"Jack McKinney - Robotech 12 - Symphony of Light" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

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Robotech: Symphony of Light
Book 12 of the Robotech Series
Copyright 1987 by Jack McKinney


CHAPTER ONE
I am intrigued by these beings and their strange rituals, which center around this plant their
language calls "the Flower of Life." This world, Optera, is a veritable garden for the plant in
its myriad forms, and the Invid seem to utilize all these for physical as well as spiritual
nutrition-they ingest the flower's petals and the fruits of the mature crop, in addition to
drinking the plant's psychoactive sap. The Regis, the Queen-Mother of this race, is the key to
unlocking Optera's mysteries; and I have set myself the goal of possessing this key-if I have to
seduce this queen to make that happen!
Zor's log: The Optera Chronicles (translated by Dr. Emil Lang)

It was never Scott's intention to make camp at the high pass; he had simply given his okay for a
quick food stop-if only to put an end to all the grousing that was going on. Lunk's stomach needed
tending to; Annie was restless from too many hours in the APC; and even Lancer was complaining
about the wind chill.
Oh, to be back in the tropics, Scott thought wistfully.
He had always been one for wastes and deserts-weathered landscapes, rugged, ravaged by
time and the stuff of stars-but only because he knew of little else. Here he had been to the other
side of the galaxy and remained the most parochial member of the team in spite of it. But since
their brief stopover in the tropics, he had begun to understand why Earth was so revered by the
crew of the Expeditionary Mission, those same men and women who had raised him aboard the SDF-3
and watched him grow to manhood on Tirol. In the tropics he had had a glimpse of the Earth they
must have been remembering: the life-affirming warmth of its yellow sun, the splendor of its
verdant forests, the sweetness of its air, and the miracle that was its wondrous ocean.
Even if Rand had insisted that they try that swimming!
Scott would have almost been willing to trade victory itself for another view of sunset
from that Pacific isle...
Instead, he was surrounded by water in the forms more familiar to him: ice and snow. The
thrill the team had experienced on reaching the Northlands and realizing that Reflex Point was
actually within reach had been somewhat dampened by the formidable range of mountains they soon
faced. But Scott was determined to make this as rapid a crossing as was humanly possible.
Unfortunately, the humanly possible part of it called for unscheduled stops. It was Lunk's APC
that was slowing them down, but there was that old one about a chain being only as strong as its
weakest link.
The land vehicles were approaching the summit of the mountain highway now. Rook and
Lancer, riding Cyclones, were escorting the truck along the mostly ruined switchback road that led
to the pass. The ridgeline above was buried under several feet of fresh snow, but the vehicles
were making good progress on the long grade nonetheless.
Scott was overhead in the Beta, with Rand just off the fighter's wingtip. Short on fuel
canisters, they had been forced to leave Rook's red Alpha behind, concealed in the remains of a
school gymnasium building in the valley. Scott planned to retrieve it just as soon as they located
a Protoculture supply ripe for pilfering. Down below, Annie and Marlene were waving up at the VTs
from the back seat of the APC; Scott went on the mecha's tac net to inform Lunk that a rest stop
was probably in order.