"Jeffrey D. Kooistra - Dykstra's War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kooistra Jeffrey D)

"What?" "I don't believe it!" "Most holy shit!" Shocked disbelief. Questions were fired at Dykstra; he
answered them simply, still with that twinkle in his eyeтАФhe was thoroughly enjoying himself. After five

file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Nieuwe%20map/KOOISTR...FFREY%20-%20DYKSTRA'S%20WAR/0671319582___1.htm (16 of 32)29-12-2006 18:58:26
 - Chapter 1

minutes Nachtegall sorted out the gist of what Dykstra had accomplished:

1) He had leapfrogged all the work of the Gamma Nonsense Project, for cheap antimatter production
was a trivial spin-off of Dykstra's development, and also now obsolete.

2) He had not only deciphered the alien technology, but had duplicated it with terrestrial means right at
hand, and all by himself. That really galled some of the gathering.

Nachtegall looked at Major Moore, seated off to the side. The major was not smiling. Now what's his
problem? Nachtegall wondered. He knew Moore hadn't wanted Dykstra to be given the star treatment,
had felt that it might interfere with his authority, and had been overruled. Now Dykstra had managed to
outshine even the brightest of the early hopes for what he might accomplish.

Dykstra was tapping his cane on the table. "Quiet, please. Quiet. This seminar is not over yet. I have
some other matters to discuss. I need to point out a problem I'm having in understanding the alien design
philosophy. It may shed light on the alien thought processes themselves."

The room came to order, though Nachtegall could still see half a dozen conversations continuing in
whispers.

Dykstra stood again by his device. "I want to show you one other thing that my copy does." A few
changes were made to settings, then the beam reappeared, truncating at eighty centimeters. But instead
of a thin cylinder, the beam was now a tight cone, the apex at the point of emergence. Dykstra slid the
ceramsteel block against the base of the cone, then backed it away to show the large hole bored through
the block. "You seeтАФby allowing the beam to spread, I am now able to make a bigger hole in the block.
There are other possible uses for a variable collimation of the beam. I'm sure many of you could think up
particularly nasty applications.

"Now here's the rubтАФthe alien weapon can't do this."

There was silence while Dykstra scanned the room, and Nachtegall could almost hear the collective
thought of "So, what's your point?"

Vander Kam spoke up. "But even your first duplication attempt has that feature. I gather it isn't difficult
to do?"

Dykstra smiled. "Very much correct, Dr. Vander Kam. Adding adjustable beam collimation is altogether
trivial. The question is why the aliens didn't do it."

Another older scientist stood up, Dr. Manlinkov, looking like the original Russian bear. He'd begun the
seminar with a neutral look that had soured into anger as Dykstra's success became apparent. "Now one
damn minute! What the hell does this have to do with anything? Aliens chose not to collimate beam. So