"Jack McKinney - Robotech Sentientals 4 - World Killers" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

flushed out with snowmelt water from a mountain river-as if she were wired up
with electrodes.
And a chorus of somehow silent voices, singing words she never quite
understood, drew her up and up from the verge of death.
Over the preceding weeks, Karen had dreamed or hallucinated many times.
Now she had finally awakened. This time, what she saw made her sob a bit, with
relief.
Lieutenant Commander Miriya Sterling sat at her bedside, holding Karen's
hand. Once the battle queen of the Zentraedi's feared Quadrono Battalion, now
wife to Max Sterling, leader of the Skull Squadron, Miriya had fought for the
Human race and the Sentinels as hard as she had ever fought for the Robotech
Masters-or even harder; love had shown her the way.
Miriya gave Karen a tender smile that seemed out of character with the
ferocity of a Quadrono. She smoothed a lock of Karen's hair. "Welcome back."
Karen tried to speak, not even sure what she would say, but Miriya
hushed her. "You'll still be weak for a little while; the rest of us were,
too. Just rest."
Miriya turned and spoke softly over her shoulder. "Dr. Grant? She's
awake."
Another face came into view over Miriya's shoulder, a heart-shaped face
with big black eyes and skin the color of dark honey. "Take it slow," Dr. Jean
Grant said. "You're gonna be just fine, Karen."
Karen concluded that she wasn't in a Sentinels' sick bay; that much was
apparent from what she could see of her surroundings. The apparatus all around
her-what she took to be med equipment-had the look of geometrical sculptures
in crystal and precious metals, and abstract shapes of neon and laser light.
She recalled seeing the same design technology in the Haydonites' module of
the starship Farrago. She reached an understandable conclusion.
"Haydon IV?" Jean and Miriya both nodded their heads slowly. "Then,
we've done it? We've liberated another planet from the Invid?"
"No, Lieutenant." Lisa Hayes Hunter stepped into Karen's line of sight,
Rick following a step behind.
"Garuda was freed," Lisa went on, "but several of us were stricken by
the planet's biosphere. Our only chance was Haydonite science, so Vince and
Jean and several others brought us here, under a flag of surrender."
"Not surrender," Rick rasped. "I never surrendered to the Invid, and
neither did you! Besides, they don't rule Haydon IV, at least not officially,
so a surrender's null and void."
Karen was startled to see how hateful his expression was, not just in
mentioning the Invid but toward everything that had brought him to this
moment. She figured the Hunters had already done battle in private.
"I'm never surrendering!" he swore.
Lisa looked like she was about to say something but then thought better
of it. To cover the awkward silence, Jean got Karen to sit up. There were
assorted Haydonites hovering at a polite distance, and through the windows of
the Hall of Healing Karen could see the wonderland of Glike, with its flying
carpets and fairy-tale architecture.
"Vince, Colonel Wolff, and Max are trying to find Sarna and get an
update on what's going on," Miriya said. "And Cabell and Veidt have an
audience with the Regent."