"David Weber & Steve White - Starfire 2 - Crusade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

swung his weapon towards Khardanish. The entire bridge lay between them, and even as the
least claw charged, he knew he would never reach his killer.

The rifle spoke, and Khardanish went to his knees in agony, dropping his defargo, as slugs
mangled his right shoulder and side.

The invader took fresh aim, but before he could fire, Samantha Johansen was upon him with a
zegetтАЩs scream, and the fallen observerтАЩs defargo flashed in her hand. She drove it deep,
twisting ner wrist savagely, and the alien went down. The lieutenant kicked the body aside,
snatched up the fallen rifle, and threw herself on her belly in her enemyтАЩs blood. The weaponтАЩs
function was easy enough to grasp, and she emptied its extended magazine down the passage
in a single, endless burst that piled the rest of the assault team on the deck.

The silence was deafening as she stopped firing, and Khardanish heard a click of metal as she
jerked a fresh magazine from the alienтАЩs body and reloaded. Blood pumped from his wounds,
and he felt DeathтАЩs claws grope for him, yet his mind was cold and clear as he dragged himself
across the deck. Only he and Samantha remained, and more boarders would be here soon. She
could never stand them off alone, and she did not know the proper codes. He must reach the
engineering station before he died.

He heaved to his feet with a kittenтАЩs mewl of pain and clung dmnkenly to the console. His
strength was going fast, out the visual display showed what he had hoped for. KeplerтАЩs tractor
had drawn Znamae close aboardt

Fresh thunder bellowed as Samantha fired down the passage yet again. Return fire whined off
the bulkheads, but she was protected by the ruins of the hatch. She could hold a moment longer.

He flipped up the plastic shield and entered the code slowly and carefully. The single red-tabbed
switch was cool under his claws, and he looked at Samantha one last time. Her round-pupilled,
Human eyes met his, and he saw her agreement.

"Together, clan sister!тАЬ he gasped, and pressed it home.

CHAPTER Two A Decision of State

The Honorable Francis Mulrooney, Terran Ambassador to the Khanate of Orion, leaned against
one side of the deep window and watched the light of a sun very like Sol stream across an oddly
blue lawn of "grassтАЩ whose like Terra had never imagined. The "treesтАЩ beyond the courtyard wall
were feathery spires, caparisoned in the orange and yellow and fire-red blossoms of spring, and
wispy creatures flapped lacy wings above them.

To Mulrooney, ValkhaтАЩzeeranda had always seemed a fairy wonderland. On the surface, it was
hardly the proper capital world for a warrior race, yet there was a subtle undercurrent of
lightness to it. HeтАЩd often wondered what "New ValkhasтАЬ first colonists had thought and felt as
they left the ships which had borne them here from the world their Wars of Unification had
reduced to ruin. How must they have felt to leave their breath masks and chemical detectors and
radiation counters behind forever?

He stroked the deeply incised shield and crossed swords of the Khanate, graven a centimeter
deep in the windowsill, then swept his gaze over the magnificent white spires and minarets of