"Leo Frankowski & Dave Grossman - The War With Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

big as six thousand hectares. And you were really in communication with the real Kasia,
every time you met her in Dream World. She is as committed to you as you are to her.
The two of you can be properly married in the real world any time that you want to."
"And I suppose that Kasia's back pay will get us the house built, but dammit, it's not
the same as having it all given to us by a grateful government. And Jesus Christ. Four and
a half years, chopped right out of my life. What has really been going on in the world
while I've been out playing soldier?"
"Quite a bit, Mickolai, and most of it has been very good. Things on New Kashubia
are now very nice because of what you and the other soldiers have done. The food stuffs
that the Yugoslavians sent us to pay our construction contracts ended the starvation
almost immediately. They also let us bring in all the carbon dioxide, ice, and ammonia
that we wanted from Freya, the eighth moon of a gas giant in their system. That let us
synthesize all the organic chemicals we needed to run all of our automatic factories at full
production, with wonderful results.
"There is no rationing of anything any more, the economy is a modified free
enterprise system, and the average Kashubian lives with his family in a large, modern
apartment. There are automatic hydroponics farms now that are more than sufficient to
feed the population, and pastures and fish ponds that produce all the protein that anyone
could want. We are even exporting some specialty food items. The government has
vowed that no one will ever again suffer from want of food.
"There are parks and playgrounds in the golden tunnels now that are very pleasant,
and most people are very happy. In fact, the government has purchased land on more
livable planets, and yet very few Kashubians have elected to emigrate."
"And all because of our construction contracts with New Yugoslavia?" I asked.
"New Yugoslavia was the start, but now it is only a small part of a growing industrial
empire. New Kashubia now has Hassan-Smith transporters connecting us to fifty-seven
separate planets, and in another two years it is projected that we should be linked up with
every planet in Human Space. The market for our industrial goods is huge, and even
Earth is starting to feel the impact of our competition. In fact, the Kashubian zloty is well
on its way to replacing the Earth dollar as the standard interstellar currency."
I said, "So, has Earth found out about all the smuggling going on?"
The laws of Earth had much in common with the laws that the English had imposed
on the American colonies, in the eighteenth century. All goods being transported between
the colonies had to be shipped first to Earth, and taxed heavily, before being transshipped
to another colony. Furthermore, the charges for transportation were kept artificially high,
keeping the colony planets in permanent debt to Earth. Naturally, the colonies had found
a way around these gouging practices.
"We are not sure, but probably not. So far, they just think that there is an economic
depression going on, and all of the colony planets are cooperating nicely to keep them
thinking that way. Once Earth does figure it all out, it probably won't be able to do
anything about it. We outnumber them now in both population and resources, after all,
and before too long we will be even wealthier than they are. From a strictly material
standpoint, we really don't need Earth any more, although we still buy a lot of their
intellectual products, such as books and entertainments. Our technology is as good as
theirs is, though they still lead us in pure science.
"But if they want to get rough, well, they will find out that we have all the modern
military forces! It's the possibility of a war with Earth that has kept you and so many
others like you in the service, of course."
"I take it then that I'm not likely to be discharged in the near future. It feels like I've
been thrown to the wolves," I said.