"Anderson, Kevin J - Seven Suns 1 - 2002 - Hidden Empire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Kevin J)

smiled for his sake.
She preferred to watch people rather than interact with them. Louis once joked
that his wife had become fascinated with archaeology on alien planets because
there was no chance she might have to strike up a conversation with one of her
subjects.
With plenty of dirt under their fingernails and ground-breaking discoveries on
their rщsumщs, Margaret and Louis Colicos had already sifted through numerous
worlds abandoned by the insectlike Klikiss race, searching for clues to explain
what had happened to their vanished civilization. The alien empire had left only
ghost cities and occasional tall beetlelike robots that bore no helpful memories
of their progenitors. In the eerie ruins on Corribus, the Colicos team had
discovered and deciphered the remarkable planet-igniting technology they had
called the "Klikiss Torch."
Now excitement thrummed in the filtered air of the observation platform. Invited
functionaries crowded around the observation windows, talking with each other.
Never before had humans attempted to create their own sun. The consequences and
the commercial possibilities were far-reaching.
Chairman Basil Wenceslas noticed Margaret standing alone. When a small-statured
server compy came by bearing a tray filled with expensive champagne, the
powerful Chairman of the Terran Hanseatic League snagged two extruded-polymer
glasses and walked over to her, proud and beaming. "Less than an hour to go."
She dutifully accepted the glass and indulged him by taking a drink. Since the
reprocessed air of the observation platform affected the senses of smell and
taste, a cheaper champagne would probably have tasted as good. "I'll be glad
when it's over, Mr. Chairman. I prefer to spend my time on empty worlds,
listening for the whispers of a long-dead civilization. Here, there are too many
people for me."
Across the deck she saw a green priest sitting silent and alone. The
emerald-skinned man was there to provide instantaneous telepathic communication
in case of emergency. Outside the observation platform hung a ceremonial fleet
of alien warliners, seven spectacular ships from the Solar Navy of the Ildirans,
the benevolent humanoid race that had helped mankind spread across the stars.
The beautifully decorated Ildiran ships had taken up positions where they could
observe the spectacular test.
"I understand perfectly," the Chairman said. "I try to stay out of the limelight
myself." Wenceslas was a distinguished man, one of those people who grew more
attractive and sophisticated with each passing year, as if he learned how to be
suave rather than forgot how to be physically fit. He sipped his champagne, but
so slightly that it barely seemed to wet his lips. "Waiting is always so hard,
isn't it? You are not accustomed to working with such a rigid time clock."
She answered him with a polite laugh. "Archaeology is not meant to be
rushed-unlike business." Margaret just wished she could get back to work.
The Chairman touched his champagne glass against Margaret's like a kiss of
crystal. "You and your husband are an investment that has certainly paid off for
the Hanseatic League." The xeno-archaeologists had long been sponsored by the
Hansa, but the star-igniting technology she and Louis had discovered would be
worth more than all the archaeology budgets combined.
Working in the cool emptiness of Corribus, sifting through the ideographs
painted on the walls of Klikiss ruins, Margaret had been able to match up the
precise coordinates of neutron stars and pulsars scattered around the Spiral