"Eric Flint - 1632" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

The only possible explanation was a transposition in time as well as space. Tapper was a junior
biologist. His budding career would be ruined if he advanced his suspicions without evidence. And
there could be no evidence, if he was right. Whatever remained of the area of West Virginia which
had vanished was lost somewhere back in time.

So, Tapper accepted the loss of a year's work, and went in search of greener pastures. He
published his findings, to be sure; but only as dry factual accounts in obscure publications. He
made no attempt to draw conclusions, or posit theories, or draw any kind of public attention.

It was just as well. His career would have been ruinedтАФand for no good purpose. No one would
have believed him. Even if someone had, the most extensive archaeological search of central
Europe would never have discovered the matching hemisphere. It was there, of course, in that
region of Germany called Thuringia. But it was there almost four centuries earlier, and only for
an instant. The moment those hemispheres had been transposed, a new universe split off from the
old.

And, besides, the truth was far stranger than even Tapper ever imagined. Even he assumed that
the cause was some kind of natural cosmic disaster.
***

In reality, the Grantville Disaster was the result of what humans of the day would have called
criminal negligence. Caused by a shard of cosmic garbage, a discarded fragment of what, for lack
of a better term, could be called a work of art. A shaving, you might say, from a sculpture. The
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Assiti fancied their solipsist amusements with the fabric of spacetime. They were quite oblivious to
the impact of their "art" on the rest of the universe.

The Assiti would be exterminated, eighty-five million years later, by the Fta Tei. Ironically, the
Fta Tei were a collateral branch of one of the human race's multitude of descendant species. Their
motive, however, was not revenge. The Fta Tei knew nothing of their origins on a distant planet
once called Earth, much less a minor disaster which had occurred there. The Fta Tei exterminated
the Assiti simply because, after many stern warnings, they persisted in practicing their dangerous
and irresponsible art.




Part One
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night


Chapter 1
"I'm sorry about my parents, Mike." Tom gave the two people in question a look of resentment. "I'd
hopedтАФ" He broke off, sighing faintly. "I'm sorry, I really am. You spent a lot of money on all this."