"Maxine McArthur - Time Future" - читать интересную книгу автора (McArthur Maxine)

requisition details for the shuttle, sir."

"Then I fail to see why I was encouraged to attend this meeting." He
probably didn't mean to sound quite so petulant.

"We thought you might be interested, seeing that the plan involves the
entire station." Garnet's normally placid face was taut. "Like
everyone else."

"Perhaps I am not like everyone else."

"You can say that again," the Earth Fleet ensign commented under his
breath.

"It was only twenty minutes. Surely you can spare that," said Eleanor
Jago. "We're all busy."

"Twenty-two minutes." Veatch couldn't resist the pedantic correction.
It was one of the reasons the Melot were such brilliant bureaucrats.

Murdoch nudged me again and I stood up.

"Engineering will contact each department if they require any
assistance," I said. "If you have any suggestions or other input, I'm
sure they'd be delighted to receive it"

Jocasta is Earth's first out space station, established five years ago
in 2116. Three rings like a corrugated discus spin around a central
core, where the modified alien engines nudge us back into correct orbit
every twenty-two
days and provide backup for essential systems in case the solar
reflectors fail in an emergency. Such as a blockade.

The station had only been in Confederacy hands for two standard years
when it was handed over to Earth. It had been under construction when
the Tor abandoned the system after losing their decades-long war with
the Invidi and the Confederacy. Abelar was a former Tor colony system,
but after the Tor withdrew, the Confederacy of Allied Worlds, of which
Earth is a minor member, was busy with economic problems in the inner
sectors. The Confederacy was slow to begin taking an active part in
the administration and protection of this obscure system on the edge of
a barren outer sector. Con Fleet patrolled only occasionally.
Opportunists moved in quickly and by the time the Confederacy finally
asserted its rights over the system, the area had become a haunt of
pirates and unaligned, unregistered traders.

Then someone had the bright idea of finishing the space station that
the Tor had begun. Not only was this cheaper in the long term than
maintaining a mobile force in the area, but it was also less of a
threat to the balance of power here. That balance consisted of a