"James Doohan - Flight Engineer Volume 2 - The Privateer-" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doohan James)

Interpreters. When you’ve chased them far enough that you’re sure they won’t double back on you, call back your
Speeds and proceed to this location.”
He called up the holo of the asteroid field he’d shown Peter the night before.
“I’ll give you both a chip on this before you go, gentlemen.” Scaragoglu gave Knott a nod. “It’s an obvious job
for a light carrier,” he said. “The Invincible is fast, she’s small, but she packs a wallop when she needs to, and best of
all she can carry a whole lot of Speeds. More than we’d originally planned, in fact. Your last mission proved that.”
“How many more?” Knott asked.
“Six. We couldn’t hide more than that in our projected base.” He touched the miner’s hutch with a laser pointer
and enlarged the view. Scaragoglu turned to Peter. “There’s no gravity there, can’t be helped. Any change in that
area will draw attention and we can’t risk that. So you’ll just have to live with it. But it might be a factor in choosing
your crew.”
Raeder nodded. Space adjustment sickness was a factor, if a minor one. Most Speed pilots were only affected by
SAS in a minor way, but someone inclined to vomit when it struck was a definite disadvantage. Especially in a place
that probably had lousy air filtration.
“Your Speeds will be specially equipped with unusually heavy weaponry.” Scaragoglu grinned. “That should
make you equal to about anything you run into. If you encounter pirates, engage them,” he said. “If you can take
them, imprison them in their own ship. Disable their engines, weapons and communications. Then lock them away
from anything more vital than the kitchen and the head.” He took a thoughtful sip of whiskey. “It would probably be
best to drain their fuel and then destroy any pirate ships you take after the first one. One ship should suffice to
contain all your prisoners; I don’t especially care if they get along together. With the weaponry you’ll be assigned
you should only leave a few atoms floating around. Any ship too big to destroy completely, get it deep into the
asteroid field and break it up there.” The general’s sharp brown eyes met Raeder’s. “While I don’t want these people
abused the fact is that you won’t have enough people to nursemaid them. They’ll have air, water, and food, the rest
will be their responsibility.
“If, however, you encounter Commonwealth freighters shipping to the Mollies, you will take them with the least
loss of life possible. Lock them in their own ships and hide them in the asteroid field until they can be escorted home
by the Invincible. Intelligence, needless to say, will be very interested in any records of transactions you might
obtain.”
“What about Mollie patrols, or freighters, sir?” Raeder asked.
 The Marine general pursed his lips.
“The Mollies are the enemy, Commander. Treat them as such. When attacking the Mollies you will do your best
to appear to be pirates. Mollie patrols are fair game,” he continued, “defeat them if you can. The freighters present a
more delicate problem. By our lights they’d be civilians. But by Mollie standards they’re as much soldiers as
anybody in a fighting craft.”
He shrugged. Uh-oh, Peter thought. That was the shrug of a superior officer saying: Use your own judgement.
That generally translated: If you’re right, I get the credit; if you screw up, you’re the goat. The Commonwealth had a
long traditon of gentlemanly treatment of noncombatants; on the other hand, the Commonwealth didn’t have a long
tradition of fighting for its life against opponents of comparable strength.
“If we’d consider them civilians, sir, then I’ll treat them as such,” Raeder said.
Scaragoglu smiled.
“I knew you’d say that, Commander.” He shook a finger at Peter. “Just remember, they will fight like soldiers and
consider themselves to be soldiers. So treat them with appropriate caution. Allow the odd one to escape, towards the
end of your stay, naturally, to tell the Interpreters all about this pirate activity they’ve encountered. If you do it right,
they should never suspect it’s us. The aim of this operation isn’t simply to destroy enemy shipping; it’s
disinformation.”
He raised his brows and looked at Peter until the commander nodded.
“Excellent.” The Marine general passed out a set of chips to both Peter and Knott. “These are the particulars on
the location and the base, the mission brief and your orders. These,” he looked at Peter, “are the dossiers of those
Marines I mentioned to you. And a couple of technical people I’d like you to consider.” He handed them over. “If
you have any further questions on this material contact my liaison.” He nodded at Sjarhir, quietly seated in his