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

Claudia exchanged looks with Gloval and spoke for him.
"This fortress is a symbol of the Council's strength," she told Vanessa.
"If it gets out that the captain is resisting orders, the Council would lose
face-"
"And there's a chance," Lisa added, "that our communication was being
monitored." She turned to Gloval. "Isn't that true, Captain?"
Gloval left the chair and walked forward to the curved bay. The
cityscape was spread out beneath the ship; Veritechs flew in formation, and
great swirls and billows of lavender and orange sunset clouds filled the sky.
"I'm prepared to keep the SDF-1 here until we are monitored, Lisa." He
turned to face Claudia and the others. "I don't think there's much chance that
the Council will reverse its decision. But politicians can sometimes be
helpful, and it's possible that someone in the government will get wind of
this, see an opportunity, and step in."
"But the Council isn't going to like your tactics, sir," said Vanessa.
Gloval turned back to the bay.
"Even if I face prosecution, this is something I must do. Civilians have
no place onboard this ship. No place in this war."

But for the time being the SDF-1 was stuck with its civilians. However,
it had been outfitted with a reworked shield system. Dr. Lang had dismantled
the pin-point barrier and liberated the lambent energy which animated it-the
same energy which had materialized with the disappearance of the spacefold
generators some time ago. His team of Robotechnicians had then reanalyzed that
alien fire, careful to avoid past mistakes, tamed and cajoled it, and
fashioned a newly designed harness for it. Where the former system relied on
manually operated maneuverable photon discs that were capable of covering only
specific portions of the fortress (hence the name "pin-point" system), the
reworked design was omnidirectional, allowing for full coverage. It did share
some of the weaknesses of its prototype, though, in that activation of the
system drained energy from the weapons systems, and full coverage was severely
time-limited.
If only the personnel of the fortress could have been similarly
outfitted...but who has yet designed a shield system for the heart, a
protective barrier, pin-point or otherwise, for the human soul?
Roy Fokker was dead.
The VT pilots of Skull Team had their own way of dealing with combat
deaths: The slain pilot simply never was. Men from Vermilion or Indigo might
approach them in Barracks C or belowdecks in the Prometheus and say: "Sorry to
hear about Roy," or "Heard that Roy tuned out." And they would look them
square in the eye or turn to one of their Skull teammates and ask flatly, "Roy
who?" some might think the skull were kidding with them and press the
question, but the response remained the same: "Roy who?" Nobody broke the
pact, nobody spoke of Roy, then or now. Roy simply never was.
Except in the privacy of their quarters or the no-man's-land of their
tortured memories and dreams. Then a man could let loose and wail or rage or
throw out the wane questions humankind has been asking since that first
murder, the first death at the hands of another, the one that set the pattern
for all that followed.
Perhaps that shell game the Skull Team played with death had found its