"David G. Hartwell - Years best sf 11" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hartwell David G)

them or something like that. Like most of these homesteader manifestos, it wasn't the clearest thing to
read. They had reported no success to the rest of the solar system, but best of luck to them anyway. The
battle armor trick was working on Jesse. I had thought he was highstrung talking to him on the radio, but
in person he seemed ready to snap.

His companion was not of the High Fantastic Empire but from a neighboring colony. She was a darling
little thing of sixteen Earth years, strawberry blond hair and green eyes, scattering of freckles across her
nose. But looks were, as is so often the case in this day and age, deceiving. That cute little American
cheerleader's body was just a walking feeder culture for sophont silk.

I'd seen people boost their brainpower with thread lots of times. I'll bet there isn't anyone on Luna who
doesn't have a bit of silk in the old gray matter. It was a popular implant, not one of the ones I was using,
but it had its adherents. It was nice to see that even this trend had been taken to its extreme out in the
homesteads. I don't believe that there was anything left, mentally, of the young woman who had been
called Shaunasie MacTaggart. When I spoke to her, found out who she was and where she was from, it
was clear to me that I was talking to the silk.

She was from an enclave that called itself A Better Way. They didn't have much on file, and the name
certainly didn't give me much to go on. If their whole philosophy was an unhealthy indulgence in mental
enhancements, that made them dangerous enough. But what interested me right then was not why her
colony had created such a loathsome creature, but why they had put it on this ship with this kid and this
bomb.

"Jesse, Shaunasie, thanks for inviting me in here. I like it when people make my job easier. I'll be sure to
remember that in my report. Now, do you mind telling me what you're up to? Looks like your trajectory
is taking you to someplace called the City of Reason in about twentythree days. What's your beef with
these guys?"

"We're making a retaliatory strike against them," Jesse said. "They've repeatedly attacked us over the
past two years."

"They've attacked both your home colonies?"



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 Jarpe, Matthew - City of Reason

"No, they've only attacked the High Fantastic Empire so far, but everyone else in this region is at risk. A
Better Way is just orbiting by beneath us, and they've been advising us, first on how to deal with the
attacks, and now they're helping us to bring the fight to them. Shaunasie is here to do the strategic
analysis of the base we're taking out, make sure the bomb is planted in the right place to do maximum
damage. The High Fantastic Empire doesn't have any expertise in the arts of war."

"And A Better Way does?"

"Some of their people had done military service before coming out here."

"But not Shaunasie, certainly?"