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

A New Order of Things: Part II of IV by Edward M. Lerner
Civilization and its handmaiden, Technology, depend on trust--but that contains its own pitfalls.
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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 Barnard's Star now ninety-nine percent
complete. Citing damage en route and a shortage of supplies, the starship Victorious goes to
Jupiter rather than Earth. The starship's crew are whippet-thin, iridescent-scaled, bipedal
carnivores who call themselves Hunters. Humans refer to them as K'vithians, after their home
world of K'vith, or, informally, as Snakes (because Barnard's Star lies in the constellation
Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder).

Not only humans are surprised by Victorious' 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 the starship's unauthenticated demands for Great Clan
InterstellarNet credits with which to buy supplies, but she does transmit to Victorious a translator
and human-affairs advisor: a partial copy of herself named Pashwah-qith.

Pashwah-qith advises Firh Mashkith , Foremost of both Victorious and clan Arblen Ems, and
Rashk Lothwer, Mashkith's tactical officer, how best to manipulate the human media.

Seemingly chance radar pulses from deep space trick free-lance media star Corinne Elman into
breaking the news of the starship's imminent arrival. The pilot of her spaceship is Helmut Schiller
. Helmut is hiding from a shadowed past: As Willem Vanderkellen , he had made a major
mineral find in the Belt, only to fall afoul of a claim-jumping criminal syndicate.

Ambassador Hong-yee Chung assembles the United Planets response team, based on Callisto.
His technical support team includes Interstellar Commerce Union executive and systems engineer
Arthur Walsh , theoretical physicist Eva Gutierrez , and xeno-sociologist Keizo Matsunaga . The
K'vithian explanation for picking Jupiter as their destination rings false to Art and Eva, who at
different times worked at the UP laboratory on the Jovian moon Himalia. That is where the UP
does its interstellar-drive research, and where it produces and stores antimatter in hopes this
research will eventually bear fruit. The antimatter stockpile is vastly dangerous; its existence
supposedly a tightly held secret.