"David Weber & Linda Evans - Hells Gate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

by just how miserable it would have been to slog through it on foot. How anyone was going to properly
exploit a portal in the middle of this godforsaken swamp was more than he could say, but he didn't doubt
that the Union Trans-Temporal Transit Authority would find a way. The UTTTA had the best engineers
in the universeтАФin several universes, for that matterтАФand plenty of experience with portals in terrain
even less prepossessing than this.
Probably less prepossessing, anyway.
The dragon went obediently to its knees at the urging of its pilot, and a single passenger swung down
the boarding harness strapped about the beast's shoulders. The newcomer was dark-haired, dark-eyed,
and even taller than the noncom, although much younger, and each point of his collar bore the single silver
shield of a commander of one hundred. Like the noncom, he wore the shoulder flash of the 2nd ATS,
and the name "Olderhan, Jasak" was stenciled above his breast pocket. He said something to the
dragon's pilot, then strode quickly across the mucky ground towards the waiting one-man welcoming
committee.
"Sir!" The noncom snapped to attention and saluted sharply. "Welcome back to this shithole, Sir!" he
barked.
"Why, thank you, Chief Sword Threbuch," the officer said amiably, tossing off a far more casual
salute in response. Then he extended his right hand and gripped the older man's hand firmly. "I trust the
Powers That Be have a suitable reason for dragging me back here, Otwal," he said dryly, and the
noncom smiled.
"I wish they hadn'tтАФdragged you back, that is, SirтАФbut I think you may forgive them in the end," he
said. "I'm sort of surprised they managed to catch you, though. I figured you'd be well on your way back
to Garth Showma by now."
"So did I," Hundred Olderhan replied wryly. He shook his head. "Unfortunately, Hundred Thalmayr
seems to've gotten himself delayed in transit somewhere along the way, and Magister Halathyn was quick
enough off the mark to catch me before he got here. If the Magister had only waited another couple of
days for Thalmayr to get here to relieve me, I'd have been aboard ship and far enough out to sea to get
away clean."
"Sorry about that, Sir." The chief sword grinned. "I hope you'll tell the Five Thousand I tried to get
you home for your birthday."
"Oh, Father will forgive you, Otwal," Jasak assured him. "Mother, now . . . "
"Please, Sir!" The chief sword shivered dramatically. "I still remember what your lady mother had to
say to me when I got the Five Thousand home late for their anniversary."
"According to Father, you did well to get him home at all," the hundred said, and the chief sword
shrugged.
"The Five Thousand was too tough for any jaguar to eat, Sir. All I did was stop the bleeding."
"Most he could have expected out of you after he was stupid enough to step right on top of it." The
chief sword gave the younger man a sharp look, and the hundred chuckled. "That's the way Father
describes it, Otwal. I promise you I'm not being guilty of filial disrespect."
"As the Hundred says," the chief sword agreed.
"But since our lords and masters appear to have seen fit to make me miss my birthday, suppose you
tell me exactly what we have here, Chief Sword." The hundred's voice was much crisper, his brown eyes
intent, and the chief sword came back to a position midway between stand easy and parade rest.
"Sir, I'm afraid you'll need to ask Magister Halathyn for the details. All I know is that he says the
potential tests on this portal's field strength indicate that there's at least one more in close proximity. A big
one."
"How big?" Jasak asked, his eyes narrowing.
"I don't really know, Sir," Threbuch replied. "I don't think Magister Halathyn does yet, for that
matter. But he was muttering something about a class eight."
Sir Jasak Olderhan's eyebrows rose, and he whistled silently. The largest trans-temporal portal so far
charted was the Selkara Portal, and it was only a class seven. If Magister Halathyn had, indeed, detected