"Greg Egan - The Planck Drive" - читать интересную книгу автора (Egan Greg)

"ItтАЩs up to you." Gisela laughed. "I have no idea what
constitutes the polite treatment of half-delivered
relatives." It was unlikely that Cordelia did, either;
citizens of Athena clearly didnтАЩt make a habit of crossing
interstellar distances, and the connections on Earth all
had so much bandwidth that the issue would never arise.
"But if it was me in transit, I wouldnтАЩt mind at all."

Cordelia hesitated. "Could I see the black hole, please?"

"Of course." Chandrasekhar possessed no blazing
accretion diskтАУit was six billion years old, and had long
ago swept the region clean of gas and dustтАУbut it
certainly left the imprint of its presence on the ordinary
starlight around it. "IтАЩll give you the short tour, and weтАЩll
be back long before your fatherтАЩs awake." Gisela
examined the bearded icon; with his gaze fixed on the
horizon and his arms at his sides, he appeared to be on
the verge of bursting into song. "Assuming heтАЩs not

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Asimov's - The Planck Dive

running on partial data already. I could have sworn I saw
those eyes move."

Cordelia smiled slightly, then looked up and said
solemnly, "ThatтАЩs not how we were packaged."

Gisela sent her an address tag. "Then heтАЩll be none the
wiser. Follow me."




They stood on a circular platform in empty space. Gisela
had inflected the scapeтАЩs address to give the platform
"artificial gravity"тАУa uniform one gee, regardless of their
motionтАУand a transparent dome full of air at standard
temperature and pressure. Presumably all Athena citizens
were set up to ignore any scape parameters that might
cause them discomfort, but it still seemed like a good
idea to err on the side of caution. The platform itself was
a compromise, five delta wideтАУoffering some protection
from vertigo, but small enough to let its occupants see
some forty degrees below "horizontal."

Gisela pointed. "There it is: Chandrasekhar. Twelve solar
masses. Seventeen thousand kilometers away. It might