[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Lechat nodded.  It s amazing, he murmured.
 Well done, Stanislau, Sirocco said.  Let s hope that the repeat performance will be as good later
today.
 You can count on it, sir, Stanislau said.
Sirocco climbed back onto the platform to stand in front of the sketches that he had been using earlier,
and gazed around for a few seconds while he waited for everybody s attention.  Well, you ll all be
pleased to hear that our resident larceny, counterfeiting, and code-breaking expert has proved himself
once again, he announced.  Phases one and four appear to be feasible, as we discussed. To one side
and below the platform, Stanislau turned with a broad, toothy grin and clasped his hands above his head
to acknowledge the chorus of murmured applause and low whistles, rendered enthusiastically, but quietly
enough not to attract undue attention to the block at that time of the morning.
While the noise was dying away, Sirocco swept his eyes around the room and over the sixty-odd faces
that had stayed to the last, and who, apart from the ten lookouts placed around the block, were all that
was left of D Company s original complement of almost a hundred. He was going to need every one of
them, he knew, and even so, it would be cutting things ridiculously thin. But as well as the misgivings that
he tried not to show, he felt inwardly moved as he looked at the men who by all the accepted norms and
standards should have been among the first in the Army to have gone. But apart from the SD units, D
Company s record was second to none. It was a tribute to him personally, expressed in the only
common language that meant anything to the mixture of oddballs and misfits that fate had consigned to his
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
charge. But Sirocco had always seen them not as misfits but as individuals, many of them talented in their
own peculiar and in some cases bizarre ways, and had accepted them for what they were, which was all
they had ever really wanted. But the term misfit was a relative one, he had come to realize. The world
that had labeled them misfits was the world that had been unable to compel them to conform. Chiron was
a world full of individualists who could never be compelled to conform and who asked only to be
accepted for what they were or to be left alone. Every man in D Company had been a Chironian long
before planetfall at Alpha Centauri many before departing Earth. The highest form of currency that a
Chironian could offer was respect, and these Chironians were paying it to him now, just by being there.
Their respect meant more than medals, citations, or promotions, and Sirocco permitted himself a brief
moment of pride. For he knew full well that, whatever the outcome of the operation ahead of them all, it
would be the last time they would formally be assembled as D Company.
 Very well, he said.  Stanislau has had his encore. Now let s get back to business.
 First, let s recap the main points. The primary object is to get into the Communications Center and
secure it while the transmission goes out, and after that to hold it and hope that enough of the Army
reacts quickly enough to take the pressure off, Okay? There were no questions, so Sirocco continued.
 The big risk is that SD reinforcements will be brought up from the surface, If that happens, they ll have
to dock at the Vandenberg bays, and that s why we ve got Annley s section there to stop them. What do
you do if you can t hold them, Mike? Sirocco asked, looking down at the front row.
 Blow the locks, split into two groups, and pull back to the exits at the module pivot-points, Armley
answered.
 Right. The other yes, question?
 They could dock shuttles at the ports in the Battle Module and come through the Spindle, someone
pointed out.
 Yes, I was about to come to that, Sirocco replied. He lifted his head a fraction to address the whole
room again.  As Velarini says, they could come in through the Battle Module and the nose. The Battle
Module is the main problem. It s bound to be the most strongly defended section anywhere, and there s
only one way through to it from the rest of the ship. Therefore we assault it directly only if all else fails.
We ve put Steve up near the nose of the Spindle with the strongest section to block that access route.
Steve s task is to stop any SD s getting out and, more important, to stop Sterm and his people from
getting in if things go well and they realize they can t hold the rest of the ship. What we have to prevent at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]