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

for two long months like an infant in a wading pool, the supercarriers
Daedalus and Prometheus that were her arms positioned out front like toys in
the ocean waves. And indeed, Gloval often felt as though his superiors on the
Council had been treating him like a child since the fortress's return to
Earth. Two years of being chased through the solar system by a race of alien
giants, only to be made to feel like unwanted relatives who had simply dropped
in for a visit. Gloval had a full understanding of the Council's decisions
from a military point of view, but those men who sat in judgment were
overlooking one important element-or, as Gloval had put it to them, 56,000
important elements: the one-time residents of Macross Island who were onboard
his ship. Circumstance had forced them to actively participate in this running
space battle with the Zentraedi, but there was no reason now for their
continued presence; they had become unwilling players in a game of global
politics that was likely to have a tragic end.
There had already been more than 20,000 deaths; how many more were
required to convince the Council to accede to his demands that the civilians
be allowed to disembark?
The Council's reasoning was far from specious, it was crazed, rooted in
events that had transpired years before, but worse still, rooted in a
mentality Gloval had hoped he had seen the last of. Even now the commander
found that he could still embrace some of the arguments put forth in those
earlier times-the belief that it was prudent to keep secret from the masses
any knowledge of an impending alien attack. Secrecy had surrounded
reconstruction of the dimensional fortress and the development of Robotech
weaponry, the transfigurable Veritech fighters and the Spartans and
Gladiators. This was the "logic of disinformation": There was a guiding
purpose behind it. But the Council's current stance betrayed an inhumanity
Gloval hadn't believed possible. To explain away the disappearance of the
75,000 people of Macross, the military had announced that shortly after the
initial lift-off of the SDF-1, a volcanic eruption on the order of Krakatoa
had completely destroyed the island. To further complicate matters, GIN, the
Global Intelligence Network, spread rumors to the effect that in reality a
guerrilla force had invaded the island and detonated a thermonuclear device.
Global Times Magazine was then coerced into publishing equally unreal
investigative coverage of a supposed cover-up by GIN, according to which the
actual cause of the deaths on Macross was disease.
Just how any of these stories could have functioned to alleviate
worldwide panic was beyond Gloval; the Council might just as easily have
released the truth: that an experiment in hyperspace relocation had
inadvertently ended with the dematerialization of the island. As it stood,
however, the Council was locked into its own lies: 75,000 killed by a volcanic
explosion/guerrilla invasion/virus. Therefore, these thousands could not be
allowed to "reappear"-return from the dead was an issue the Council was not
ready to deal with.
The 56,000 survivors had to remain virtual prisoners aboard the SDF-1.
And if the Robotech Defense Force should win this war against the
Zentraedi? Gloval had asked the Council. What then? How was the Council going
to deal with the victorious return of the SDF-1 and the return of the dead?
Couldn't they see how misguided they were?
Of course, it was a rhetorical question.