"Jeff Kirvin - Unification Chronicles 1 - First Contact I" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kirvin Jeff)

The door opposite the screen opened and Jack walked into the room. He looked pleased,
but worried about something too. She’d been Jack’s XO long enough to read his moods. Now a
First Lieutenant, she’d been a Second Lieutenant fresh out of the academy when Jack had first
met her on Mars. Now she was vital to him as a sounding board, voice of reason, and all too
often, his conscience.

“So, how’d it go?” she asked.

“He approved a scouting mission in the dropship.”

Robyn had expected it, but the news still surprised her. “With armor?”

“My discretion,” Jack said, walking past her to the viewscreen.

“How did you manage that? Chenzokov has had us just about confined to quarters. He’s
wanted to shove us all out the damned airlock since we left spacedock.”

Jack turned to her and smiled. “I started an argument with him, then apologized. Once he
saved face in front of his crew, he stopped listening and gave me anything I wanted.”

Robyn laughed. “You are my god.”

“Easy there, Lieutenant. The tough part is just beginning.”

She looked at the screen, the world so like Earth spinning beneath them. “You don’t like it,
do you?”

He looked at the screen. “It wouldn’t be my first choice. Too many unknowns. There’s a
whole ecosystem down there that we’ve never seen. All we know is that the gravity and
atmosphere are close enough to Earth not to kill us. That leaves a whole lot of things down
there that can.”

She walked over to stand next to him. “You understand why we’re here. You know better
than anyone why terraforming a dead world isn’t politically viable with the folks back home.”

He sighed. “Yes, Robyn, I know.”

“Hey,” she said. “Mars wasn’t your fault. You did everything possible to avert—”

“It wasn’t enough, though, was it?” Jack said. “And now we’re passing up any number of
worlds suitable for terraforming, taking unnecessary risks—”

“We’re soldiers, sir. We’re doing what we’ve been ordered to do.”

Jack stood a little straighter at that. “Good point, Robyn.”

Jack touched a few controls at the edge of the screen. The view of the planet zoomed in,
showing just the tropical and temperate zones.

With his finger, Jack circled three locations on the planet, two in the northern hemisphere