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

passed into a smaller side passageway, one the VTs would never have managed.
The other raiders were jumpy, expecting Haydon IV to come up with new horrors,
but Jan seemed blithely confident that away from their Protoculture-powered
mecha and weapons they would no longer be considered invaders.
Janice's theory might be correct, but Jack still thought longingly of
all the firepower they had been forced to abandon.
Janice appeared to be finding her way like an Indian in deep forest,
listening and kind of sniffing the air currents as well as searching the
future-tech terrain with her gaze.
As they trailed along, they grew hotter. Lron and Crysta shed their
outsize flight suits completely, abandoning them except for helmets-and the
commo equipment in them-and the harnesses that held their gear and weapons.
Jack, Kami, and Learna removed their helmets as well, attaching them to
their web gear, and the two Garudans put on their special breather masks.
At last Janice stopped in another vast open place big enough to hold a
cruiser. Before them was a surprisingly delicate-looking affair that reminded
Jack of a filament-bright cat's cradle the size of the REF headquarters
building back on Tirol.
There were tiers of instrumentation all around; Jan selected one right
away. It only took her a moment or two to figure out which adapters to use, in
which configuration, and then she was ready.
Jack volunteered to make the connection. As he stood by with the plug in
his hand, Jan seemed to revert to her Human side again. "If you see me go into
overload, get the plug out at once. I mean, right away, okay Jack?"
"Sure; right." It hadn't occurred to him that she was risking her
life-if that was the correct term. He nervously worked his fingers in his
flight glove, hoping it would insulate him from any power surges.
With Jan holding her hair aside again, he took a deep breath and plugged
the adapter into the outlet in her neck. Banks of peripheral instrumentation
came alive in light of various colors and a deep humming filled the chamber;
the humming rose in pitch until it sounded like a synthesized choir.
A glow sprang out from Janice Em, and Jack nearly pulled the plug, but
she managed in a breathless voice, "Don't...don't."
Jack stepped back to watch as she was bathed in radiance. He thought he
could sense conversations being held all around him, and the flow of rivers of
information. He spun to see how the other raiders were weathering.
Bela and Gnea were unafraid, but had closed ranks. Lron and Crysta had
their weapons in their hands, but didn't look like they were going to blow
holes in anything; their service in the Sentinels had taught them a certain
self-control.
Kami and Learna were looking about them in rapture, and Jack wondered
what they were seeing and hearing. They were inhaling through their breather
masks, drawing the atmosphere of Garuda, with its myriad microscopic
symbiotes, into their lungs. He knew they were in the expanded mindstate of
hin, and wished he could know how the systemry of Haydon IV was manifesting
itself to them.
The two lesser Invid POWs, Garak and Pye, were cringing in a corner, but
Tesla had drawn himself up to his full height, hands reaching into the air
imploringly. He lurched toward a stack of control panels and indicators like a
long-lost lover.