"Wen Spencer - Endless Blue" - читать интересную книгу автора (Spencer Wen)

"Were there signs of tampering to the engine?" Mikhail asked.

"Every test we've run indicates that those are the actual coordinates that theFenrir went to."

Heward hadn't denied though that there been tampering. In another man, Mikhail might have ignored the
disparity between his question and Heward's answer.

"The coordinates are impossible." Mikhail tried to press him into answering.

Heward held up his VIDscan. "This is proof that they're not impossible, just improbable."

Mikhail scowled at the VIDscan's screen. The last entry was the coordinates for Plymouth Station.
Regardless of wherever the Fenrir might be in truth, they'd chosen to return their engine to a recently
commissioned U.C. space station deep in friendly territoryтАФa good trick when they'd been missing for
ten years. "What explanation didFenrir give when it sent back its engine?"

Heward made a sound of disgust. "Everything that came back with it only makes the mystery bigger."
There was a guideline set up, circling the engine. Heward hooked onto the guideline and let it arch him
around the rock. "Careful on the coral, it's sharp."

As they circled the base, it was easy to see that the coral had been cut by the sudden intrusion of the
warp field. The field had smoothly sheered the coral off as it shifted somewhere to nowhere to Plymouth
Station. The massive steel beams of the support struts had been cut as cleanly as the rock.

On the other side of the boulder was something even more amazing: a boat. It floated in the zero-gravity,
anchored in place with mooring lines. It was about twenty-five meters long. Its steel wedge-shaped hull
was painted deep blue, with its upper decks a crisp white. Lettering on the stern identified it as the
Swordfish . Judging by the heavy laser cannon turret on the bow, it was a simple fishing boat.

"What's that doing here?" Mikhail asked.

"It came with the engine. There was a large amount of frozen seawater and this boat. We cleared the ice
before it melted and made a mess of everything."

Had theSwordfish's crew been aboard when it suddenly found itself in deep space? Had they been
standing on the open deck? Below where it might be air-tight as well as water-tight? Or had they gone
through the broken windows of the bridge?

"Any crew?" Mikhail asked.

"None that survived." Heward pointed his VIDscan at the boat, entered his security code, downloaded
whatever data the boat was holding and held the VIDscan out to Mihkail.

Torpedo, serial number T-493504835472, released to UCS. Swordfish.

This got odder and odder.
"It doesn't have any launch tubes for torpedoes." Mikhail pointed out.

"It's using the torpedo's fission engine as its power unit. A converter redirects the power to a crude