"David Drake - Reaches 02 - Through The Breach" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

System and fewer still on Venus. Their planet of origin was unknown, but their present province was the
entire region of space mankind had colonized before the Collapse.

Molts remained and prospered on worlds from which men had vanished. Now, with man's return to the
stars, the aliens' racial memory made them additionally valuable: Molts could operate the pre-Collapse
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machinery which survived on some outworlds.

"Well, Mister Moore," Ricimer said. "What are your qualifications for the Asteroid Expedition?"

"Well, I've not myself been involved in off-planet trade, sir," I said, trying to look earnest and superior,
"but I'm a gentleman, you see, and thus an asset to any proposal. My fatherтАФmay he continue wellтАФis
Moore of Rhadicund. AhтАФ"

The two spacemen watched me: Ricimer with amusement, Gregg with no amusement at all. I didn't
understand their coolness. I'd thought this was the way to build rapport, since Gregg was a gentleman
also, member of a factorial family, and Ricimer at least claimed the status.

"Ah . . ." I repeated. Carefully, because the subject could easily become a can of worms, I went on,
"I've been a member of the household of Councilor DuneenтАФchief advisor to the Governor of the Free
State of Venus."

"We know who Councilor Duneen is, Mister Moore," Ricimer said dryly. "We'd probably know of him
even if he weren't a major backer of the expedition."

The walls of the room were covered to shoulder height in tilework. The color blurred upward from near
black at floor level to smoky gray shot with wisps of silver. The ceiling and upper walls were coated with
beige sealant that might well date from the tavern's construction.

The table behind which Ricimer and Gregg satтАФthey hadn't offered me a chairтАФwas probably part of
the tavern furnishings. The communications console in a back corner was brand-new. The ceramic
chassis marked the console as of Venerian manufacture, since an off-planet unit would have been made
of metal or organic resin instead, but its electronics were built from chips stockpiled on distant worlds
where automated factories continued to produce even after the human colonies perished.

Very probably, Piet Ricimer himself had brought those chips to Venus on an earlier voyage. Earth, with
a population of twenty millions after the Collapse, had returned to space earlier than tiny Venus. Now
that all planets outside the Solar System were claimed by the largest pair of ramshackle Terran states, the
North American Federation and the Southern Cross, other men traded beyond Pluto only with one hand
on their guns.

Piet Ricimer and his cohorts had kept both hands on their guns, and they traded very well indeed.
Whatever the cover storyтАФVenus and the Federation weren't technically at warтАФthe present expedition
wasn't headed for the Asteroid Belt to bring back metals that Venus had learned to do without during the
Collapse.