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

"There's some buildings down there," Ivanov said, pointing to the two temporary structures, one
large, one small, that stood apart near the southeast edge of the landing site near a low range of wooded
hills.
 Jules studied the larger building carefully. There was a steady stream of people in and out of it,
and its very position this close to the ships indicated it could be of strategic importance. "I think we may
have found our target," he said aloud.

"I agree," Lady A said. "A building on the edge of their landing field must have some military
significance. Memorize the layout quickly; I want to get away from here before they start paying attention
to us. When we're safely hidden on the ground we can discuss strategy."

She flew off again into a wooded area in the hills a few kilometers from both the slave camp and
the landing field. Setting the copter down in a clearing with just barely enough room for straight vertical
takeoff and landing, she proclaimed this spot as their temporary headquarters and started right off
discussing their plan of attack.

"Our target has to be that larger building by the landing field," she said. "Even if it isn't their
military headquarters there's bound to be important information about their ships and their manpower.
Tatiana, how are you coming on their language?"

"Those instruction cards were an enormous help," the young woman replied. "My biggest worry
was that the language would have a separate ideogram for each word or concept, like ancient Chinese and
Japanese. That would take months of concentrated effort and plenty of samples to figure out. Fortunately,
they seem to build words out of alphabet symbols. I've got most, if not all, the symbols identified; it's just
a question of building up a vocabulary and a grammar. That's an accelerating process; the more material
you give me to work with, the better I'll get."

"We may end up getting you a lot in a hurry," Lady A told her. "You'll have to work under
pressure, possibly with a battle going on around you."

"I understand," Tatiana said grimly. "I'll do the best I can."

"What about the building itself?" Lady A asked next, looking directly at Jules.

The SOTE agent was all business. "It's a very simple structure, an inflated long tunnel with a
hemispherical cross section, one door at each end and no windows. Far too simple, really; I'd rather work
on something with a lot of edges and corners, a lot of places to hide. There's no way to sneak into that
building; we'll have to go through one door or the other, and that makes us vulnerable. Unless the building
is totally deserted, we'll have to make an assault on it and capture it, at least long enough to find the
information we want and get safely away again."

Lady A nodded, "My assessment, too. But time is short and this is the best target we've found yet.
We can't help but learn something of value here. Also, we were wondering how to get off-planet again
once we'd picked up our information; this would solve that problem at the same time. If we learn enough
to make it worth leaving Omicron, we've got a landing field full of ships to choose from."

The discussion about whether to penetrate this building continued for a little while, but it was
mostly for completeness's sake; Jules, too, had come to the conclusion that this hut was a worthwhile
target. The argument went pro and con for a few minutes to make sure no vital points had been
overlooked, but once the decision had been made the discussion centered on the pivotal issue of how the