FREE SPACE DESTROYERS STARS



    Book three

    OUR HOUR


    We fly hovering in the mist,
    We crawl on the last wing.
    The buck is pierced, the tail is burning and the car is flying
    On an honest word and on one wing ...

    Chapter 1 The


    wind from the sea carried the roar of the surf.
    - Well, how! - with these words, Alex languidly turned over on his stomach, exposing his back under the gentle rays of a yellow dwarf warming with its light the resorts of the planet Cygnus Prime, famous to all earthly worlds.
    Right in front of his face on the cleanest sand, a small, business-like kraboid was dragging his conch, anxiously gazing with his stalked eyes toward the tanned and almost naked young man with wet red curly hair after bathing. Alex gently pulled his small folded palm to a small arthropod. The craboid immediately stopped in place, swaying on its eight thin legs and carefully looking at these suspicious preparations. His eyes, stems, rotated cautiously in two planes, not for a second letting go of the potential threat.
    “Look, just like locators, at a long-distance intelligence station,” the young man thought, and sharply jerked his right hand to cover a small animal with his palm. But the reaction of the kraboid was better than that of a trained fighter pilot. Alex managed to grab only an empty shell, and the arthropod itself, in the best traditions of waging star wars, instantly ejected from his ship that fell under attack. After a moment, the craboid was already a meter away from the aggressor, leaving the shell as a trophy, which he had picked up somewhere in his difficult wanderings.
    “The pilot left his ship in the rescue capsule,” the young man muttered thoughtfully, examining the strange octagonal shape of the prey.



    Nearby, having splashed water over him, Gerik Moulin, wet combatant, baptized fire with Alex in the battle for the Enif orbital installation and stuttered a bit after the meeting of his fighter with a heavy anti-aircraft missile. the rebels.
    - M-Marchand, why are you lying around here like a dead whale? - shaking off the water, cheerfully shouted to Moulin, - run, bathe, we have only three d-days left in this paradise.
    “Hush, I hunt for local fauna,” the young man said in a low voice, and threw a sink at his friend.
    Gerik looked much better now than in the seventh Colossus medical block, where he was taken by the evacuation module, having difficulty sawing the pilot’s charmed rescue capsule, where the rest of his comrades in the Kings of Suicides squadron returned from the battlefield. The medical compartments of the superlinker were overflowing with the wounded and dying, and in the bow of the giant ship continued to rage fire after a collision with a hefty piece of "Ripalsa" and from there all this time they carried the injured at the impact and the explosion that followed. But the main thing for the sake of which all these sacrifices were made was nevertheless made, the fourth fleet of the rebellious Neo Terra became cosmic dust.
    Alex even slightly shuddered and shivered, remembering the events of those recent days, which now seemed completely unreal to him under the gentle light of the sun, on the sand creaking underfoot and beside the sea splashing its emerald-colored waves onto the shore of a small bay.
    “I, too,” moulin snickered dismissively, looking at the drawing on the sink, “n-swam better there,” he pointed to the edge of the bay with his hand, where black coastal cliffs protruded from the water ... “there was this good there ...” chin - enough for your Naira souvenirs.
    Alex raised himself on his elbows, looking around.
    - And by the way, where is Liessen? - He inquired, putting his palm with a visor to his eyes, - just that, after all, she was here.
    “Y-yes, there, scratching on the board on the waves,” Gerik said with a touch of light envy, sitting down on the sand, “as if she was born on it.” But I, for all this time, only to stand on the board and learned, - he intimately complained.
    - What are you, my friend, disgrace native squadron, - Alex mechanically muttered, peering in the direction indicated by his comrade, - so you will not be given the title of pilot of the first class.
    Closer to the coastal rocks bordering the right part of a small bay, a high ocean surf rolled in and there, on the crest of a new wave, the young man clearly distinguished a female figure in a familiar swimsuit deftly mounted the surfboard.
    “If the waves were not so high,” said Moulin, sighing, “I could have done that too.” She is an athlete, a champion, and I am a veteran, contused in battles, he modestly added.
    Alex, smiling a little, looked at his friend. But his smile was friendly, not mocking, as was usually the case. The young man really sympathized with his friend and sincerely wished him a speedy recovery and return to the ranks. After the hard battles with the rebels for the Epsilon Pegasus system, the words "fighting brotherhood" acquired a completely new meaning for Alex. It turned out it was not necessary to study together at the Star Academy from the first course, so that only after a few years to become true comrades, as was his and Ilya. Now Marchand, with some shame, recalled his own sense of arrogant superiority over the faraway Stefan Tomalski, who had once seemed to him to be a down-to-earth and not-so-distant man who, due to some strange mistake, had entered the space fleet and was unworthy
    “Being a combat vehicle pilot is another. Feel her listening to the slightest movement of her hand. Feel the excitement of the hunter when the prey swims into the crosshairs of the sight. What can I say with the born crawl. By the way, what is he babbling about? ”, - now Alex blushed from the feeling of awkwardness every time, recalling these words of his, addressed once to Stefan, who, as it turned out, was able to endure much more than one driver who was too arrogant.
    But fortunately, all this was already in the past, but for now the present gave Marshan and his comrades deserved benefits and promised a wonderful future. After the victory over the fourth fleet of Neo Terra, it became known that the rebellious Admiral Aken Bosch had cowardly requested a truce, yielding the Epsilon Pegasus system to Alliance forces. The command, considering that the heroic two hundred and forty-second squadron of the “Kings of Suicides”, which turned the battle for the star system in favor of the allies, deserves an award, sent its surviving pilots to a week-long holiday to the nearby Lebed system on the planet Prime, famous for its rest places. In this sense, Tomalski was also lucky, who after the battle was transferred to Alex's depleted battle group, since only one pilot remained from Stefan’s squadron - he himself. So now both of them and twenty of their squadron comrades for the fourth day enjoyed both a well-deserved rest on the warm tropical sea and a respectful attitude of the local population towards them. A lucky Marchand still managed to continue his close relationship with the only girl in their group, first class pilot Naira Liessen, with whom he met during his internship on the Vasudean battleship Psamtik, combining the useful with the pleasant at that time. The comrades of the young man at first kindly envied his exclusive position, but after finding in the local hotels a multitude of charming females, they quickly forgave their lucky colleague. A lucky Marchand still managed to continue his close relationship with the only girl in their group, first class pilot Naira Liessen, with whom he met during his internship on the Vasudean battleship Psamtik, combining the useful with the pleasant at that time. The comrades of the young man at first kindly envied his exclusive position, but after finding in the local hotels a multitude of charming females, they quickly forgave their lucky colleague. A lucky Marchand still managed to continue his close relationship with the only girl in their group, first class pilot Naira Liessen, with whom he met during his internship on the Vasudean battleship Psamtik, combining the useful with the pleasant at that time. The comrades of the young man at first kindly envied his exclusive position, but after finding in the local hotels a multitude of charming females, they quickly forgave their lucky colleague.
    The small Lissen figure unexpectedly flew off her board, and her craft itself suddenly stood upright, as if knocked out of the water with a strong blow from below. Alex jumped up from the sand in confusion trying to see what was happening with his girlfriend.
    “That's about the champion for you,” said Gueric, not changing the tone, and suddenly he jumped to his feet. - Marchand, look, she is not there alone! He exclaimed excitedly.
    Alex saw how some ropes jumped out from the board, falling into the water, because of the crest of a wave in the air. After a moment, they again fell into the water next to the girl who had emerged from the wave, and as if the living had suddenly spun around her. Lyssen poured on the water with her hands, raising a cloud of spray. A weak distance-drowned cry from the girl reached the pilots.
    Marchand first came to his senses.
    - Someone attacked her, quickly followed me! - He shouted, and without waiting for an answer, sprinted to the aid of his girlfriend. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed how his friend Mac Quirill and the squadron commander, Frano Cordor, were rising from the sand with disturbed faces. A few more people splashing away in the waves of the ocean surf, worried by shouts from different sides, hurried ashore.
    Not paying attention to the small fragments of shells and corals, carried by the waves on the sand, Alex ran at full speed along the wet shore, trying to see what was happening to his girlfriend on the run.
    A bass hum rang out from behind, followed by a glider, a small open platform on which vacationers usually rode from their hotel to the beach.
    - Alex, jump here! - Moulin's voice rang out from her, - quick n-catch.
    Mentally calling himself an idiot, a young man on the run jumped onto the glider, clutching at the side railings, causing the light machine to tilt dangerously to the left and sway.
    “Oops,” Geerik blurted out, leveling the platform as he went along, “so it’s not too long for an overkyl.”
    Breathing with difficulty, Marchand gratefully slapped the clever fellow on the shoulder and looked around. In the glider, in addition to him and steering Gerik Moulin, Mac Quirill also came from Cordor, who managed to get into the car first. A few more people fled behind the platform, gradually lagging behind it, as Geric now turned on the full speed.
    - Well, you d-pulled, - he shouted to Alex under the noise of the engine, which earned at full power, - we barely caught up with you!
    - Do you see Naira? - Marchand hardly heard the voice of Cordor, - who attacked her?
    The young man put a hand over his eyes to the eyes, trying to understand what was happening half a kilometer from him. He saw the girl clinging to the board with one hand, desperately rowing to the shore, to which she was still about fifty meters away, and the other struggled to shake off some sort of creature holding onto it with its ropes-tentacles. Sometimes the one-and-a-half-meter waves of the surf rolling on the shore lifted the fighters up on themselves, and then Alex could see the oblong dark body of the creature and desperately kicking Lyssen’s dark-skinned legs.
    - Did she have a bracelet? - Cordor tilted his head to the ear of Marchand.
    A special device was called a small device fastened to a tourist on the wrist of his hand. By the assurance of the hotel staff, who issued it on receipt for each guest on a mandatory basis, the bracelet frightened off any dangerous living creatures that lived in local waters and at the same time served as a mini beacon by which it was easy to find its owner. Therefore, an attack by an aggressive sea dweller could theoretically occur only because of a device malfunction or practically (here Alex cursed himself), if Naira out of habit put all the rules and regulations of local security.
    “I don’t know, commander,” he answered, and turning around, slightly pushed Gerika, “my friend, add to the move!”
    - I try! - he shouted, - but soon it is necessary to slow down, and then we will slip.
    Glider changed course and rushed over the waves. Marchand excitedly squeezed the railings of the platform with his hands. Only about a hundred meters remained to Liessen, when suddenly she and the creature disappeared under another wave, and then only one brightly painted surfboard jumped to the surface. All four men on the platform froze in a daze, while the glider was flying at full speed to the scene.
    Moulin only at the last moment remembered the brake, but pressed it too hastily. The light platform, having pecked forward with its nose, sharply slowed down and all the people on board, except for the steering who had clung to the steering wheel, poured water from a half meter height.
    The depth was small and after a few seconds Alex, spitting and sniffing from the salty sea water, stood waist-high in waves, trying to recover from the fall. The first thing he saw was Naira, who also emerged from the water, like Aphrodite from sea foam. She looked dumbfounded at the young man with her mouth half open, but was silent. Blood ran down the girl’s shoulder, a surfboard floated nearby. The monster that attacked Liessen disappeared somewhere.
    - All are intact? Came the voice of Frano Cordor from behind.
    Alex turned back and saw his commander climbing out of the water with McQvirill. The stalled glider swayed helplessly on the wave, and Geric, the only one who held onto it, glancing guiltily at his comrades, also kept quiet. Only the sound of the surf was heard. Alex mechanically nodded to the commander and rushed to his girlfriend.
    “Naira, are you hurt?” Where is this beast?
    Lyssen looked at him in confusion.
    “I'm fine, Al,” she touched her forearm, on which there was a long deep cut oozing blood, “guys, are you coming behind me?” - she looked both confused and guilty.
    Nakatila another surf wave, knocking people down.
    - So, quickly everything is out of the water! - in a sharp commander's voice, he ordered Kordor, seeing that at first glance there were no killed and seriously wounded around him.
    Marchand grabbed the girl by the arm and dragged ashore. There, the rest of the people who reached the scene quickly began to gather around the scene.
    “Lissen, and now quickly tell me where your special bracelet is and in general what happened to you,” the squadron leader sternly asked, shaking water from his ears, “Moulin didn’t send us to that world because of you.”
    “I crashed it on the rock,” the girl replied gloomily, picking the sand with her toe, “I didn’t know that this beast was swimming nearby.” She grabbed me with her tentacles while I stood on the wave, and then squeezed my shoulder. I had to hit her in the face a couple of times.
    “We thought she was going to eat you,” Alex said a little perplexedly, “you screamed.”
    - Scared at first, that's screaming. And she still banged me with her beak, right here — Lissen looked anxiously at her forearm and suddenly saw, and all the others gathered with her, that she was missing the top of her swimsuit, which seemed lost in the heat of battle. The girl sighed and closed her hands.
    Kordor angrily spat on the sand.
    - Clear. I did not have enough fighting losses at the resort. Moulin! - he shouted to Gerik, still trying to get a glider, - drop the medpack from the first-aid kit here.
    At this time, the attention of all those present attracted Mac Quirill, who was interested in moving his foot, floating something in the water near the shore.
    “Naira,” he shouted, “did you happen to have this poor animal capitalized?”
    A second later, everyone had already surrounded the aggressor, suddenly turned into a victim, whose extended two-meter body with a bundle of long tentacles was now moving waves.
    “No wonder we are given special bracelets,” someone whistled.
    Marchand caught the girl by the hand.
    - Yes, you stand, do not turn around, - he said angrily to her, - but I apply a bandage to you, you will have time to look at your prey.
    With a meaningful look, MacQuirill looked around at his companions gathered around him and once again moved his foot to the fallen monster.
    “Well, what can I tell you,” he told others, with an air of a lecturer who had risen to the department, “I can only say that we see a heavy object killed by a blow with a heavy object,” he stressed, “a representative of the local fauna called dodecod reef.
    “Naira, you have burned him with something,” someone shouted, “surfboard?”
    “There,” Lissen snorted, “a couple of times with her elbow and once with her knee.”
    In the crowd they laughed and made several assumptions about where the girl had been taken to the unfortunate sea dweller.
    “Well, now it’s okay,” Marchant looked at the work of his own hands, the long white stripe on the shoulder of her fighting friend, “you can shoot in four hours, you will be as good as new.”
    A cheerful mood gradually returned to him because everything ended well.
    - Maybe you still nipples on the chest with remnants of a bandage to stick? - he said thoughtfully, - but how are we going back to the hotel?
    From the immediate reprisal of Alex, the girl was again distracted by MacQuirill.
    “Laugh, laugh, and you know,” he said importantly, “that the reef dodecod is, firstly, listed in the local Ruby Book, as a rare and protected species. And secondly, Mac Quirill raised his index finger and adjusted imaginary glasses - this is also the sacred totem of the locals. Do you understand how it can threaten us?
    There was a slight pause.
    - What would we do without you? - finally Frano Kordor said with displeasure and looked around, - I hope there are no locals here? Then here, squadron, listen to my command.
    He thought for a couple of seconds:
    - First, silence for all this creature, at least for the remaining three days. Is everyone clear? Secondly, Lyssen, from this moment you are sentenced to strict isolation in your room until tomorrow morning. Marchand, follow.
    Everybody smiled again. Alex made a sad but docile look.
    “And the dodikpod of this,” the commander pointed to the lifeless carcass swinging in waves, “take it away on the glider to the sea and drown it with a load.” Gerik, did you start your clunker at last?
    “Yes, sir, everything seems fine, sir,” answered Moulin, and in support of his words, he described a small circle near the shore.
    “Guys, help him bind someone to this glider beast to the glider.” And do not forget to screw her stone.
    Having spoken these orders, he looked around and gave the last command:
    - And everyone else, go their separate ways and take on the appearance of the rest.
    A few minutes later the glider with a pair of assistants and with Gueric at the helm dragged the body of the innocently killed dodecapod into the sea, and all the other pilots who took on the appearance of the rest, again dispersed along the deserted beach.
    Alex looked at his girlfriend.
    “Well, dear, the commander gave the order, we must carry out,” the young man carefully took Lissen under his good arm, “our glider swam away, like your swimsuit, so let's go on foot slowly.”
    And they moved from the coast inland, towards the low yellow domes of their hotel, which loomed like desert mirages in the distance.

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