"Ringo,.John.-.Honorverse.SS.-.Mitchell,.Victor.-.A.SHIP.NAMED.FRANCIS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ringo John)

taller lieutenant with an expression of absolute perplexity on his
face.

"We're not lost, Sir," the lieutenant standing braced in front of the
captain replied. "We just appear to be . . . off course."

"Do you know why?" the captain asked.

"Not yet, Sir," the lieutenant said. "We appear to have suffered a
change in course due to a . . . gravitational anomaly."

"Gravitational anomaly?" the captain replied.

"Yes, Sir," the sweating lieutenant replied.

"We're lost." The speaker was a tall man by Grayson standards,
with a pale complexion and a thin, ascetic face. He was dressed
entirely in black. Either Death had decided to visit the Francis
Mueller, a possibility that had some validity all things considered, or
Sean was in the presence of the ship's chaplain.

"We're lost, wandering helpless in the depths of space!" the
chaplain said. It was the same reedy voice from morning prayers.

"We're not lost, Chaplain Olds," the captain said. "We simply have
to make a course correction. How much of a course correction?"
he asked the astrogator.

"We're still computing that, Sir," the lieutenant replied. "But we're at
least a hundred and twenty thousand kilometers off base course."

"Good Tester," the captain swore. "It occurs to me that we made a
close pass by Blackbird Six. You did figure that into your
equations, didn't you, Astro?"

"Err," the lieutenant hesitated. "Let me check my notes."

"You didn't, did you?" the captain said. "It suddenly occurs to me
that if you didn't figure it into your calculations, you probably also
didn't consider that it was out there, did you? It crosses my mind
that you didn't mention that we were doing a close pass until
Tactical picked up the moon on lidar at under sixty-three thousand
kilometers. I remember thinking that was cutting it a bit close, all
things considered."

"I'm . . . not sure, Sir," the lieutenant said.

"Sweet Tester!" the chaplain exclaimed. "In my wildest nightmares,
I never considered that we could slam unthinking into a celestial
body! The ship would be strewn across its surface! Unless we