"Centauri, Arrival" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Sid)

"Too frightened to stray near Miriam's territories," returned Ulrik. "But maybe we can give them a new reason to feel afraid."
"I don't think so," she said flatly. "It is too early."
He ignored her and signaled to a group of men and women standing by a rock outcropping a hundred meters away. Several of them looked up. "They appear ready. None of us are here to waste time."
"To strike too early would be a disaster," she said, low and angry.
"They are sitting ducks," said Ulrik. "But I will grant you thisЕwe'll wait until night falls. With the Churn and the darkness, they won't know what hit them."

Episode 4, part 3

"I don't like this night travel," murmured Hefferan, leaning against the crude plastic railing of the escort ship. "At least on Earth we knew what the darkness held."
"Yes. It held quick death, sneak attacks, crazed victims of biological attacks. Or have you forgottЕ" Snowfire stopped, his eyes narrowing. "What was that?"
"What?" Hefferan craned his neck forward to stare out into a nearly impenetrable darkness. Snowfire scowled and took a scanner from his loosely-tied belt. He looked through the single lens and twiddled the controls. Several armed soldier/techs moved closer to him.
"Nothing." The word floated across the blackness of sea and sky.
"There is not an ounce of moonlight through the Churn," said Hefferan, an older scientist who had scored Expert on the marksmanship tests. "Bad luck that both suns are on the far side."
"There," said Snowfire, then swiveled the scanner. "SomethingЕ Does the navigator see anything on his scanner?"
"He would have said something," answered Hefferan. "There are native life forms in the fungus. Are there also ones out here?" The older man looked down into the inky blackness around the ship. "Something must live down there."
"It's too dark," said Snowfire. "Let's not wait like this." He went down belowdeck and re-emerged a few moments later with a beacon gun. He aimed it low across the horizon and fired.
A bolt of white energy burst from the gun and arced low across the horizon, sending brilliant trails of light into the sea. The bolt went long and far, then faded down and away. A few moments passed in silence.
Suddenly a burst of yellow fire shot from the darkness of the sea and arced toward them. Snowfire watched it and then covered his face as the light grew brighter.
"That's not a flare! Hard to port!" he ordered.
The ship began to turn into the waves as the engines fired, sending the ship breasting the waves, propelled skyward by the engines' force. The yellow fire had now spun its way into a huge sphere of light that loomed above the ship, and Hefferan turned away from the heat. It passed over the ship and then there was a hiss as the sea boiled and steam rose in clouds.
"What was that?" shouted Hefferan. Two more flares thumped into the night sky and arced toward them.
"Full stop! Remain still!" shouted Snowfire. "These will miss us."
But three more thumps sounded on the horizon, and now five balls of yellow fire crossed the sky.
"We must protect the cargo ship," hissed Hefferan, helpless to fire his scoped rifle when he could not see the enemy.
"They're not firing at the cargo ship. They know what's on it. In fact," Snowfire tapped into his quicklink, contacting the pilot of the cargo ship. "Cargo, move your ship closer. We must bunch tightly."
"Too risky!" came the high pitched voice of the cargo ship's pilot. "They are trying to kill you."
"But not you. If we move closer it will be for the good of all."
The sea surged and roiled as the yellow fire rained down around them. Steam washed over Snowfire's face, scalding him.
"I don't agree!" the pilot warbled. "You distract them, we will run! We must protect the alien engravings!"
"If you run you are a sitting duck!" shouted Snowfire, then broke the link. He yelled to his own helmsman. "Move close to the cargo ship. I want to be able to spit in their pilot's eye if I want to. Stay close. Do not let them run."
The ship surged ahead. The bolts of fire launched from the distance had changed colors now, to blues and whites, smaller in size but filling the sky with their heat and power. Then, as the ships moved into a tight cluster, the fire stopped.
Snowfire and his crew waited for the unseen enemy that approached.



Centauri: Arrival, Episode 5

Snowfire studied the sea. Between the thick layer of clouds overhead and the dusk caused by the position of the suns, the sea and sky blended into a world of darkness on darkness.
He rubbed the stock of his rifle, which he had assembled himself in the University labs, outfitting it with new explosive rounds of his own design. Around him stood other University guards, all with weapons out, scanning the sea.
"There they are," said Hefferan, looking through infrared scanners. Snowfire lifted his own farspecs and zeroed in on the same spot. A blob of moderate heat dipped and rose in the waves, heading their direction.
"Little more than a tug, as we suspected. That must have been a shore launched weapon, earlier.Ф
УAnd it could be launched again, if they get what they want,Ф said Hefferan.
УThat wonТt happen,Ф said Snowfire, and lifted his rifle. УFlames, projectiles, whatever youТve gotЕhit them. WeТll not risk our cargo.Ф
And his first shot crossed the sea to strike the visitor.

Episode 5, part 2

Datatech Jellico of the post-Unity Graylink project dialed up a secure feed and began running decryption software on the seemingly random static that formed the stream.
As pass after pass of filtering software scanned the static, an image began to take shape, like a figure emerging from the snow.
"Information," she said in a deep, rich voice, and her Second rose from his deep padded chair to stand behind her and watch the image form.