"David Weber - Fifth Imperium 02 - The Armageddon Inheritance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

He sighed and took himself to task. Anxiety was acceptable-, depression was not, but it was hard to
avoid when he remembered the heedless, youthful passion which had pitted him in rebellion against the
Imperium.

The Fourth Imperium had arisen from the sole planet of the Third which the Achuultani had
missed. It had dedicated itself to the destruction of the next incursion with a militancy which
dwarfed Terran comprehension, but that had been seven millennia before HorusтАЩs birth, and
the Achuultani had never come. And so, perhaps, there were no Achuultani. Heresy.
Unthinkable to say it aloud. Yet the suspicion had gnawed at their brains, and they'd come to resent
the endless demands of their long, regimented preparation. Which explained, if it did not excuse, why the
discontented of Dahak's crew had lent themselves to the mutiny which brought them to Earth.

And so here they were, Horus thought, sipping iced tea and watching the moonless sky of the world
which had become his own, with the resources of this single, primitive planet and whatever of Imperial
technology they could build and improvise in the time they had, lace-to-face with the bogey man they'd
decided no longer existed.

Six billion people. Like the clutter of ships below his window, it seemed a lotтАж until he compared it to
the immensity of the foe sweeping towards them from beyond those distant stars.

He straightened his shoulders and stared up at the cold, clear chips of light So be it He had once
betrayed the Fleet uniform he wore, but now, at last, he faced his raceтАЩ ancient enemy. He faced it
ill-prepared and ill-equipped, yet the human race had survived two previous incursions. By the skin of
their racial teeth and the Maker's grace, perhaps, but they'd survived, which was more than any of their
prehistoric predecessors could say.

He drew a deep breath, his thoughts reaching out across the light-years to his daughter and Colin
MacIntyre. They depended upon him to defend their world while they sought the assistance Earth
needed, and when they returnedтАФnot ifтАФthere would be a planet here to greet them. He threw that to
the uncaring stars like a solemn vow and then turned his back upon them. He sat back down at his desk
and bent over the endless reams of reports once more.

Alheer va-Chanak's forehead crinkled in disgust as a fresh sneeze threatened. He wrigged on his
command pedestal, fighting the involuntary reflex, and heard the high-pitched buzz of his copilots
amusementтАФburied in the explosive eruption of the despised sneeze.

"Kreegor seize all colds! va-Chanak grunted, mopping his broad breathing slits with a tissue.
Boghar's laughter buzzed in his ear as he lost the last vestige of control, and va-Chanak swiveled
his sensory cluster to bend a stern gaze upon him. "All very well for you, you unhatched grub!" he
snarled, You'd probably think it was hilarious if it happened inside a vac suit?

"Certainty not," Boghar managed to return with a semblance of decent self-control. "Of course, I
did warn you not to spend so long soaking just before a departure."

Va-Chanak suppressed an ignoble desire to throttle his copilot. The fact that Boghar was
absolutely right only made the temptation stronger, but these four- and five-month missions could
be pure torment for the amphibious Mersakah. And, he grumbled to himself, especially for a
fully-active sire like himself. Four thousand years of civilization was a frail shield against the
spawning urges of all pre-history, but where was he to find a compliant school of dams in an
asteroid extraction operation? Nowhere, that was bloody well where, and if he chose to spend a