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

superb undercover agent in Naval Intelligence's war against the pirate menace, and Jules knew he could
stake his life on Fortier's training and dedication.

That left Tatiana as the big question mark. Despite acknowledging that her talents would be
needed, Jules was not happy to have her along. He learned from questioning her that she was an
academician, having never been in a fight more serious—or more recently—than a schoolyard brawl.
Although she seemed intelligent and widely read, she was totally unfamiliar with weaponry or the martial
arts. She had an amateur's courage that might loosely be called "pluck"—but even that could be a liability.
Courage at the wrong time could be as disastrous as cowardice; only experience could give someone the
discretion an under-cover agent needed so desperately.

Jules asked his sister to take Tatiana aside and give her at least a rudimentary education. Yvette
gave the young woman some basic advice on how to fall without hurting herself, how to hold a knife in a
fight, and how to handle a blaster. In the closed confines of the ship, though, there was no place they could
use for target practice; there'd be no way to tell until they were actually in the middle of trouble just how
good Tatiana's aim would be.

In the meantime, Jules conferred with Lady A and Fortier on possible strategies. The trouble was,
too much was still unknown to formulate any definite plans. Lady A's reports had said that the major cities
were all but wiped out, but there was no indication of where, if anyplace, the invaders had established a
base of their own. There was no way of knowing how well the enemy had fortified their position in the
days immediately following the takeover, and how alert they'd be at spotting the incoming ship. The best
approach would be to come in fast and as low as possible, just skimming the atmosphere and keeping an
eye out for two things: possible attack from sentry ships, and groupings of enemy structures on the ground
that might indicate a main base of some sort. They would have to improvise from there on—but Jules was
used to that.

All too quickly came the warning from the ship's computer that they had reached the Omicron
solar system and it was time for the ship to leave subspace. The crew of the H-16 strapped themselves into
their acceleration couches and Jules, Yvette, and Ivanov took up gunnery controls on the ship's weaponry.
Once they were back in normal space almost anything could happen, and they had to be prepared for it.

The ship slipped out of subspace in one of the smoothest transitions Jules had ever experienced.
Much against his will he had to admit Lady A was a superb pilot; she had done the astrogation for them all
the way from Nereid and brought them out barely a million kilometers from Omicron itself—an
achievement of accuracy that made a hole-in-one at golf seem trivial by comparison.

The H-16 sped through space toward Omicron at top speed. Paul Fortier kept a sharp eye on the
sensor screens, alert for the slightest sign that their entry into Omicron's space had been detected. Lady A,
too, was watching those screens, ready to react the instant any enemy blips appeared.

They flew on silently for several minutes, and the tension on the bridge became almost tangible. It
would be too much to hope for that they could approach and land unscathed. It would make their job
easier, of course, if the enemy didn't suspect there were infiltrators on the planet, but at this stage of the
game the assault team could count on nothing.
 Gauges measuring the ship's hull began showing a climb in temperature, indicating they'd reached
the outer fringes of Omicron's atmosphere. The H-16 was not really designed for rapid atmospheric
maneuvering, so Lady A made fine adjustments to put their vessel into a tight polar orbit around the
planet. They were high enough that they had a wide field of view beneath them, and yet low enough that
their screens could search for and detect any large agglomeration of buildings that would represent either a