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

shopping bag because the package hid too much of the uniform. Besides, it was wrong for a Veritech
fighter pilot to involve himself in such mundane activities. Well, that much was encouraging to
Rick because she had really been his motivation for joining up. During the weeks that followed
their shared ordeal in that remote part of the ship, he realized that Minmei could never accept an
ordinary man as her lover; he would have to be someone who participated in life to the fullest.
Someone romantic, adventurous, full of grand dreams and positive hopes for the future-an all-day-
long hero who would never fear, never say die. A special man, a dearest man, someone to share his
life with you alone, as Minmei had herself written it...She was like someone who had gone from
childhood to maturity without any of the intervening periods of longing or confusion. And even
though Rick had saved her life on two occasions and spent two long lost weeks with her, he had yet
to prove himself in her eyes. Without joining up there would have been no way for him to display
the heroics she craved, no way to individualize himself, no way to accept himself as her equal.

And yet, even having taken those steps, he felt no closer to her than before. Her love had
no fixed center; it was spread across the board and parceled out in equal packets for one and all
to enjoy. A hero wouldn't even be enough for her because she belonged to everyone. She was more
spirit than woman, more dream than reality.

Rick slipped into fitful sleep for a short while, only to have Roy wake him out of it.
Fokker was just checking in, reminding him that they had to be up early tomorrow.

"Your first combat mission is always the worst, kid. I sympathize with you. Now, get some
sleep-count fanjets or something."

Everyone had such encouraging words: At the briefing they'd been told to wrap up their
personal business, and now Roy tells him that tomorrow is going to be the worst. Minmei had
behaved like a cheerleader, his commanding officer thought him a lecher...It had been quite a day.


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So Rick actually took Roy's suggestion-he began counting fanjets-although it wasn't sleep
he found in the high numbers but an uncomfortable half state where Commander Hayes and the three
bridge bunnies mocked him, and the giant enemy soldier he had confronted on Macross Island was
reborn to stalk him.

The reveille call came too quickly. Rick felt like one of the walking dead as he gathered
up his gear and zombied his way through morning rituals with the other VT pilots. There was a
second preflight briefing, more detailed than the first. Then the men were loaded into personnel
carriers and conveyed to the Prometheus. Roy and Rick's group drove through Macross City, past the
park where he and Minmei had been together only hours before. The city was asleep, peacefully,
blessedly unaware.

Even before the transport vehicle had come to a halt in the hangar of the supercarrier,
pilots were hopping out and rushing toward their propped Veritechs. The Thor-class Prometheus-one
of two ships that had been caught up in the spacefold and had since been grafted on to the main
body of the SDF-1 was like an active hive, and every drone aboard save Rick seemed certain of his
or her duty. He lost Roy in the crowds and stood by the transport scanning for a familiar face