"David Weber & Steve White - Starfire 4 - Shiva Option" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

was a catastrophe so overwhelming that discussing it was pointless. Sommers had refrained
from placing everyone on short rations; in the odd blend of shell shock and euphoria that had
followed their escape, the morale impact of such a move would have been imponderable but
almost certainly not good. She wouldnтАЩt be able to put it off much longer, though. . . .
тАЬWhat happened?тАЭ Maningo was continuing, as much to herself as to the conference at
large. тАЬWhere did they come from?тАЭ Sommers felt no inclination to slap the logistics officer
down; she wasnтАЩt reverting to her former jitters, just voicing the question that had been in
everyoneтАЩs mind since the Arachnid ships had appeared behind them in the expanse of
nothingness that was a starless warp nexus.
тАЬThatтАЩs clear enough,тАЭ the electronic image of Captain Milos Kabilovic growled. Kabilovic,
CO of the fleet carrier Borsoi, wasnтАЩt a member of the staff, but he was virtually present as
commander of SF 19тАЩs тАЬgunslingersтАЭтАФthe term for the explorersтАЩ Battle Fleet escorts that
continued to be used even though the distinction between Battle Fleet and Survey Command
had faded more than a little since the war began.
тАЬIt was a closed warp point,тАЭ he went on, тАЬeither in that warp nexus or, more likely, one of
those on the other side. The BugsтАФтАЭ it had been years since anyone had called the Arachnids
anything but that тАЬтАФclosed in on us as soon as they became aware of our presence.тАЭ
At first, nobody showed any inclination to dispute the carrier commanderтАЩs analysis. The
anomalies in space and time known as warp pointsтАФusually, but not always, associated with
stellar gravity wellsтАФhad been known to humans for over three centuries, ever since the day
in 2053 when the exploration ship Hermes, en route to Neptune, had abruptly found itself in
the system of Alpha Centauri, instead. TheyтАЩd been known even longer to humanityтАЩs
sometime enemies and current allies the Orions, the only known race to have theorized the
phenomenonтАЩs existence rather than accidentally stumbling over it. Knowledge of the so-
called closed warp points, invisible even to those whoтАЩd learned how to detect ordinary warp
points by their associated grav surge, was of more recent vintage. But it was nonetheless
common knowledge in this room, one of the fundamental background hazards of survey work,
against which precautions were routinely taken. And SF 19тАЩs precautions had gone beyond
routine. . . .
тАЬBut we were operating continuously in cloak!тАЭ Hafezi protested. тАЬAnd we didnтАЩt even
emplace any courier drone nav buoys at the warp points we passed through, just in case the
Bugs had any cloaked pickets in those systems. How could they have found us?тАЭ
тАЬNone of thatтАЩs foolproof. They could have detected us on any one of our warp transits, if
they already had pickets in those systems.тАЭ Kabilovic addressed the individual who had the
most intimate knowledge of sensor systems. тАЬIsnтАЩt that true, Lieutenant Murakuma?тАЭ
Fujiko Murakuma nodded slowly as everyone awaited her opinion, respectful of her
expertise despite her junior rank. She was the flotillaтАЩs specialist in the new second-generation
recon drones which had revolutionized survey work by marrying the technology of advanced
sensors to that of the SBMHAWK missiles that allowed a bombardment of an unseen enemy
at the other end of a warp line. Probing through unknown warp points in advance of the ships
that launched them, the RD2 had removed some of the тАЬshot-in-the-darkтАЭ quality from warp
point exploration . . . and, with it, maybe some of the mystique, which was why certain old-
timers affected to despise it. A generation which had grown up with the likelihood of Bugs on
the far side of any unsurveyed warp point had little patience for such romanticism, on the
other hand. It belonged to the days when survey ships had fared heedlessly into an illimitable
frontier, seeking worlds to study and colonize rather than to incinerate.
Fujiko Murakuma belonged to the generation which had come to grips with the harsher,
infinitely more terrifying present reality, and Sommers studied her. The fact that she put her
individual name before her surname wasnтАЩt unusual; many Japanese-derived cultures had by
now adopted that Western practice. Indeed, her name was more Japanese than her