"David Weber & Steve White - Starfire 3 - In Death Ground" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

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In Death Ground


Copyright ┬й 1997 by David M. Weber & Steve White


A Baen Books Original




First printing, May 1997
 In difficult ground, press on;
In encircled ground, devise stratagems;
In death ground, fight.
Sun Tzu,
The Art of War,
circa 400 b.c.
BOOK ONE
 Before the Thunder


The cruiser floated against the unmoving starfield with every active system down. Only its passive
sensors were powered, listening, watchingтАФprobing the endless dark. It hovered like a drifting shark,
hidden in the vastness as in some bottomless bed of kelp, and no smallest, faintest emission betrayed its
presence.
***
"So, Ursula! Is the circus ready?"
Commodore Lloyd Braun grinned at his flagship's captain. Despite requests, HQ had decided
Survey Flotilla 27 was too small for its CO to require a staff, so Commander Elswick had found herself
acting as his chief of staff as well as his flag captain. She hadn't known that was going to happen when her
ship was first assigned to Braun, but she had the self-confidence that came with being very good at her
job, and now she cocked an eyebrow back at him.
"It is if the ringmaster is, Sir," she said, and he chuckled.
"In that case, what say we get this show on the road? Outward and onward for the glory of the
Federation and all that."
"Of course, Sir." Elswick glanced at her com officer. "Inform Captain Cheltwyn we're about to
make transit, Alien."
"Aye, aye, Sir."
"As for you, Stu," Elswick continued, turning to her astrogator, "let's move out."
"Aye, aye, Sir." The astrogator nodded to his helmsman. "Bring us on vector, Chief Malthus, but
take it easy till I get a feel for the surge."
The helmsman acknowledged the order, and Commodore Braun sipped coffee with studied
nonchalance as the plot's icons blinked to reflect his command's shift to full readiness. The fact that
Captain Alex Cheltwyn, commanding Light Carrier Division 73 from the light cruiser Bremerton, was
Battle Fleet, not Survey Command, had bothered Braun at first. The captain's seniority had made him
Braun's second-in-command, and while Braun knew too much about the sorts of trouble exploration ships