"Jack McKinney - Robotech 16 - World Killers" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

Tiresia or Garuda, but the beginning of their adventure was an alcoholic mini-blackout. She was
not sure what her plan had been, though, except that Jonathan Wolff and Rick Hunter were out there
someplace.
She shook her head slowly. "I don't-I don't..."
He took her hand again. "Don't worry, Minmei."
Then he led her off again. Minmei lost track of things for a while, but Wearily realized
at one point that he was shoving oversize deck slippers onto her bare feet. At another point, she
felt something sting her arm and saw that he had given her a shot with a medikit ampule.
"Antinausea," REF # 666-60-937 explained. "It makes it tough to see out the cockpit canopy
if you heave your cookies."
"Cockpit?" she repeated, trying to figure out what he was getting at. Then she realized
that he had her standing near a hatch that led to a hangar deck. There were the distant whines of
VTs being readied for flight.
"Wait right here," he said after he led her into the vast, mostly darkened hangar deck.
Minmei did not get to ask what he was doing; he was gone.
The antinausea drug settled her queasiness and brought her around a bit, too. She was
drawing deep breaths and burping a bit, sitting on the deck, when he caught her hands and pulled
Minmei upward.
"All set; just follow me. That's our ship over there."
"Wh-"
And then they were walking among the parked mecha of the hangar deck. Welding sparks leapt
and humming maint-crew machinery made noise in the distance, and she could hear men and women
yelling or cursing or cajoling or laughing as they sweated to keep the REF's fighting forces
operational.
He was leading her toward an armored Alpha, a lusterless gray fighter trimmed in olive
drab, bulked by its augmentation pods. It was one of the most formidable ships in the REF
inventory, and she didn't think it likely that it had been assigned to one of Lang's "six-month-
wonder" pilots.
Minmei saw the boarding ladder before her and it brought back a flood of memories. She was
a non-tech person; why did mecha insist on playing such an overwhelming part in her life?
Then somebody yelled from the distance, and more voices took up the cry. She realized
woozily that the voices were coming her way. She had both hands on the boarding ladder and one
foot on the first rung when she became aware of a ruckus behind her.
By the time she turned around, there were three or four flight-deck personnel laid out
flat, unconscious. Minmei blinked at them owlishly. What-
Then REF # 666-60-937 was pushing her up the ladder, loading her into the copilot's seat,
and then belting her in. Apparently he knew all the right codes; the launch-cat airlock accepted
the powerful Alpha fighter and flung it out into space.
Green, looming Fantoma cast its light on them and their ship, and Tirol was a gibbous
splotch of orange-brown-gray not far from it. The VT pilot turned his craft toward Tirol.
Suddenly his instruments were squealing and beeping for his attention. "Hot scramble from
SDF-3, of course," she heard him mutter. "They want you back. They're coming to get you."
"Then-"
"Sit tight." He hit the auxiliaries for full military power and dove toward Tirol. Eager
pursuers formed up for the hunt.
Minmei, pressed back in her seat, looking out at the unknowable stars, felt tears pressed
from her eyes by acceleration, to wet the headrest behind her.
"Here they come," said REF # 666-60-937.