"Jack McKinney - Robotech 04 - Battlehymn" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

Robotech: Battlehymn
Book Four of the Robotech Series
Copyright 1987 by Jack McKinney


CHAPTER ONE
As far as I'm concerned [Gloval] has already disobeyed his orders; I'd urge
the council to proceed with a courtmartial if I could only come up with
someone to replace him. What do you think, [name withheld], perhaps I could
talk [Admiral] Hayes into accepting the position and kill two birds with one
stone?...This issue of the civilians aboard the SDF-1 has turned into a real
mess. Personally, I consider them expendable-along with Gloval, along with the
whole ship, if you want to know the truth. Let's face facts: The thing has
already outlived its purpose. You and I are where we wanted to be. Why not
give the aliens their damn ship and send them back where they belong?
Senator Russo, personal correspondence (source withheld)

There was something new in the cool summer night skies of 2012...You remember
sitting on the backyard swing, hands tightly gripping the galvanized chains,
slender arms extended and head tossed all the way back, gazing up into the
immeasurable depths of that black magic, teasing your young mind with half-
understood riddles of space and time. All of a sudden, your gaze found
movement there where none should have existed, as if an entire constellation
had uprooted and launched itself on an impromptu journey across the cosmos.
Your heart was beating fast, but your eyes continued to track that mystery's
swift passage toward the distant horizon, even though you were watching it
upside down now and in danger of toppling backward off the swing. A screen
door slammed, its report a signal that your cries had been heard, your father
and his friends beside you trying to follow the rapid flow of your words, your
shaking forefinger, pointing to unmoving starfields. "Past your bedtime," your
father said, and off you went. But you crept down the wide carpeted staircase
later on, silently, invisibly, and heard them in the library talking in low
tones, using words you couldn't fully comprehend but in a way that proved you
weren't imagining things. You'd glimpsed the fortress, a heavenly city
returned from the past, massive enough to occultate the stars...savior or
harbinger of dark prophecies, your father's friends couldn't decide which, but
"a sign of the times" in either case. Like blue moons, unexplained
disappearances, rumors of giants that were on their way to get you...And on
the front page of the following day's newspaper you saw what the night had
kept from you: a mile-high roboid figure, propelled by unknown devices twice
its own height above a stunned city, erect, legs straight, arms bent at the
elbow, held out like those of a holy man or magician in a calming gesture of
peace or surrender. It reminded you of something at the edge of memory, an
image you wouldn't summon forth until much later, when fire rained from the
sky, your night world annihilated by light...

In direct violation of United Earth Defense Council dictates, Captain
Gloval had ordered the SDF-1 airborne. It was not the first time he had
challenged the wisdom of the Council, nor would it be the last.
The dimensional fortress had remained at its landing site in the Pacific