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

surface again at any second.
They were about the same height, five ten or so, he redheaded and
freckled and frenetic, she honey-blond and smooth-skinned and model-gorgeous-
and long since tired of panting male attention. Jack had turned eighteen two
months ago; Karen would celebrate her majority in three more weeks.
They had been like oil and water, cats and dogs, Unseducible Object and
Irrepressible Force, ever since they had met. But they had also been battle
comrades, and now they swayed as the music swelled, and somehow their friendly
antagonism was put aside, at least for the moment.

The deepspace dreadnought was a bewildering, almost slapdash length of
components: different technologies, different philosophies of design, even
different stages of scientific awareness, showed in the contrasts among its
various modules. From it, scores of disparate weapons bristled and many kinds
of sensors probed.
With Tirol before it, the motley battlewagon went on combat alert.

On the outer rim of the ballroom, members of General Edwards's Ghost
Squadron and Colonel Wolff's Wolff Pack traded hostile looks, but refrained
from any overt clashes; Admiral Lisa Hunter's warnings, and her promises of
retribution, had been very specific on that point.
Edwards was there, a haughty, splendidly military figure, his sardonic
handsomeness marred by the half cowl that covered the right half of his head.
Per Lisa's confidential order, Vince Grant and his Ground Mobile Unit
people were keeping an eye on the rivals, ready to break up any scuffles. So
far things seemed to be peaceful-nothing more than a bit of glowering and
boasting.

Hanging in orbit over the war-torn ruin of Tirol, Super-dimensional
Fortress Three registered the rapid approach of the unidentified battleship.
SDF-3 had been tardy in detecting the newcomer; the Earth warship's
systems had been damaged in the ferocious engagement that had destroyed her
spacefold apparatus, and some systems were still functioning far short of peak
efficiency.
But she had spotted the possible adversary now. According to procedure,
SDF-3 went to battle stations, and communications personnel rushed to open
downlinks with the contingent on Tirol's surface.

Perhaps the strangest pair at the celebration was Janice Em, the lovely
and enigmatic singer, and Rem, assistant to the Tiresian scientist Cabell.
Janice was Dr. Lang's creation, an android, an artificial person, though
she was unaware of it.
Lang shook his head and reminded himself that the Shapings of the
Protoculture were not to be defied. He was really quite happy that the two
were drawn together.
He turned to Cabell, the ancient lone survivor of the scientists of
Tirol.

What were once the gorgeous cityscape of Tiresia and magnificent gardens
surrounding the Royal Hall, were now only blasted wasteland.