"Jerry Pournelle - He Fell into a Dark Hole" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

The reunion was neither more nor less than he'd expected, but Admiral
Torrin cut short the time in his office. "Got to get you home, Bart.
Surprise for you there. Come along, man, come along."

Bart followed woodenly. Something really wrong with me, he thought.
Man doesn't go on like this for five years. I'm all right aboard Old Danny
Boy. It's only when I leave my ship, now why should that be? But a man
can marry a ship, even a slim steel whiskey bottle four hundred meters
long and sixty across; he wouldn't be the first captain married to a cruiser.

Most of Ceres Base was underground, and Bart was lost in the endless
rock corridors. Finally they reached a guarded area. They returned the
Marines' salutes and went through to broader hallways lined with carpets.
There were battle paintings on the walls. Some reached back to wet navy
days and every CD base, insystem or out, had them. There were scenes
from all the great navies of the world. Russian, Soviet, U.S., British,
JapaneseтАж there weren't any of Togo at Tshushima, though. Or Pearl
Harbor. Or Bengal Bay.

Rap kept up his hearty chatter until they got inside his apartment. The
admiral's quarters were what Bart had visualized before he entered, richly
furnished, filled with the gifts and mementos that a successful
independent command captain could collect on a dozen worlds after more
than twenty years in service. Shells and stuffed exotic fauna, a cabinet
made of the delicately veined snakewood of Tanith, a table of priceless
Spartan roseteak. There was a house on Luna Base that had been
furnished like thisтАж

Bart caught sight of the man who entered the room and snapped to
attention in surprise. Automatically he saluted.

Vice Admiral Lermontov returned the salute. The admiral was a tall,
slim man who wore rimless spectacles which made his gray eyes look large
and round as they bored through his subordinates. Men who served under
Lermontov either loved him or hated him. Now his thin features distorted
in genuine pleasure. "Bartholomew, I am sorry to surprise you like this."

Lermontov inspected Ramsey critically. The smile faded slightly. "You
have not taken proper care of yourself, my friend. Not enough exercise."

"I can still beat you. Arm wrestling, anything you nameтАФuh, sir."

Lermontov's smile broadened again. "That is better. But you need not
call me 'sir'. You would say 'sir' only to Vice Admiral Lermontov, and it is
quite obvious that the Vice Admiral Commanding cannot possibly be on
Ceres. So, since you have not seen meтАж"

"I see," Ramsey said.

Lermontov nodded. "It is rather important. You will know why in a few