"13 Sentinels 01 - The Devils Hand" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

It took Max a moment to understand that Rick was referring to the tie; he breathed a sigh of relief and went over to his friend. "Here, I'm an expert with these things."
Rick inclined his head to the view below while Max went to work on the tie. He felt as though his stomach had reconfigured itself to some entirely new mode.
"There," Max said. "It's a matter of finesse."
Rick thanked him. "A man couldn't have a finer best man or best friend. I mean that."
Max blushed. "Hey, I was saving that for the toast."
"Okay," Rick said in a determined voice. "Let's move."
He reached up to give a final adjustment to the tie only to have it slip and loosen up.
Max looked at it and shrugged. "Well, maybe you'll start a trend."

In the end you go it alone, Rick was saying to himself ten minutes later as he turned to watch Lisa come down the aisle. Breetai, in his helmet-mask and Ironman getup walked beside her, and Rick couldn't help seeing them as some kind of whacko father-and-daughter tag-team couple. Max's daughter was one step behind them. But as Lisa drew nearer the image left him, and so did the nervousness. She had roses and baby's breath in her hair, a choker of real pearls, and she looked radiant. Behind Lisa's back, Dana made a face at ringbearer Bowie and curled her fingers at her mom.
Max and Breetai left the platform soon after, and the chaplain began to read the short service Lisa had written. A few minutes later Rick and Lisa were joining hands, exchanging rings and vows, and suddenly it was over.
Or just beginning.
They kissed and a thousand strobe lights flashed. Cheers and applause rose from the crowd above a flourish of strings and horns; and outside the viewport, teams of Veritechs completed a series of slow-mo formation flybys. A fanfare sounded as local space came to life with starbursts, roostertails, and fountains of brilliant color.
Rick and Lisa shook a thousand hands and kissed a thousand cheeks; then they danced together to Minmei and Janice's song. Spotlights found them in the hold as they moved through gentle arcs and twirls across the floor. Rick held her lovingly and caught the glint of teardrops in the corner of her eyes. He squeezed her hand and felt a wave of sadness wash through him. It was the song perhaps, a love song to be sure, but one sung with a sense of implied loss, an awareness of the ephemeral nature of all things.

A world turns to the edge of night,
the moon and stars so very bright;
your face glows in the candlelight,
it's all because tonight's the night...
Now hold my hand and take this ring
as we unite in harmony.
We can begin to live the dream,
the dream that's meant for you and me.

To be together,
For the first time in our lives,
it's us together.
As married man and wife, we'll be together
from now on, until death do us part;
and even then, I hope our love lasts forever.

"Oh, Rick," Lisa whispered in his ear, moved to tears by the Voice that had conquered an army. "How I wish Claudia and Roy could be here."
Rick led her through a turn that kept her back to the guests. And Ben, he thought. And Gloval and Sammie and Vanessa and Kim and the countless millions sacrificed to war's insatiable thirst...

I promise to be always true
until the very end's in view.
In good times and the bad times, too,
I know that we can make it through.
As one united we'll be strong;
because together we belong.
If I could sing to you a song,
I'd sing of love that won't go wrong.

If we're together,
we'll make a brand new life for us together,
as married man and wife, we'll stay together...

Couples began to join them on the dance floor, and when the song finished, the party began in earnest. Happily, Rick found himself with some free moments while Lisa was off circulating table to table. Oddly enough, members of the Southern Cross and RDF were mingling without incident, and everywhere Rick looked he saw people having a good time. Except perhaps for Jean Grant, who was looking a little frazzled after having spent most of the ceremony chasing Bowie and Dana around.
A photographer brought Rick and Lisa back together for the cake cutting, but Rick drew the line at that, and refused to take part in any of the archaic dances the band insisted on playing. Instead, he wandered around with a smile frozen in place that misrepresented his true inner state. He had realized, as though waking from a dream, that there was only the mission now. No wedding to absorb his concerns, no higher priority than the SDF-3 and his command.
It was a frightening realization.