"David Drake - General 03 - The Anvil" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

Both men blinked as the vision faded -- Raj to force memory away,
Thom in surprise.
"You brought the Southern Territories back?" Thom said, slight awe in
his voice. The Squadrones -- the Squadron, under its Admiral -- had
ruled the Territories ever since they came roaring down out of the Base
Area a century and a half ago and cut a swath across the Midworld Sea.
The only previous Civil Government attempt to reconquer them had been a
spectacular disaster.
Raj shrugged, then nodded: "I was in command of the Expeditionary
Force, yes. But I couldn't have achieved anything without good troops
-- and the Spirit."
"Center isn't the Spirit of Man of the Stars, Raj. It's a Central
Command and Control Unit from before the Collapse -- the Fall, we
call it now."
Neither of them needed another set of Center's holographic scenarios to
remember what they had been shown. Earth -- Bellevue, the computer
always insisted -- from the holy realm of Orbit, swinging like a
blue-and-white shield against the stars. Points of thermonuclear fire
expanding across cities . . . and the descent into savagery that
followed. Which must have followed everywhere in the vast stellar realm
the Federation once ruled, or men from the stars would have returned.
Raj shivered involuntarily. He had been terrified as a child, when the
household priest told of the Fall. It was even more unnerving to see it
played out before the mind's eye. Worse yet was the knowledge that
Center had given him. The Fall was still happening. If Center's plan
failed, it would go on until there was nothing left on Bellevue --
anywhere in the human universe -- but flint-knapping cannibal
savages. Fifteen thousand years would pass before civilization rose
again.
Thom went on: "Center's just a computer."
Raj nodded. Computers were holy, the agents of the Spirit, but Thom's
stress on the word meant something different now. Different since he'd
been locked in stasis down here, being shown everything Center knew.
Nearly four years of continuous education.
"You know what you know, Thom," Raj said gently. "But I know what I
know." He shook hi head. "We slaughtered the whole Squadron," he went
on. Literally. "Made them attack us, then shot the shit out of them."
"And how did Governor Barholm react?" Thom asked dryly. By rights, Thom
Poplanich should have been Seated on the Chair; his grandfather had
been. Barholm Clerett's uncle had been Commander of Residence Area
Forces when the last Governor died, however, which had turned out to be
much more important.
"Well, he was certainly pleased to get the Southern Territories back,"
Raj said, looking aside. That was hard to do inside the perfectly
reflective sphere. The expedition more than paid for itself, too --
and that's not counting the tax revenues."
observe, Center said.

***
-- and men in the black uniforms of the Gubernatorial Guard were