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

is not for public consumption. You know what that means. The story of how we came into possession of
the device is also in this cube.

"Intelligence has been able to find out how to work the weapon, but not how it works. We know how to
fire it, how to adjust the length of the beam, and how to adjust the beam intensity. We also know that the
beam itself is an X-ray laser. But how the beam is generated is beyond us. The weapon uses Dykstra
fields in a way we've never seen before.

"Beyond that, its power source is a mysteryтАФit doesn't seem to use anything; not batteries, not
capacitors, not nuclear micropiles, not mini fusion generators, and not chips of antimatter.

"We hope you can help us out, Professor.

"One other thingтАФthe aliens are hostile. They opened fire on the first human ship they met, out in the
Oort cloud. Their technology is beyond ours. God help us if they take us to war.

"As of viewing this message, you are recalled to active status, Professor Dykstra, under the Wartime
Civilian Service Act. We have a place all ready for you at the Patrol High Command on Luna. But for
now we'll leave you alone for one week. My courier will contact you on the twenty-first.

"Good day, Professor."

They need me. The thought made him happy. He hadn't worked for the military since he was in his
nineties, but not for lack of offering on his part. The System Patrol had always treated him politely when
he suggested that he might still be of help to them on some technical matter, but always with refusals.
Only last year, the Belt, just before the start of the war, had demonstrated the ability to produce
antimatter in vast quantities, tons at a time it looked like. Dykstra had received the news through some
old friends on the inside. The knowledge that such a thing could be done had set his mind to racing,
playing over the possibilities, and in a short time he was ready to make his pitch to the Patrol. He needed
intelligence data and the proper facilities, but he was certain he could duplicate the Belt process.

They stiffed him, told him no, said they had their own people working on it, with the underlying
implication that he should be content to be a legend and quit bothering them.

"And now you need me, Major Moore." He wasted no time on bitterness over the past, nor gloated that
they came to him now. But success, and thus vindication, would taste sweet indeed. He smiled.

"So let us see what else is in this cube." He raced through the contents. Later he would go back for a
more thorough investigation, but for now he simply wanted to see what they'd delivered to him.

The speed with which Dykstra perused the information was astonishing, not just for an old man, but for
any man. His IQ had never been adequately measuredтАФhe never missed any questions on the tests,

file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Nieuwe%20map/KOOISTRA...EFFREY%20-%20DYKSTRA'S%20WAR/0671319582___1.htm (5 of 32)29-12-2006 18:58:26
 - Chapter 1

never reached his limits. One tester, in frustration, had simply written "IQ over 300" across the top of
Dykstra's score sheet and let it go at that. There had simply never been anyone in the age of mental
testing with his raw intellectual ability.