"Tom Kratman - A Desert Called Peace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kratman Tom)

***
Peace was one of thirty-three ships now in system. Four of these were of the same, Spirit, class.
Another twenty-three were of one of the older but similar classes. The Spirits were slightly larger than
the rest, but only slightly. They were ovoid, at just under two hundred meters across and three hundred
long. Their silvery skin shone when the sun was just right. Only on closer inspection could one see that
the apparently smooth surfaces were pocked with the marks of hundreds, or in some cases thousands, of
strikes by astral debris.
Still, at a distance the ships тАУ all twenty-seven that could be seen from below by the locals if the
locals used powerful telescopes, as some did тАУ seemed pristine, powerful and invulnerable.
Only one of the petty states that infested the surface of the planet below had made any effort to
match the power of the majestic and apparently invulnerable fleet. Just how successful that attempt had
been was a matter of considerable conjecture, both above and below.
All of the ships, newer and older, were said to be armed to the teeth. Those arms, specifically
Peace's arms, had been used exactly twice since the once invulnerable fleet had been established. It was
too risky to do so now, though. Having seen two of its cities destroyed by nuclear fire from the fleet, the
state so victimized had moved Heaven and Earth to eliminate the fleet's invulnerability.
That state, the locals called it the "Federated States of Columbia," had made the effort in a spirit of
revenge as much as survival. "Once burned; twice shy" was the common saying. Having seen two of its
cities burned off the map toward the close of the great war that had convulsed the planet decades before,
their equivalent saying had become, "Twice burned; a third time and we nuke you until you glow." The
Fed bastards had actually had the effrontery to demonstrate that the threat was not idle, tracking,
intercepting and destroying a robotic courier ship to prove their point. An armed and decidedly hostile
standoff had ensued with more than a thousand (the exact number was deep-classified) of FSC nuclear
tipped and hypervelocity missiles pointed into space, and a like number of Peace Fleet warheads aimed
expressly at the FSC. Moreover, it was widely believed that the FSC maintained, in addition to its
nuclear missiles, some hundreds of mobile railguns and charged particle beam weapons capable of
reaching into space either to defend against incoming UEPF warheads or, if those weapons were as good
as they might be, even reaching out to touch the ships of the fleet.
The Peace Fleet might have destroyed the FSC, damn the retaliation, then, except that at the same
time the FSC had demonstrated the ability to deluge Atlantis Island, the Peace Fleet base on planet, with
too much nuclear fire to intercept. Since the families of the crews were on that base . . .
***
Besides the twenty-seven ships locked in geosynchronous orbit, six more were held further back,
one behind each of the planet's three moons тАУ in order of size: Hecate, Eris and Bellona тАУ and three more
guarding the rift point. These six were of varying types but, while having some defense capability, were
designed generally for the support of the "tooth" elements of the fleet. This was longstanding practice, not
a reaction to the FSC's threat. Indeed, insofar as Earth itself was concerned, there had been no reaction
to the threats. Earth no longer understood threats, it had been so long.
In orbit above Terra Nova , 19 April, 2511
The blue-green planet turned slowly and majestically below, its day-side pastels interrupted only by
concentrations of white clouds. The right quarter of the planet was plunged in night. Cities came into view
as bright sparks and thick lines, especially along the planet's southern hemisphere.
Watching the scene on the wall-mounted view screen that hung in his sleeping cabin, High Admiral
Robsinson shook his head in something between dismay and disgust. So many people, twelve times or
more what we have on Old Earth. And so uncivilized. Before left home I was briefed that they
were a potential threat, but only when you see the size of their cities, so much brighter than our
own now, do you realize just how many of the barbarians there are, just how much potential for
violence they have.
The picture on the sleeping cabin view screen was better than the one is his main cabin. For all that,
it was still flawed. Multi-colored lines flickered across it from right to left. Sometimes they were wide,