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

Angelmass

Lleshi looked back at his board, fighting back a flash of very unprofessional anger. Zero hour was
not the time to reopen old arguments. They had no choice but to use the Komitadji on this, for
reasons Telthorst already knew. "Helmsman: Move us into position."

"Yes, sir."

A visual representation of the focal point of Scintara's hyperspace catapult sat directly in front of the
Komitadji on the helm display: a hazy red ellipsoid hanging in space, undulating slowly as its three
axes rhythmically fed from and into each other. In the early days of catapult travelтАФand it was a
thought that always intruded into Lleshi's mind at this pointтАФa ship that didn't fit entirely within that
focal area risked leaving pieces of itself behind while the rest was thrown across the light-years.
Without the discovery of paraconducting metal, a ship the size of the Komitadji would never have
been possible.

Such a wonderful thing, progress.

The proximity alarm trilled: the Komitadji's bow had touched the focal ellipsoid. "Stand by," Lleshi
ordered. "Scintara Catapult, you have the timer. Launch at T-zero."

Scintara acknowledged. Thirty-eight seconds later, with a metallic stutter of stress from the
paraconducting underskin, the stars abruptly disappeared from the viewscreens.

Lleshi took a careful breath, mind and body slipping automatically into full combat mode. It was
nearly three hundred light-years from Scintara to the Empyreal world of Lorelei: just under six
seconds of hyperspace travel. "Stand by," he murmured, more from habit than any expectation that
his crew wasn't ready. He settled himself... and, as abruptly as they'd disappeared, the stars were
back.

"Location check," he ordered. The nav display had sprouted multicolored relative-V arrows now:
many of the "stars" on the visual were, in fact, asteroids. But that didn't necessarily put them in the
right netтАФall the nets around Lorelei seemed to be deep in the system's extensive asteroid belts. "If
we're in the right net, key for data retrieval."

"Focused pulse transmissions from the planet, Commodore," the comm officer reported. "We're in
the right net. Copying now."

"Campbell?"

"Tactical coming up now, sir," the SeTO said. "Defenses as expected."

Lleshi nodded, his eyes on the tac display... and it was indeed as expected. Arrayed in a rough
triangular pyramid two hundred kilometers on an edge around the Komitadji were four small ships.
Each of them carried the pole of a hyperspace catapult; together, they guarded the center of the net
field that hadтАФsomehowтАФsnatched the Komitadji from its original hyperspace vector and deflected
it to this precise point. Any three of those ships, acting together, could throw the Komitadji right
back out of the system, in any direction they chose.

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