"The Collapsium" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mccarthy Wil)

at which point it seemed to turn down sharply, and finally vanish beneath the
platform. But for all its enormous girth, the ring was only about six meters
thick. Its cross-section appeared to be circularЧan observation that Marlon
confirmed when asked.
So what were these other lights, these bright flarepoints of yellow-white,
spaced along the lattice every half kilometer or so?
"Curved sheets of superreflector," Marlon said, with something like rue in his
tone. "Placed near the ring's outer edge, they reflect Hawking radiation back in
the direction of the sun. Since the radiation already headed for the sun isn't
reflected, there's a net downward flow of mass-energy, pushing the collapsiter
upward. Like a very weak rocket engine, using collapson evaporation as the
energy source."
"Ah!" Bruno said, impressed. "What holds the superreflectors in place?"
Marlon pursed his lips, shook his head. Now he did look rueful. "Nothing, my
friend. Nothing at all. They're perfect sails, and between light pressure, solar
wind, and Hawking radiation, they start accelerating right away. Within an hour
they're pushed too far to do any good, and within a few days they've exceeded
solar escape velocity. Bye-bye, superreflector. We could hold them down with
electromagnetic grapples, but of course that simply reverses the problem of
holding the collapsium lattice up."
"So it's useless, then," Bruno said cautiously.
Sykes gave an emphatic nod. "Quite useless, yes. I told Her Majesty as muchЧ"
Here he raised his voice and looked glumly at Tamra. "Чbut she's in a mood to
tryЕ almost anything." And here his gaze was directed at Bruno: another idea
born of royal desperation.
"Not your idea, then," Bruno said, ignoring what must certainly have been a
deliberate jibe.
"No. Some functionary's."
They were silent for a while, Marlon looking at Tamra, Tamra looking at Bruno,
Bruno looking at the collapsium arch, the two golden robots looking studiously
at nothing.
"Tell me your idea," Bruno said to Marlon after a while.
The clearing of Marlon's throat held an indication of surpriseЧthe question was
unexpected. Bruno turned in time to see the smaller man blush. "My idea. The,
uh, grapples are my idea. Build them faster, you know. Find ways to crank them
to higher frequencies, for greater pull. We have to pull the ring up, away from
the sun. That's really the sole nature of the problem, dress it up however you
may. We've got to apply force to the collapsium, and the grapples are our only
means of doing so without tearing the lattice out of whack and creating
ourselves an even bigger problem."
"Hmm," Bruno said, nodding absently, pinching his chin between thumb and
forefinger.
A flicker of resentment crossed Marlon's features. "You disagree?"
"Hmm?" Bruno looked up, met Marlon's gaze. "Disagree? No, of course not. You've
got the right of it, clearly."
Her Majesty cleared her throat at that, her eyes flashing angrily. "Nobody's
giving up, Declarants. It's time to broaden your thinking, and keep broadening
it until a solution emerges. That, or all your brilliance is for naught. There
is a solution; I'm sure of that."
Marlon smoldered visibly at the rebuke, and it was several seconds before Bruno,