"Mary Ann Steele - Warrior Woman - The Forge of a Legend" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Mary Ann)

The first Columbians remained entrenched on Johann's original colony-site.
That airless captive asteroid appealed to the leader making his landfall, not
only because its density causes its gravity to approach that of Earth, but
also because the rock forms one of a pair of binary bodies revolving around
the same point in space within the Columbian Group. The second rock of the
pair--the Ice World--provides a priceless abundance of water ice.

The Gaeans, settling upon planetoids located at L-4, thought themselves safe
from aggression on the part of their treacherous former allies at L-5. Well,
they erred mightily. So here we are, those of us who lived to throw Norman off
Main World of Gaea: pacifists turned combatants--victors in countless battles
waged hand-to-hand through habitats and corridors separated from the vacuum of
the void only by the negligible width of steel-plated, water-filled, double
hulls. Chancy, our lives, in the best of times--even during that peaceful
pre-war existence we nostalgically recall as idyllic.

The man unwounded, but suffering from a severe case of battle fatigue,
absently wiped a sleeve across a brow to which curly brown hair clung damply.
A faint shadow of beard darkened the pale skin of cheeks that had never known
the direct light of the distant sun. Lines of strain temporarily aged the
sensitive face so expressive of whatever thoughts animated its owner's
intelligent, compassionate mind. Sorrow, relief, revulsion generated by an
innate horror of slaughter, however necessary: all showed on the grave,
cleanly chiseled features of the officer in his mid-thirties. One emotion
failed to register. Theo possessed a nature incapable of harboring virulent
hatred, even for so rapacious an enemy as Norman.

On the day following the culminating battle of the surface war, Signe waved
her six captains into seats in an office in the habitat that formerly served
as Norman's headquarters. Examining faces nakedly attesting to bone-weariness,
the premier warrior saw superimposed over warm, live flesh the ghostly images
of men and women sacrificed to insure final victory. Pride contended with
still-raw pain.

We're old hands at the sort of fighting we face now--a disciplined,
combat-seasoned force of veterans lacking only one crucial skill , she
exulted. Well, we'll remedy that deficiency in short order . The voice the
rebel leader could pitch to carry above a hand-to-hand battle sent galvanic
impulses flashing along nerves sensitized to its nuances. "Gentlemen, we're
going to steal a Columbian ship."

You might know , the Senior Captain groused inwardly. Twenty-four hours after
she watched Norman's fleeing vessels fade into nothingness on the screens in
this very cabin, Signe's planning a raid. Sorrowful shades of our
multitudinous dead, girl, take a day or two to savor your victory! Rest up!

Although no hint of the master swordsman's disapprobation showed on his face,
Signe intuitively divined her oldest captain's thoughts. "Eric, there's
nowhere to go from the pinnacle we've reached, but down, if we keep our boots