"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 9 - The Omicron Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

being along on this mission. You and Ivanov are obvious, and the three of us, but . . ."

"Brawn is not everything," Lady A said in superior tones. "Tatiana has a remarkable gift for
linguistics. If we do end up finding a totally alien race, her talents will prove invaluable. In addition to her
natural abilities, which are considerable, she's been given a computer implant auxiliary memory. Every
alien symbol she sees written down, every syllable of alien speech she hears -complete with inflection—
will be permanently recorded. If they use written symbols at all or speak within a sound range humans can
hear, Tatiana will decipher it, given a little time."

"I can see how her skills are important," Fortier nodded, "but she looks so fragile. We may be in
for a rough time and hard fighting. Can she hold up under those conditions?"

"It will be our job—all of us—to see that she does," Lady A declared. "It won't do us a bit of good
to penetrate enemy headquarters and discover we don't know the difference between their battle plans and
their duty rosters. In many respects, Tatiana is the most important person on this mission. We must see to
it that she's protected at all costs."

The young woman, obviously very shy, was intimidated by so much talk about her. Her face
flushed a peculiar deep shade of pink as she tried unsuccessfully to hide herself from view. Failing to
escape notice, she simply said, "I'll handle myself smoothly, you'll see. I'm not a baby. I don't have to be
pampered."

"There are obviously those of us who have more faith in you than others," Lady A said, seeing the
expression of doubt still on Jules's face. "However, since it's a matter not subject to debate, we'll all have
to live with it. Now that we're all together, I'd suggest we leave at once. Every second we lose is . . ."

"Just a minute," Jules said. "There's one point still to be settled."

"What's that?" Lady A asked impatiently.

"The six of us are going into a dangerous situation. Not only our individual safety, but the safety
of the group and the success of the mission will depend on how well we work together. In moments of
life-or-death crisis we can't stop to take a vote or discuss plans among ourselves. There has to be one
person in the team with the ultimate authority to make snap decisions that everyone must obey instantly.
Without that, we're bound to fall apart. We have to decide now, while we can discuss it calmly and
rationally, just who the team leader is going to be."

"It's obviously me," Lady A said imperiously. "I assembled the team. I have seniority, I have a
mind uncluttered by emotions . . ."

"Kittledung!" Jules exclaimed. "None of those things is worth a damn in field situations. What
counts is experience. I'll grant you've had a lot of good experience at running and hiding—but you've
never had to work on a secret mission where you had to obtain hidden information and get out alive. It's a
whole different set of problems requiring a whole different set of skills and decisions to be made. I don't
care how uncluttered your mind is, or how strong and fast your robot body is. You don't have the
experience that counts. Fortier, Periwinkle and I do. I don't know about Ivanov, and therefore I'm inclined
to doubt. But I know it can't be you."

Lady A glared into Jules's face. Jules glared right back. For a long instant the scene on the bridge
was frozen in time as two strong wills clashed in silent battle. Then, unexpectedly, Lady A smiled.