"E. E. Doc Smith - D'Alembert 10 - Revolt of the Galaxy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

legal action. Pias ignored the warning and concentrated on plotting a course to land at his chosen
hiding site.
The warning came a second time, and Pias suddenly noticed two ships on his sensor screen coming up
to intercept him. Newforest had never had a big problem with smugglers, and no one ever wanted to
land here illegally, so the government had never bothered to challenge ships before. He cursed
himself for not expecting a fight after everything Beti had told him about Tas's security
crackdown, but it was still hard for him to think of his home world as anything but easygoing. In
the back of his mind, Pias knew that such measures meant there was something on Newforest that


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required guarding from prying eyes. But that was a consideration for later; right now, he had some
evasive action to take.
He wasn't much worried about the two ships themselves. He'd naturally be careful, for either of
them would have the firepower to blow his own small vessel out of the ether, but he'd evaded more
thorough opposition in the past. The real threat would be from the organization behind those
fighters. Newforest was now a planet on guard against intruders, and that would make his mission
infinitely more dangerous.
The attackers began firing at him even before the second warning was finished, but by that time
Pias already had his craft in motion. The vessel dipped and rolled and twisted as his hands played
across the ship's controls, and the fighters trying to intercept him were slow to respond;
apparently they were not as accustomed to combat situations as he was - and Pias was still a rank
amateur compared to his brother-in-law Jules. The security systems on Newforest must still be
comparatively new, then, and the pilots unpracticed in their roles. That gave him some hope of
success.
Pias's ship darted and wove an intricate pattern through the upper levels of Newforest's
atmosphere, and the interceptors followed awkwardly behind him. At first Pias did not return their
fire, waiting to see how serious the situation would become. When no more attack ships rose from
the planet's surface to chase him, he guessed that the pair were all Tas had at the moment.
When he was sure there'd be no further opposition, Pias turned on the automatic weaponry.
Spaceship battles were haphazard affairs because of the relative motions of all parties through
three dimensions, and the computer-guided weapons were never as effective as an experienced human
gunner because they couldn't be as intuitive. Pias would have liked nothing better than to have
his beloved Yvette there to fire at the enemy - but since she wasn't there and he couldn't handle
the guns and the controls at the same time, he had to let the machines do his fighting for him.
As it turned out, his ship's computers were more than a match for their opposition, who were less
adept at dodging than Pias was. Within a very few minutes both ships had been disabled and their
pilots had to radio for help. Pias was able to resume his landing unopposed.
He did not delude himself into thinking he was now safe, however; if Newforest had equipment
sophisticated enough to spot his little ship in the first place, they would also track him to his
landing spot; Soon after touchdown the ship would be surrounded by Tas's security force. He'd have
to get away quickly to avoid being trapped in their net.
He began altering his plans. The hills he'd originally selected were too far away from town, and
his reason for picking them was no longer valid. Landing there now would handicap him; he'd have
to scramble across hilly terrain while his pursuers could track him comfortably in copters.
He began looking at the more inhabited regions closer to Garridan. Newforest was such an
underpopulated world that there were still large tracts of undeveloped land near even the largest
cities, and as he came lower Pias was able to spot an area that looked suitable - a scattered