"Tanya Huff - Valor 2 - The Better Part of Valor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

orders to the station system.
A quick glance up and down the vertical showed a cluster of people
descending but a clear fall below them all the way to C deck. With
every intention of using General Morris' name not only in vain but in
any way possible should the necessity arise, Torin dove headfirst down
the shaft. The turn in mid-fall slowed her slightly, but she was still
moving fast enough to set off the safety protocols when she grabbed
the strap and swung out onto the deck.
*Please exercise more caution in the verticals. This is a level one
warning.*
Torin tongued in an acknowledgment without breaking stride. She
could live with a level one. It took three in a Tenday before the station
reported them and she'd be gone long enough that this particular
warning would have been wiped by the time she returned.
Unhooking her slate, she began locking down her desk as she
walked—sealing her personal folders and encrypting the rest to
Sergeant Chou's access codes.
Anne Chou would be senior noncom for the platoon while she was
gone and would at least give Lieutenant Jarret someone he'd already ...
"Is it true, Staff?"
She looked down at the Krai private who'd suddenly appeared
beside her. Given their difference in height, all she could see was the
mottled top of his hairless head which gave no clue at all to the
meaning of his question. "Is what true, Ressk?"
"That instead of a promotion and comfy tour at Ventris Station
teaching diritics how to survive, General Morris has detoured you to a
Recon mission."
"I'm impressed; those orders have been on system for less than ten
minutes."
Ressk lengthened his stride to keep up, bare feet slapping against the
floor. "I guess once you pull somebody's brass out of the fire they
expect you to keep doing it."
"That is the way the universe tends to function." At the lock leading
to SRQ, she paused. "You got a reason to be on this level, Ressk?"
"Sergeant Aman wants to see me, Staff. And when I saw you, I
thought I'd say ..."
The pause lengthened.
"Private?"
His nose ridges flushed. "Could you talk to the general, Staff?
Exploring an unidentified alien vessel floating dead in space—that's
always been my dream!"
Torin blinked. "You're kidding?"
"No, Staff, I'm not. You know there isn't a sys-op I can't get into. I
could be useful on this kind of a mission."
"I don't doubt that, but I'm sure there'll be specialists ..."
"I'm faster. If it's a matter of life and death, you're not going to want
some specialist ..." The word emerged somewhere between an insult
and profanity. ". . . taking their time, doing everything by the book."
"Ressk..."
"I haven't even read the book!"