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

A New Order of Things: Part I of IV by Edward M. Lerner
The InterstellarNet gave some preparation for real First Contact--but that did not mean it would be
simple or easy!
****


Illustrated by John Allemand
****
"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its
success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."

--Niccol├Г┬▓ Machiavelli
PROLOGUE

Good fences, said the poet, make good neighbors ... and interstellar distances made very good fences.

For a century and a half, Earth and a growing number of its interstellar neighbors had been in radio
contact. A vigorous commerce in intellectual property had resulted, accelerating and converging the
technical progress of all the species involved. The crowning achievement of InterstellarNet was the
development of, and cross-species agreement upon, artificially intelligent surrogates as local
representatives for distant societies.

Quarantine procedures strictly governed the delivery and operational environment of each alien agent,
protecting agents and their host networks from subversion by the other. Some thought of this trade
mechanism as a fence within a fence. Only once, more than half a century earlier, had an inner fence been
breached. A trapdoor hidden within imported biocomputers, technology that had been licensed by Earth
from the intelligent species of Barnard's Star, was exploited by their trade agent. The attempt at extortion
had been foiled, the unsuspected vulnerability of adopted technology expunged, and the AI returned to its
containment.

Good fences make good neighbors, and interstellar distances made very good fences.

Made very good fences....
****
The ship hurtled through the darkness, a tiny bubble of purpose within an uncaring void. Its interior could
be called warm only by comparison to the near absolute zero that surrounded it, of benefit to the proper
functioning of shipboard mechanisms but far too cold to sustain any known form of life.

Relative to the binary star toward which the ship aimed, it had a velocity just above one-tenth light speed.
Mostly it coasted; only occasional mid-course corrections, and even rarer blasts from its anti-space-junk
lasers, revealed the presence of intelligence guiding the traveler.

That shipboard intelligence was artificial, and its mission was nearly complete. Responsive to the final
directives it had been given many years earlier, it now transmitted by tight radio beam to the looming
solar system.

"This is lifeboat three of Harmony. The crew-kindred are dead. Repeat: The crew-kindred are dead.

"My data are fragmented and inconsistent. Downloads from Harmony appear to indicate that systems
became erratic and unstable. Records are unreliable.