"Drew Karpyshyn - Mass Effect 01 - Revelation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Karpyshyn Drew)

[Mass Effect 01] - Revelation




Revelation
Mass Effect - Book 01

Drew Karpyshyn




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 [Mass Effect 01] - Revelation




PROLOGUE



“Approaching Arcturus. Disengaging FTL drive core.”

Rear Admiral Jon Grissom of the Alliance, the most famous man on Earth and its three fledgling
interstellar colonies, glanced up briefly as the voice of the SSV New Delhi’s helmsman came over the
shipboard intercom. A second later he felt the unmistakable deceleration surge as the vessel’s mass
effect field generators wound down and the New Delhi dropped from faster-than-light travel into speeds
more acceptable to an Einsteinian universe.

The ghostly illumination of the familiar red-shifted universe spilled in through the cabin’s tiny viewport,
gradually cooling to more normal hues as they decelerated. Grissom hated the viewports; Alliance ships
were purely instrument driven—they required no visual references of any kind. But all vessels were
designed with several tiny ports and at least one main viewing window, typically on the bridge, as a
concession to antiquated romantic ideals of space travel.

The Alliance worked hard to maintain these romantic ideals—they were good for recruitment. To people
back on Earth, the unexplored vastness of space was still a wonder. Humanity’s expansion across the
stars was a glorious adventure of discovery, and the mysteries of the galaxy were just waiting to be
revealed.

Grissom knew the truth was much more complex. He had seen firsthand just how beautifully cold the
galaxy could be. It was both magnificent and terrifying, and he knew there were some things humanity
was not yet ready to face. The classified transmission he had received that morning from the base at
Shanxi was proof of that.

In many ways humanity was like a child: naïve and sheltered. Not that this was surprising. In the whole
of humanity’s long history it was only in the last two centuries that they had broken the bonds of Earth
and ventured into the cold vacuum of space beyond. And true interstellar travel—the ability to journey