"Edmond Hamilton - The Star Hunters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

The most important of the three was the discovery of sub-spectrum rays. These were hitherto
unsuspected octaves of electromagnetic radiation far below even the gamma and cosmic rays in
wavelength, and which had velocities vastly greater than the speed of light.

Of these sub-spectrum rays the most useful were the so-called pressure rays in the Minus-30th octave of
the spectrum, which could react against the tenuous cosmic dust of space with a powerful pressure.
These pressure rays formed the driving power of star-ships. They were produced in generators powered
by atomic turbines, and were jetted from the stern of a ship to drive it thousands of times faster than light.

The second vital invention was that of the mass-control. Einstein's equations had shown that if a ship
travelled as fast as light, its mass would expand to infinity. This difficulty was overcome by the
mass-control, which тАЬbledтАЭ off mass as energy to maintain a constant mass unaltered by velocity. The
energy thus obtained was stored in accumulators and fed back automatically whenever speed was
reduced.

The final invention concerned the human element, Men's bodies would have been unable ordinarily to
withstand those vast accelerations, but this obstacle was conquered by the cradlestasis. This was a stasis
of force which gripped every atom in a ship. The energy-drive jets gave their thrust, not to the ship
directly, but to its stasis. Thus everyone and everything in the ship remained unaffected by acceleration.
Magnetic apparatus furnished artificial gravity on shipboard, similar to that of the tiny
gravitation-equalizers worn by all star-travellers.

The fastest of the sub-spectrum rays, those of the Minus-42nd Octave, were so speedy that they made
light seem to crawl. These super-speed rays were used in telestereo communication and also in the vital
function of radar for the starships.

Using these inventions to build star-ships, mankind took at once to interstellar space. Alpha Centauri,
Sirius and Altair were quickly visited.

Colonies were soon established on suitable star-worlds. For some 10,000 years, Sol and Earth remained
the center of government of a growing region of colonized stars.

Until then, there had been no serious conflicts. Aboriginal alien races of intelligence had been found at
some star-systems and were helped and educated, but there was found no scientific civilization on any
star-world. That had been expected, for if such a race existed it would have visited us long before we
ourselves had conquered space.

But in the year 12,455, a group of star-systems near Polaris complained that Earth was too remote to
appreciate their problems, and they set up an independent kingdom. By 39,000, the kingdoms of Lyra,
Cygnus, and the Baronies of the great Hercules Cluster had declared independence.

Criminals and fugitives from the law seeking refuge in the Cloud eventually founded the League of Dark
Worlds. By 120,000, the star-kingdoms were many. But the biggest was still the Mid-Galactic Empire,
and hosts of star-worlds remained loyal to it. For convenience its government had been shifted in 62,339
from Earth to a world of the great sun Canopus.

The Empire took the lead of the star-kingdoms in the year 129,411 when the galaxy was suddenly
invaded by alien and powerful creatures from the Magellanic Clusters outside. And after that invasion
was repelled the Empire had steadily grown by exploring and colonizing the wild, unmapped star-systems
in the frontier regions called the Marches of Outer Space.