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

their relief, the team found no reception committee waiting for them, just a vast ocean of empty space
between themselves and the planet. As they zoomed back toward Omicron, though, Fortier announced
several more small ships coming up to intercept them.

Without the attitude units there was little the H-16 could do to dodge the oncoming vessels.
Instead, Lady A set her controls for maximum acceleration and charged right into the teeth of the enemy
attack. The shields were gone, and a direct hit would mean the end of the mission, but they had no other
choice—moving slower would only make them an easier target.

The ship's lack of evasive action made the gunners' work that much easier. Jules and Yvette each
scored a hit on one of the enemy's fighters, and the rest of the attack force backed off a little more
cautiously to see what the result of this suicidal charge might be. They had obviously not been in contact
with their comrades on the other side of the moon, so they could not know the H-16's attitude controls
were out. They thought this was merely another tactical maneuver, and they waited to see what would
come of it.

The H-16 hit the upper reaches of Omicron's atmosphere and kept on going in at top speed. It
would have been the rankest suicide to charge directly down through the air; the ship would have burned
up in a flash like a bright meteor. Instead, their course was a steep downward spiral: Their rate of descent
was carefully calculated to keep the friction temperature on the hull within the metal's tolerable limits.
They zoomed past the enemy ships who were still expecting them to make some tricky move. Realizing
they'd been outmaneuvered, the remaining ships took off in pursuit behind the descending H-16.

Lady A set the preprogrammed course into the ship's autopilot and turned to face the rest of her
crew. "The time has come for us to depart," she said. "Follow me."

Ivanov and Tatiana obediently unstrapped themselves from their acceleration couches and walked
after their boss. Still somewhat mystified, Jules, Yvette, and Fortier followed suit. They knew Lady A was
not the suicidal sort, and she had told them she always believed in having some escape route planned.
They would have to trust her sense of self-preservation to save them as well.

The H-16 made occasional random acceleration changes to avoid being hit by enemy fire, and this
made walking through the ship's corridors difficult. Just when a step seemed secure, the ship would lurch
and throw everyone off balance. The crew had to make sure they had a firm grip on some handhold before
making the next tentative step forward, or risk being tossed about the hallways.

Following Lady A's lead, they climbed awkwardly toward the rear of the ship to a special
compartment she opened up for them. "Here we have our escape module," she said almost cheerily. "We'll
leave the ship in this."

"Won't the enemy just see us separating and send some of the fighters after the module?" Fortier
asked.

"The landing spot I picked has heavy cloud cover, so they probably won't spot us visually. As far
as most standard sensors go, this craft is invisible. It's made almost entirely of nonmetallic materials—
glass, ceramics, wood, and various plastics—so most of the detectors humans use wouldn't notice it.
There's only tiny traces of metal in a receiver screen, not enough to register. Of course, if these are aliens
and use radically different instruments we could be in trouble, but I doubt it; everything we've seen so far
is at least comparable to our own technology."