"Michael McCollum - Gibraltar earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

GIBRALTAR EARTH
By
Michael McCollum


Sci Fi - Arizona, Inc.

Third Millennium Publishing

An Online Cooperative of Writers and Resources


PROLOGUE


тАЬIt is said of the British Empire's acquisition of the Indian subcontinent that they did
not so much conquer India as win the prize in a fit of absentmindedness. Although
exaggeration, there is a modicum of reality in the statement. For the truth is that the
greatest jewel in Victoria's crown was won in large part through a streak of luck - bad luck
for the indigenous peoples and good luck for the inhabitants of what otherwise might have
been just another sleepy island nation.
тАЬNor can we modern humans make any great claims for our own recent acquisitions. Oh, we
speak loudly of our own prowess, and celebrate the memories of the brave men and women who
sacrificed their lives to our cause. Still, we should not lose sight of the undeniable fact that we
were lucky, perhaps far luckier than we deserved. I therefore ask you, my fellow citizens of Sol, to
join me in an exercise in humility. Consider for a moment all the things that might have gone
wrong--тАЭ



From a Victory Speech by the

Right Honorable Jonathan Ambrose

To the World Parliament

12 October 2356


CHAPTER 1


Captain Dan Landon of the Survey ShipMagellan sat strapped in his desk and gazed at the large
holoscreen that dominated the far bulkhead. It was filled by a blue-white planet bordered by a patch of
ebon sky. Stretched out before him to the curving planetary limb was a panorama of fleecy-white clouds
and seas of royal blue. To the right lay a sprinkling of green islands; each surrounded by aquamarine
shoals. At the top of the screen, just coming into view, was the jagged coastline of one of the major
continents. Soon they would be sweeping over amber plains blackened by herds of six-legged beasts,
mountain ranges capped by snowfields, forests of deep green, and a river network that was equal to the
Nile, the Amazon, and the Mississippi combined.