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

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Angelmass


On the tactical the twelve Spearhawk trails were abruptly joined by fifty more, bursting outward
from the Komitadji like the time-lapse flowering of a strange and exotic plant. Almost lost among
them was the tiny spot drifting with maddening leisure from the Komitadji's starboard side. "Hard
aport," Lleshi ordered. "Draw the catapult focus away from the cocoon."

He was pushed into the side of his chair as the helmsman complied. With plasma and missile debris
blocking their view it took a few seconds for the Empyreal ships to notice the maneuver and move to
match it; simultaneously, the Harpy missiles began exploding. "They've found the Harpies' code,"
Campbell said. "Second Harpies ready."

"Focus forming," the helmsman called. "Five seconds: mark."

"Hold second Harpies," Lleshi ordered. If Kosta and the cocoon weren't in the clear now, wasting
another batch of expensive missiles on what was little more than a fireworks display wasn't going to
make the difference. "Stand ready for catapult."

And with the usual stuttering from the hull, the universe vanished.

Automatically, Lleshi started counting the seconds; but he'd barely begun when the stars returned.
The stars, and a dull red sun barely visible to one side.

Carefully, he let out a quiet breath. That had been the final gamble of this phase of the operation, and
now it too had come up clean. "Secure from battle stations," he ordered. "Location check, and scan
for the cocoon."

"Location computed, Commodore," the navigator said briskly. "We're fifty-four point seven light-
years from the Lorelei system; running a hundred thirty million klicks out from the local sun. I'll
have an orbit profile in a moment."

"No trace of the cocoon within inner scan limit," the scanner chief added. Shifting to midrange, but
looks like a clean drop."

"Good. Get us some rotation, and have engineering start putting the kick pod catapult together."

The weight warning trilled through the command deck; and as the huge ship started almost
imperceptibly to rotate, Lleshi turned to look at Telthorst. "You see now why we weren't all that
worried about risking the Komitadji."

The Adjutor gazed back, his eyes hard. "Two hundred million kilometers further and you wouldn't
be in a position to gloat," he said pointedly. "Our vector would have passed straight through that star
out there and we'd all be very, very dead."

"Agreed," Lleshi nodded. "Which I imagine is why it took the Empyreals so long to get rid of us.
Laser-point precision on top of a fast field reconfiguration."