"Edward M. Lerner - IV of Iv - A New Order of Things" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lerner Edward M)

A NEW ORDER OF THINGS: CONCLUSION by Edward M. Lerner


Major catastrophes leave indelible marks on those they touch, but the form of
those marks ... depends.

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[Insert Pic AFF0906Story10.jpg Here]
Illustrated by John Allemand
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Synopsis

For a century and a half, a growing interstellar community has maintained radio
contact. A vigorous commerce in intellectual property has accelerated the technical
progress of all its members. Travel between the stars seems impossible, but
InterstellarNet thrives using an elegant alternative: artificially intelligent
surrogates who act as local representatives for distant societies. Quarantine
procedures strictly govern the delivery and operational environment of each alien
agent, protecting agents and their host networks from subversion by the other.

A radio message shatters this comfortable status quo. The signal comes from
a habitat-sized decelerating interstellar vessel, its unannounced trip from
BarnardтАЩs Star now ninety-nine percent complete. Citing damage en route and
low supplies, the starship Victorious goes to Jupiter rather than Earth. The
starshipтАЩs crew are whippet-thin, iridescent-scaled, bipedal carnivores who call
themselves Hunters. Humans refer to them as KтАЩvithians, after their home world of
KтАЩvith, or, informally, as Snakes (because BarnardтАЩs Star lies in the constellation
Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder).

Not only humans are surprised by VictoriousтАЩ short-notice arrival. Pashwah
, the AI trade agent on Earth for the Hunters, is also taken unawares. So are her
internal sub-agents, the representatives of the Great Clans. Pashwah rejects
unauthenticated demands from the starship for Great Clan InterstellarNet credits
with which to buy supplies, but does transmit to Victorious a translator and
human-affairs advisor: a partial copy of herself named Pashwah-qith .

Ambassador Hong-yee Chung heads the United Planets response team,
assembled on Callisto. His technical support team includes theoretical physicist
Eva Gutierrez , xeno-sociologist Keizo Matsunaga , and Interstellar Commerce
Union executive and systems engineer (and long-time claustrophobe) Arthur
Walsh .

Most humans have forgotten, or at least forgiven, a half-century-earlier
inter-species crisis. Art is not among them. The тАЬSnake SubterfugeтАЭ involved a
trapdoor hidden in licensed Snake biocomputer technology, potentially
compromising most human infrastructure. That crisis ended when Pashwah was
convinced that one corporationтАЩs extortion plans must not destroy overall
inter-species relations. The biocomputer vulnerability has long been removed.