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

Human servitors brought trays of food and drink, and some of the
Sentinels showed no reluctance about helping themselves, though others
declined, having different nutritive requirements.
Great Breetai, his oversized chair creaking ominously beneath him,
noticed figures pressed against viewports and observation domes in the thrown-
together battleship. At his suggestion, a wide assortment of provisions was
placed in the airlocks; the Sentinel envoys were loud in their thanks, and
mentioned, almost as a matter unworthy of discussion, that they had been on
near-starvation rations.
The beings who looked like male and female bears walking around on
broad, elephantine feet-and wearing harnesses that supported cases and pouches
and hand weapons of some sort-were Karbarrans.
Veidt and his mate Sarna were from Haydon IV, a revelation that made
Cabell and Rem exchange significant glances that Lang and the others didn't
have time to question them about. All of a sudden, Micronized Zentraedi seemed
about as Human as most in-laws, Jack Baker reflected, looking on from the
sidelines.
The couple who looked like they were made of living crystal were from a
world called Spheris. And the big, supremely proud and athletic women in the
daring, barbaric gladiatorial outfits, Gnea and Bela, came from the planet
Praxis.
Karen Penn, watching from her vantage point on the roof of a commo van,
stared in fascination at a foxlike pair, known as "Gerudans." They had feet
whose tripartite structure reminded her of a hat-rack's base, and their mouths
and snouts were hidden by complex breathing apparatus. Gerudans liked to
thrash their long, luxuriant tails when they talked, and on-the-spot
adaptations had to be done on their chairs to accommodate them.
Cabell and Exedore had helped Lang and a scratch task force from G-2
Intel and G-5 Community Affairs prepare translation programs for interpreter
computers, but in general the envoys managed with broken Tiresian. Most of the
REF spoke a Zentraedi-modified version of the language, and virtually everyone
in the SDF-3 had had some exposure to it, while all the Sentinels spoke it-as
Breetai had said, a lingua franca.
One of the first things to become clear was that the Sentinels weren't
an army, or a governmental body-they were fugitives.
"Fugitives from the Invid tyranny," Veidt said in his whispery,
processed-sounding voice. The voice came from no source Lisa could detect;
Veidt and Sarna did not have mouths, but they could be heard and they were
being recorded.
"Haydon IV, Karbarra, Peryton, Geruda, Praxis, Spheris-our homes are
worlds under the Invid heel, to one degree or another. The ship in which we
arrived was to be our prison, a sort of-zoo? No, what's the word?-trophy case!
Yes, and the hundreds and hundreds of us aboard, its artifacts-all for the
pleasure of the Invid Regent."
"And what happened?" inquired Justine Huxley, former United Earth
Government Superior Court Judge, now a council member. Her tone was neutral,
from years of habit. "What changed your circumstances?"
Lang noted that Burak of Peryton-the devil-horned one-the only Sentinel
with neither mate nor companion, had looked fretful throughout the getting-
acquainted proceedings. Now he slammed a six-fingered hand-equipped with a