"Jack McKinney - Robotech 14 - Dark Powers" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

Robotech Sentinels: Dark Powers
Book 14 of the Robotech Series
Copyright 1988 by Jack McKinney


CHAPTER ONE
All I have learned of the Shapings of the Protoculture tell me that it does
not work randomly; that there is a grand design or scheme. I feel that we have
been brought here, kept here, for some reason.
Yet, what purpose can there be in SDF-3's being stranded here on Tirol for
perhaps as long as five years? And during that time will the Robotech Masters
be pursuing their search for Earth?
Since tempers are short, I do not mention the Shaping; I'm a little too long
in the tooth, I fear, for hand-to-hand confrontations with homesick,
frightened, and frustrated REF fighters.
Dr. Emil Lang, personal journal of the SDF-3 mission

On captured Tirol, after a fierce battle, the Humans and their Zentraedi
allies-the Robotech Expeditionary Force-licked their wounds, then decided it
was time to mark the occasion of their triumph. It was, as nearly as they
could calculate, New Year's Eve.
But far out near the edge of Tirol's system, a newcomer appeared-a
massive spacegoing battleship, closing in on the war-torn, planet-sized moon.
Our first victory celebration, young Susan Graham exulted. What a
wonderful party! She was just shy of sixteen, and to her it was the most
romantic evening in human history.
She was struggling to load a bulky cassette into her sound-vid recorder
while scurrying around to get a better angle at Admirals Rick Hunter and Lisa
Hayes Hunter. They had just stood up, in full-dress uniforms, clasping white-
gloved hands, apparently about to dance. There had been rumors that the
relationship between the two senior officers of the Robotech Expeditionary
Force was on shaky ground, but for the moment at least, they seemed altogether
in love.
Sue let out a short romantic sigh and envied Lisa Hunter. Then her
thoughts returned to the cassette which she was tapping with the heel of her
hand. A lowly student-trainee, Sue had to make do with whatever equipment she
could find at the G-5 public-information shop, or Psy-ops, Morale or wherever.
At last the cassette was in place, and she began to move toward her
quarry.

In Tiresia, the moon's shattered capital city, the Royal Hall was aglow.
The improvised lighting and decorations reemphasized the vast, almost endless
size of the place.
The lush ballroom music remained slow-something from Strauss, Karen Penn
thought; something even Jack Baker could handle. As she had expected, he asked
her to waltz a second time.
And he wasn't too bad at it. The speed and reflexes that made him such a
good Veritech pilot-almost as good as I am, she thought-made him a passable
dancer. Still, she maintained her aloof air, gliding flawlessly, making him
seem clumsy by comparison; otherwise, that maddening brashness of his would