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

the system, and Colin had stopped five light-hours out to save time when they left.

At the moment, he, Jiltanith, Hector MacMahan, and Ninhursag sat in Conference One, watching a
scaled-down holo of the star system while they tried to decide where to leave to.

"I have completed preliminary scans, Captain," Dahak announced.

"Well? Was it the Achuultani?"

"It is, of course, impossible to be certain, but I would estimate that it was not Had it been an incursion, it
would, of necessity, have followed a path other than that traditionally employed by the Achuultani, else
the scanner arrays which reported this incursion had already been destroyed. Since they were not, I
conclude that it was not the Achuultani who accomplished this."

"Just what we needed," Hector said quietly. "Somebody else who goes around Wowing away entire
planets."

"Unfortunately, that would appear to be precisely what has happened, General MacMahan. It would not,
however, appear to be of immediate concern. My scans indicate that this destruction occurred on the
close order of forty-eight thousand years ago."

"How close?" Colin demanded.
Plus or minus five percent, Captain."

"Shit" Colin looked up apologetically as the expletive escaped him, but no one seemed to have noticed
He drew a deep breath. "All right, Dahak, cut to the chase. What do you think happened?"

"Analysis rules out the employment of kinetic weaponry," Dahak said precisely, "distribution of the
planetary rubble is not consistent with impact patterns. Rather, it would appear that the planetary bodies
suffered implosive destruction consistent with the use of gravitonic warheads, a weapon, so far as is
known to the Imperium's data base, the Achuultani have never employed"

"GravitonтАЩs?" Colin tugged on his prominent nose, and his green eyes narrowed "I donтАЩt like the sound of
that."

"Nor I," Jihanith said quietly. If'twas not the Achuultani, then must it have been another, and such
weapons lie even now within our magazines."

"Exactly," Colin said He shuddered at the thought. A heavy gravitonic warhead produced a nice, neat
little black hole. Not very long-lived and not big enough to damage most suns, but big enough, and a
hyper-capable missile with the right targeting could put the damned thing almost inside a planet.

That is true," Dahak observed then hesitated briefly, as if he faced a conclusion he wanted to reject "I
regret to say, Captain, that the destruction matches that which would be associated with our own Mark
Tens. In point of fact, and after making due allowance for the time which has passed, it corresponds
almost exactly to the results produced by those weapons."

"Hector? Ninhursag?"

"DahakтАЩs dancing around the point, Colin." McMahanтАЩs face was grim. There's a very simple and likely