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

zero-gee polo fanatic Milos--had put in weeks of hard labor. Navigational markers planted. Exploratory
shafts sunk. Ore samples collected for assay, for the UP Bureau of Asteroid Management to confirm
what the four of them already knew: rich veins of platinum and palladium. Radio beacon planted and on
standby, ready for remote activation as soon as the claim was registered. While he readied the Lucky
Strike for departure, Kwasi and Milos even consulted over the preamble of a summary message
pre-filing with the BAM.

It was never sent.

Helmut had had plenty of time to brood since that day, plenty of time to fret and analyze and theorize.
The dust and vapors from their operations were surely detectable at a distance, surely capable of
providing incontrovertible spectrographic evidence. If they had been followed, a stealthed ship lurking
nearby could easily see this was a claim worth jumping.

The Non-Virgin was still half full. He drained it in one long swallow.

The claim had been worth killing for.
****
Actium had excellent long-range optical and radar scanners, none of them suited to the remote detection
of matter/antimatter annihilation events. It had been a tight squeeze into the forward equipment pod,
flashlight in hand, to recheck the jury-rigged splicing-in of new sensors. Wriggling out unaided seemed
impossible--and Art's barely suppressed anxiety surged. He willed his voice to be low and calm. "All the
connections look good. Very professional. Can someone grab my feet?"

Massive hands seized Art's ankles and yanked. He emerged from the access tunnel sneezing from
dislodged dust and streaked with grease. "Thanks, Carlos. For the extraction and for expediting our little
outing."

"Mi armada es su armada. It helps you're now Chung's favorite."

"And did you find anything?" The sensor array was Eva's baby.

"Only that everything's per spec."

Eva had also been busy. Holographic blackness now obscured half the cabin. Four tiny yellow spheres
defined a tetrahedron in the simulated space. Inside each sphere was the icon representing a UP ship, the
icon representing Actium shining slightly brighter than the rest. A crimson dot at the heart of the pyramid
marked the floating experimental module. To one side, in green, hung a K'vithian aux vessel. They were
well off the ecliptic, far from traffic, and millions of klicks from any Jovian moon. Politics and prudence
dictated that this experiment be performed privately.

"Are all ships set?" Art asked her.

"Yes, subject to fine-tuning. Sensors on-line, all ships. Display." At Eva's command, a virtual console
materialized in a corner of the void, with readouts for each ship in the formation. She peered into the
holo. "Hmm. Endeavor and Blaine aren't exactly where I'd like them."

Keffah remained loath to use technology shunned at home, and the Foremost supported her. Instead,
they asked to meet with UP experts on Himalia, to learn proven techniques for putting an antimatter BEC
into containment, storing it indefinitely, transferring it between containers, and trickling it out. To inspect