queen'?"
Minmei's response was interrupted. She turned away from the camera to respond to someone seated at a piano. The guy was summoning her back to practice.
Minmei said, "Rick, I've got to go," and broke the line.
The robophone moved off. Rick took a walk through the park, not sure if he was feeling anger or self-pity. He was standing by the central fountain when the city's warning sirens sounded. A general alert, but conditional, not confrontational-an environmental threat as opposed to an enemy attack. People were heading toward shelters, but with such unconcern that Rick was tempted to ride it out where he stood.
But just then the fortress was struck.
Rick was knocked off his feet and thrown into the fountain-that fountain that figured all too frequently in his thoughts of fond moments and better times. But he had no time to bathe in waves of memory or irony. The ship was sustaining impact after impact, shaking Macross City to its foundations, and the mood was now one of panic. The "sun" disappeared, and through the overhead starlight, Rick could see an enormous hunk of planetary debris on a collision course with the ship.

"Sound general quarters!" ordered Gloval as he stooped to retrieve his cap. "Give me course correction options based on the current data, and alert-"
The bridge quaked with such force that Gloval was thrown from his chair. Fragments of the exploded asteroid Pamir continued their rain of death against the ship. Klaxons blared, and damage reports poured in.
"Our port side is taking the brunt of it, sir," said Lisa. "Macross is being badly shaken."
"All right," Gloval said, picking himself up. "Concentrate the shield energy there. Divert weapons power to the pin-point barrier system. And get me the air wing commander."
"I have Skull Leader on the horn," said Claudia. "He reports heavy fighting in the Third Quadrant. He's requesting backup, Commander."
"Negative. Give him the situation here. Tell him to stand by for recall. In a minute we're going to be defenseless."
Vanessa, Sammie, and Kim stumbled onto the bridge as Gloval was issuing course correction coordinates. The three women strapped in and began to monitor ship systems status.
It was Vanessa's threat board that revealed the enemy ships.
"Enemy destroyers! They're moving into firing position."
"Those bastards!" yelled Gloval. "Reroute power to the main gun."
"Sir, Macross City will be destroyed if we lower the shields," said Sammie.
"You have your orders," Claudia reminded the young tech. "Without defenses there won't be any Macross City!"
"Confirm enemy fire-laser-bolt signatures!"
"Brace yourselves!" said Gloval.
But no shock came. The SDF-1 was fenced in by blue lightning but left unstruck. And Gloval didn't know what to make of it. All at once, however, it became a moot point: The ship sustained a terrible direct hit. All systems failed on the bride. Presently auxiliary power brought some of them back to life. Gloval requested damage assessment from all stations.
Lisa reported the worst news: The conning tower had been hit. The entire radar control crew had been wiped out.
Gloval ordered all engines stopped.
The dimensional fortress shut down. The enemy had ceased their fire, but chunks of rock continued to impact against it. Debris from the conning tower drifted by the front and side bays. Lisa averted her gaze from the sight of a human body hanging lifeless in the void, a redtrimmed Battloid...
"Can we raise Skull Leader?"
"Negative, sir," said Claudia.
"Do we have any radar functioning-wide-range, perhaps?"
"The report from the technical repair unit is coming in now," said Lisa. She listened a moment. "Estimates of ten hours to effect minimal repairs."
Gloval said nothing; his silence was unnerving to the rest of them.
Incoming data to Sammie's station broke the stalemate. It registered as code, but unlike any encrypted transmissions they were familiar with. Gloval ordered her to patch it through the speakers. The ever-present static of deep space infiltrated the bridge; then, a voice: deep, resonant, menacing.
"In the name of the Zentraedi forces, I order you to surrender. The last attack on your ship was a warning of what we will do. You cannot escape. If you wish to save the lives of your crew, you must surrender at once."
"My God," said Claudia. "It's the aliens!"
"We repeat," the voice continued, "in the name of the Zentraedi forces, I order you to surrender. The last attack on your ship..."