"Charles Ingrid - The Sand Wars 06 - Challenge Met" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ingrid Charles)

"No," Colin murmured. "The unknown." He took a steadying breath.
"You're my signpost, Bogie. You have to tell what I've told you, and point
the way after. If I'm very, very fortunate, I'll be there to meet you at road's end."

The coracle rocked as a tractor beam locked about it.




Chapter 1
«^»
The sound of being locked into a berth rang throughout the ship. Its clamor
vibrated through the ship's skeleton as though it were a bell tolling the end
of a journey, the attainment of a destination. After weeks shipbound, in
vacuum and in FTL warp, the noise echoing through normal atmospheric
pressure was deafening—and welcome.

The recycler began to shut down as the locks were opened to pump in
fresh air. Jack's ears popped as the pressure changed and he swung about in
the passenger lounge chair. He looked at his fellow traveler though her
amber hair waving down across one shoulder hid the expression on her
fine-boned profile.

"Now," he said. "The emperor shows his true colors."

The young woman could not hide her shudder from him. She looked
about the cabin as she turned to him, her gaze surveying the lounge as if
worried they might be spied upon, and she answered quietly, "I think you
already have him scoped. We're still his prisoners."

"Maybe." He could not contain his growing excitement. "I beat him to a
standstill as half a man. Think what I could do completed."

She turned back to the viewing screen, even though it had been shut
down and the lounge portal was still locked for deep space. Jack felt her
closeness as though she actually leaned against him with her head upon his
shoulder, for she had not withdrawn her intimacy, and he felt himself smile.

The door to the lounge room opened with a faint hissing noise, and the
emperor stepped through. The man was slight and wiry, fair-skinned and
heavily freckled, his frizzled red hair alive with an electrical aura of its own,
and the sharp gaze of his cat-green eyes rested upon Jack.

"Commander Storm," Emperor Pepys said, in a deep tone that belied his
slight body. "Until you have been decommissioned, I suggest you rise and
salute your emperor."

Jack Storm paused, and then, slowly and deliberately, he rose and
saluted. He stood head and shoulders and then some over the older man,