"Steve Perry - Aliens 03 - The Female War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

"Hypothetically, let's say I wanted to go pick up a ... weapon that might wipe out the infestation on
Earth. Could I get a ship?"
 "What kind of weapon?"

"A hypothetical one."

Bako tapped his chopsticks against the desk. "Well, first of all, you'd have to have proof of this
weapon, no hypothetical about it. Take that to General Peters, or maybe DavisonтАФget an okay, a
volunteer crew, and fill out the forms." Bako made another attempt at his noodles as he spoke. "I gotta
tell you, though, you'll have a fuck of a time, even with solid evidence."

"Why's that?"

"In the last four months there have been three attempts to get to and from Earth. Three official
attempts, if you know what I mean."

Wilks nodded. That meant other times that nobody wanted to talk about.

"The first ship came back with a dozen or so new civilians but four marines outright dead or gone
out of an eight-man crew. On the second, we lost almost all the crew and got zip rescues to show for it."

"And the third?"

"Didn't come back. It's like the things knew the ships were coming and were laying for them. And
we really can't afford to lose any more hardware, local manufacturing facilities being what they are. Just
about every crate that could get free of the gravity well left during the final days of the infestation. Some
of those ships are here; a whole shitload more of them are far away, and nobody knows where."

Bako set his chopsticks down and looked at Wilks. "They're planning another mission soon; you
know how the brass hates to have its butt kicked, although you didn't hear it from me. My point is,
getting a ship to do something that could maybe help isn't high priority right now. Even scout ships are
worth more than diamonds these days."

And all Wilks wanted was a fully loaded star-ship to take God knew where across the galaxy to
kidnap the mother of all aliens. Hypothetically speaking.

He nodded, stood, and smiled at the baby-faced sergeant. "Thanks, Dimples. You've been a help."

"Don't call me that. C-court tomorrow, 0800?"

"Sure. I'll tie both hands behind my back, even things up a little."

Wilks exited on Bako's laugh, but stopped smiling as the door closed behind him. Bako's
information hadn't exactly been a surprise. And if it were just him, he'd fuck going through the proper
channels and just take a ship. He'd done that and he knew how it worked. But he didn't exactly live in a
void. Someone else was in charge, and if Ripley wanted to try and go by the book, he'd do what he
could to help. But unless the general was dreaming of the alien superqueen, proving anything was going to
be a bitch.