"Dan Simmons - The rise of Endymion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Simmons Dan)

De Soya blinked and tried not to react. "The Raphael, sir?"
The Admiral looked up, his tanned and creased face set in a slight smile. "Yes, the Raphael,
but not the one you skippered before. We've retired that prototype to courier duty and renamed
her. The new archangel Raphael is ... well, you've heard about the planet-class archangels, Father
Captain?"
"No, sir. Not really." He had heard rumors on his desert world when boxite miners had talked
loudly in the one cantina in town.
"Four standard years," muttered the Admiral, shaking his head. His white hair was combed back
behind his ears. "Bring Federico up to speed here, Admiral."
Marget Wu nodded and touched the diskey on a standard tactical console set into Admiral
Marusyn's wall. A holo of a starship came into existence between her and de Soya. The father-
captain could see at once that this ship was larger, sleeker, more refined, and deadlier than his
old Raphael.
"His Holiness has asked each industrial world in the Pax to build -- or at least to bankroll --
one of these planet-class archangel battlecruisers, Father Captain," said Admiral Wu in her
briefing voice.
"In the past four years, twenty-one of them have been completed and have entered active
service. Another sixty are nearing completion." The holo began to rotate and enlarge until
suddenly the main deck was shown in cutaway. It was as if a laser lance had sliced the ship in
half. "As you see," continued Wu, "the living areas, command decks, and C-three tactical centers
are much roomier than on the earlier Raphael ... roomier even than your old torchship. The drives -
- both the classified C-plus instantaneous Gideon drive and the in-system fusion plant -- have
been reduced in size by one-third while gaining in efficiency and ease of maintenance. The new
Raphael carries three atmospheric dropships and a high-speed scout. There are automated
resurrection cr├йches aboard to serve a crew of twenty-eight and up to twenty-two Marines or
passengers."
"Defenses?" asked Father Captain de Soya, still standing at-ease, his hands clasped behind him.
"Class-ten containment fields," said Wu crisply. "The newest stealth technology. Omega-class
ECM and jamming ability. As well as the usual assortment of close-in hyperkinetic and energy
defenses."
"Attack capabilities?" said de Soya.
He could tell from the apertures and arrays visible on the holo, but he wanted to hear it.
Admiral Marusyn answered with a tone of pride, as if showing off a new grandchild. "The whole
nine meters," he said. "CPB'S, of course, but feeding off the C-plus drive core rather than the
fusion drive. Slag anything within half an AU. New Hawking hyperkinetic missiles -- miniaturized --
about half the mass and size of the ones you carried on Balthasar. Plasma needles with almost
twice the yield of the warheads of five years ago. Deathbeams ... "
Father Captain de Soya tried not to react. Deathbeams had been prohibited in Pax Fleet.
Marusyn saw something in the other man's face. "Things have changed, Federico. This fight is to
the finish. The Ousters are breeding like fruit flies out there in the dark, and unless we stop
them, they'll be slagging Pacem in a year or two."
Father Captain de Soya nodded. "Do you mind if I ask which world paid for the building of this
new Raphael, sir?"
Marusyn smiled and gestured toward the holo. The hull of the ship seemed to hurtle toward de
Soya as the magnification increased. The view cut through the hull and closed on the tactical
bridge, moving to the edge of the tactical center holopit until the father-captain could make out
a small bronze plaque with the name -- H.H.S. RAPHAEL -- and beneath that, in smaller script:
BUILT AND COMMISSIONED BY THE PEOPLE OF HEAVEN'S GATE FOR THE DEFENSE OF ALL HUMANITY.
"Why are you smiling, Father Captain?" asked Admiral Marusyn.
"Well, sir, it's just ... well, I've been to the world of Heaven's Gate, sir. It was, of