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

more than big enough to carry a queen alien. And to keep her from wandering around the ship, too. If
they could catch her, if they could get her on board, if they could steal the ship in the first place....

Billie rubbed her eyes and looked around her room. It was late; she knew she should get some
sleep. In the morning they would meet back in the dojo to run down the details of taking the ship.
Security looked to be minimal, but there was some, and they didn't want to get caught.
 She and Doc Jones had been put in charge of provisions, although the list Leslie had rascaled
seemed pretty complete. The Kurtz was built to quarter twenty people comfortably; it carried an APC
and the food dispensers were stocked with pastes and concentrates that would be good for another ten
years. "Good" being a relative term; they would taste like shit, but they would be edible. The ship was
currently fueled and ready to go. All the comforts of home. More than she had here, actually.

In spite of her exhaustion, Billie felt too wired to sleep. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess of
memories and hopes, all that she had been through and the people she had known. As awful as the
dreams that she had experienced at the hospital on Earth had been, they were even worse these days.
Wilks. Mitch. Now Ripley. And, of course, Amy.

It seemed to Billie she had been running and fighting her whole life. She was in a place where she
didn't have to do that anymore; she could probably live out her life here on this station and maybe die of
old age. But that thought didn't play. There were people down on Earth being eaten alive and that wasn't
right. Especially since one of those at risk was Amy.

So, maybe she could go and do this thing and somehow survive, and maybe that would be the end
of it.

Amy. The Kurtz probably wouldn't be equipped to receive Earth 'casts at the distance they would
travel, so there would be no way to know if Amy and her family were still alive. The last transmission had
been only a few days before, but there was no way to know if it had been on tape or live; Billie wanted
to believe it was recent She could feel that Amy was down there, perhaps praying for a way out.

Ripley's plan would be the answer.

Billie scanned back to the top of the list, yawned. She knew that there was nothing missing, but
wanted to check once more. After all, there would be no second chanceтАФwhen they got on board, there
was no turning back. Hell. It was already too late to turn back.



Ripley sat on the floor of the dimly lit dojo, alone. It was early morning. The crew wouldn't arrive
for another half hour and then there would be no time to think.

She knew that they had planned the mission as thoroughly as possible, that they were as ready as
they would be. They could probably spend another day or two working out details, but one could always
wait; it was time to act. Too much planning raised too many doubts. You did what you could.

She ran down the list of crew members mentally: herself, Billie, and Wilks. Adcox and the other
marines: Falk. Dunston. Tully, Leslie's hacker friend. And Jones ...

They were a good group. The trial run had been successful; of course, it would be different in real
time, but the crew seemed committed and confident enough to get past any trouble. The only part that