"Jack McKinney - Robotech 03 - Homecoming" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

makeshift and unsuitable sort. How could these creatures feel any peace of mind
without at least a few small arms close at hand? It all made less and less
sense.
Bron glowered, and Rico subsided; it was unwise to get the big fellow
irritated. Bron gave his skirt a final hitch and said, "Ready."
They fell in together and trooped off in the direction the Terrible Trio
had gone, ready to bring triumph and glory to the mighty Zentraedi race.


CHAPTER THREE
We had met the enemy, and he wasn't us. Then we wound up in front of some of
"us," and they were the enemy.
Lisa Hayes, Recollections

"Please continue your report, commander Hayes," the captain bade her.
They sat in high-back chairs along the gleaming conference room table, all
in a row. A short time ago they'd been greeted as heroes, but now-despite
Captain Gloval's comforting presence-Lisa felt very much as if she were sitting
before a board of inquiry.
Lisa, Rick, Ben, and Max looked across the long, wide table at the row of
four member officers of the evaluation team. Only one of them held rank in one
of the combat arms, Colonel Maistroff, an Air Group officer with a reputation as
a martinet and stuffed shirt.
The others were intelligence and operations staffers, though the bearded
and balding Major Aldershot was supposed to be something of a mainstay over at
G3 Operations and had earned a Combat Infantry Star in his youth. The team
studied the escapees as if they were something on a microscope slide.
Gloval, presiding at the head of the table, was encouraging Lisa. "You are
certain that what you've made is a fair estimate? At this Zentraedi central base
there are really that many more ships than we've already seen?" The comlink
handset next to him began beeping softly; he ignored it.
Lisa thought carefully. So many things about their captivity in the
planetoid-size enemy base, a spacefold jump away-somewhere else in the universe-
were astounding and unnerving that she rechecked her recollections again,
minutely.
Rick looked over to her, and their eyes met. He didn't nod; that might
have tainted her testimony. But she saw that he was ready to back her up.
"Yes, sir, at least that many. And quite possibly millions more. I made a
conservative estimate."
Gloval, hand on the phone, looked to Rick. "Truly?"
Rick nodded. "Yes, sir. That many."
 Gloval listened to the handset for a moment, then replaced it in its
cradle without responding. "Based on all combined reports," he resumed, "our
computers place the total enemy resources at somewhere between four and five
million ships."
"Sir, forgive me, but that's ridiculous," one team member said. From the
security branch, he was the officer who'd been all for destroying the escapees'
pod. "Our projections are based on the most accurate data and statistical
techniques known.
"No species could accumulate that sort of power! And even if they could,