"Blish, James - Bindlestiff - txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

QUITE SIMPLE; A BILL TO REGULARIZE EARTHТS AXIS
WAS DEFEATED BY THREE VOTES IN THE EIGHTY-SECOND COUNCIL, OWING TO THE OPPOSITION OF THE
CONSERVATION LOBBY.Ф
УCould the city handle it?Ф
УNO. THE COST WOULD BE PROHIBITIVE. MAYOR AMALFI, ARE YOU CONTEMPLATING TIPPING THIS PLANET? WE FORBID IT! EVERY INDICATION SHOWSЧФ
Amalfi tore the helmet from his head and flung it across the room. Miramon jumped up in alarm.
УHazleton!Ф
The city manager shot through the door as if he had been kicked through it on roller skates. УHere, bossЧwhatТs theЧФ
УGet down below and turn off the City FathersЧfast, before they catch on and do something! Quick, manЧФ
Hazleton was already gone. On the other side of the control room, the phones of the helmet squawked dead data in italic capitals.
Then, suddenly, they went silent.
The City Fathers had been turned off, and Amalfi was ready to move a world.
III.

THE fact that the City Fathers could not be consultedЧfor the first time in two centuriesЧmade the job more difficult than it need have been, barring their conservatism. Tipping the planet, the crux of the job, was simple enough in essence; the spindizzy could handle it. But the side-effects of the medicine might easily prove to be worse than the disease.
The problem was seismological. Rapidly whirling objects have a way of being stubborn about changing their positions. If that energy were overcome, it would have to appear somewhere elseЧthe most likely place being multiple earthquakes.
Too, very little could be anticipated about the gravities of the task. The planetТs revolution produced, as usual, a sizable magnetic field. Amalfi did not know how well that field would take to being tipped with relation to the space-lattice which it distorted, nor just what would happen when the spindizzies polarized the whole gravity field. During Уmoving dayФ the planet would be, in effect, without magnetic moment of its own, and since the Calculator was one of the City Fathers, there was no way of finding out where the energy would reappear, in what form, or in what intensity.
He broached the latter question to Hazleton. УIf we were dealing with an ordinary case, IТd say it would show up as velocity,Ф he pointed out. УIn which case weТd be in for an involuntary junket. But this is no ordinary case. The mass involved is . . . well, itТs planetary, thatТs all. What do you think, Mark?Ф
УI donТt know what to think,Ф Hazleton admitted. УWhen we move the city, we change the magnetic moment of its component atoms; but the city itself doesnТt revolve, and doesnТt have a gross magnetic moment. StillЧwe could control velocity; suppose the energy reappears as heat, instead? ThereТd be nothing left but a cloud of gas.Ф
Amalfi shook his head. УThatТs a bogey. The gyroscopic resistance may show up as heat, sure, but not the magnetogravitic. I think weТd be safe to expect it to appear as velocity, just as in ordinary spindizzy operation. Figure the conversation equivalency and tell me what you get.Ф
Hazleton bent over his slide rule, the sweat standing out
along his forehead and above his mustache in great heavy droplets. Amalfi could understand the eagerness of the Heyans to get rid of the jungle and its eternal humidityЧhis own clothing had been sopping ever since the city had landed here.
УWell,Ф the city manager said finally, Уunless IТve made a mistake somewhere, the whole kit and kaboodle will go shooting away from here at about half the speed of light. ThatТs not too badЧless than cruising speed for us. We could always loop around and bring it back into its orbit.Ф
УAh, but could we? Remember, we donТt control it! It appears automatically when we turn on the spindizzies. We donТt even know in which direction weТre going to move.Ф
УYes we do,Ф Hazleton objected. УAlong the axis of spin, of course.Ф
УCant? And torque?Ф
УNo problemЧyet there is. I keep forgetting weТre dealing with a planet instead of electrons.Ф He applied the slipstick again. УNo soap. CanТt be answered without the Calculator and heТs turned off. But if we can figure a way to control the flight, it wonТt matter in the end. ThereТll be perturbations of the other planets when this one goes massless, whether it moves or not, but nobody lives there anyhow.Ф
УAll right, go figure a control system. IТve got to get the Geology men toЧФ
The door slid back suddenly, and Amalfi looked over his shoulder. It was Anderson, the perimeter sergeant. The man was usually blasщ in the face of all possible wonders, unless they threatened the city. УWhatТs the matter?Ф Amalfi said, alarmed.
УSir, weТve gotten an ultrawave from some outfit claiming to be refugees from another OkieЧclaim they hit a bindlestiff. TheyТve crashlanded on this planet up north and theyТre being mobbed by one of the local bandit towns. They were holding Сem off and yelling for help, and then they stopped transmitting.Ф
Amalfi heaved himself to his feet. УDid you get a bearing?Ф he demanded.
УYes, sir.Ф
УGive me the figures. Come on, Mark. We need those boys.Ф
THEY grabbed a cab to the edge of the city, and went the rest of the way on foot, across the supersonics-cleared strip of bare turf which surrounded the Hevian town. The turf felt rubbery; Amalfi suspected that some rudimentary form of friction-field was keeping the mud in a state of stiff gel. He had visions of foot-soldiers sinking suddenly into liquid ooze as defenders turned off the fields, and quickened his pace.
Inside the gates, the guards summoned a queer, malodorous vehicle which seemed to be powered by the combustion of hydrocarbons, and they were shot through the streets toward Miramon. Throughout the journey, Amalfi clung to a cloth strap in an access of nervousness. He had never traveled right on the surface at any speed before, and the way things zipped past him made him jumpy.
УIs this bird out to smash us up?Ф Hazleton demanded petulantly. УHe must be doing all of four hundred kilos an hour.Ф
УIТm glad you feel the same way,Ф Amalfi said, relaxing a little. УActually IТll bet heТs doing less than two hundred. ItТs just the way theЧФ
The driver, who had been holding his car down to a conservative fifty out of deference to the strangers, wrenched the machine around a corner and halted neatly before MiramonТs door. Amalfi got out, his knees wobbly. HazletonТs face was a delicate puce.
УIТm going to figure a way to make our cabs operate outside the city,Ф he muttered. УEvery time we make a new planet-fall, we have to ride in ox carts, on the backs of bull kangaroos, in hot-air balloons, steam-driven airscrews, things that drag you feet first and face down through tunnels, or whatever else the natives think is classy transportation. My stomach wonТt stand much more.Ф
Amalfi grinned and raised his hand to Miramon, whose expression suggested laughter smothered with great difficulty.
УWhat brings you here?Ф the Hevian said. УCome in. I have no chairs, butЧФ
УNo time,Ф Amalfi said. He explained the situation quickly. УWeТve got to get those men out of there, if theyТre still alive. This bindlestiff is a bandit city, like the ones you have here, but it has all the stuff we have and more besides. ItТs vital to
find out what these survivors know about it. Can you locate the town thatТs holding them? We have a fix on it.Ф
Miramon went back into his houseЧactually, like all the other living quarters in the town, it was a dormitory housing twenty-five men of the same trade or professionЧand returned with a map. The map-making conventions of He were anything but self-explanatory, but after a while Hazieton figured out the symbolism involved. УThatТs your city, and hereТs ours,Ф he said, pointing. УRight? And this peeled orange is a butterfly grid. IТve always claimed that was a lot more faithful to spherical territory than our parabolic projection, boss.Ф
УEasier still to express what you want to remember as a topological relation,Ф Amalfi grunted. УShow Miramon where the signals came from.Ф
УUp here, on this wing of the butterfly.Ф
Miramon frowned. УThat can only be Fabr-Suithe. A very bad place to approach, even in the military sense. However, we shall have to try. Do you know what the end result will be?Ф
УNo; what?Ф
УThe bandit cities will come out in force to hinder the Great Work. They do not fear you nowЧthey fear nothing, we think they take drugsЧbut they have seen no reason to risk probable huge losses by attacking you. When you attack one of them, they will have that reason; they learn hatred very quickly.Ф
Amalfi shrugged. УWeТll chance it. WeТll pick our own town up and go calling; if they donТt want to deliver up these OkiesЧФ