"Timothy Zahn - Angelmass" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

insisted on were up, and a careful look at the displays showed no Empyreal ships within inner scan
range.


file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Angelmass.htm (9 of 374) [10/18/2004 3:37:36 PM]
Angelmass

It was time to go.

Unhinging the control cover, he turned and then pressed a button; and with an awful racket of
explosive springs he was shoved back into his seat as his tiny ship was thrown forward through a
tunnel that magically appeared in the rock-textured surface of the cocoon. He held his breath,
waiting tensely for the inevitable enemy fighter ship that must surely have been skulking behind an
asteroid waiting for him.

But nothing. Not as the tiny ship oriented itself; not as it began its preprogrammed flight inward
toward the Empyreal world of Lorelei; not even as Kosta breathed a sigh of relief and dared to relax.
The gambit had worked, and he was on his way. Heading to Lorelei, and a rendezvous with a little
automated spy system the Pax had managed to set up before their last talks with the Empyreal
leaders broke off some months back.

And after that it would be on to Seraph. To Seraph, and Angelmass.

Staring out his viewport at the distant crescent of Lorelei, Kosta felt his stomach tighten. I won't fail,
he'd told Lleshi confidently. But now, far from the bright lights and purposeful men and women of
the Komitadji, the words echoed through his memory like so much empty bravado. He was alone
now, in hostile territory, facing an enemy possibly more alien now than it was human.

A little trip to heaven, Lleshi's last words echoed through his mind. It had been something of a
running gag, that, during Kosta's training: the fact that the breakaway colonists who'd founded the
Empyrean a hundred eighty years ago had chosen an ancient term for the highest reaches of heaven.

Question was, had the choice of that name indeed been purely coincidental? Or had it been an
indication, even way back then, of the angels' subtle influence on people's minds?

There were all sorts of questions like that hanging over this mission. Questions currently without
answers. Questions he, Kosta, was supposed to find answers for. Overwhelming, deep, impossible
questions...

And then, as the enormity of the whole thing once again threatened to drown him, the image of
Telthorst's face floated up into his mind. That face, and all that contempt...

"Forget it," he said aloud to the memory, the sound of the words echoed oddly by the displays
curving around in front of him. If Telthorst expected Kosta to land on his face just to accommodate
the Adjutor's preconceived notions, he could forget it.

The pep talk helped a little. A flashing light on his console reminded him that the cocoon's escape
tunnel was still on standby; keying in the proper commands, he watched as the false asteroid sealed
itself up again and then went inert. Briefly, he hoped inert meant exactly what it said, then put it out
of his mind. Surely the masterminds behind this mission had understood that if the Empyreals came