"Continuing Time - 98 - Lord November" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moran Daniel Keys)

surface.
WEТVE BEEN NOTICED, the Bastard announced.
Bodhi did not stir; the image from the scope still trained upon the unguarded
Third Gate came alive in his awareness. Five craft, of a design unfamiliar to
Bodhi, boosted from the Third Gate, chasing the Shivering Bastard. The Third
Gate was six light minutes distant from the First, off to one side of the
Shivering BastardТs inbound vector. Bodhi ran the numbers quickly: Еthe
Shivering BastardТs light, leaving the First Gate, arrives at the Third Gate six
minutes later. Automated equipment at the Third Gate establishes a vector and
launches intercept craftЕseven minutes later the image of their launch reaches
usЕ
It took the Bastard a moment to calculate vectorsЧTHEYТLL HAVE A HARD TIME
CATCHING US, said the Bastard. A STERN CHASE IS A LONG CHASE. BUT WE THINK THEY
KNOW THAT. WE THINK THEYТRE TRYING TO MAKE SURE WE DONТT REACH ONE OF THE GATES.
The Bastard paused, analyzing. WE THINK WEТLL MAKE THE SIXTH GATE, BEYOND UGLY.
IF CIRCUMSTANCES ALLOW, WEТLL DECELERATE BEFORE MAKING OUR PASS AT THE GATE. IF
WE MISS THE GATE WEТRE FUCKED. WEТLL HEAD OUT INTO INTERSTELLAR SPACE, AND
THEYТLL SEND MISSILES AFTER US, AND ONE OF THEM WILL GET US. The Bastard paused.
OKAY. WE HAVE A VECTOR FOR THEM. THEYТRE BOOSTING AT 232 GRAVITIES. THEORETICAL
MAX FOR GRAVITY COMPENSATION, FOR SHIPS OF THEIR ESTIMATED MASS, IS 216 GEES. IF
THEIR GRAVITY COMPENSATION IS PERFECTLY IMPLEMENTED, THEYТRE BOOSTING UNDER
SIXTEEN GEES. ASSUMING THEIR COMPENSATION IS IMPERFECT, BUT BETTER THAN
OURSЧLIKELYЧTHEIR COMPENSATION IS PERHAPS 195 TO 200 GEES, WHICH MEANS THEYТRE
BOOSTING AT THIRTY-TWO TO THIRTY-SEVEN GRAVITIES.
The conclusion was obvious; nothing biological could have survived such
acceleration. THOSE SHIPS ARE BEING PILOTED BY A MACHINE INTELLIGENCE.
THE REACTION TIME ALONE MADE THAT CLEAR; THEY BOOSTED AFTER US WITHIN TWELVE
SECONDS OF CATCHING OUR LIGHT. THE INTERESTING THING IS THAT THEIR HARDWARE IS
CONSIDERABLY BETTER THAN OURS, said the Bastard pointedly. AT THIRTY-TWO GEES
SUSTAINED ACCELERATION, SEVERAL OF THE SHIVERING BASTARDСS SYSTEMS WOULD SUFFER
NOTICEABLE DEGRADATION.
IF YOU CAN TELL ME WHERE TO BUY HARDWARE LIKE THEIRS, said Bodhi mildly, IТLL
GET IT FOR YOU.
Suggestion of a smile; she went so far as to tell a joke, an old one. WEТLL KEEP
OUR EYE OPEN.
The Eye That Never Sleeps is the symbol of the Pinkerton Security Agency, the
source of the ancient phrase Уprivate eye.Ф
The Eye itself was displayed on the Shivering BastardТs hull.
Neither of them mentioned Ugly even once.

Subjectively, it took the Shivering Bastard twenty-two minutes to cross the
System. In the outer world, ten hours passed. Bodhi kept a telescope on the
alien craft that followed him, but aside from that paid them no attention; their
tech might be better than his, but physical law is the same for everyone, and
unless he missed the Sixth Gate on his first approach, they had no chance of
catching him.
He scanned the records for Imhota instead. It was the System that DevnetТs Sixth
Gate led to; the Sixth Gate opened on a long tunnel that ran 812 light years, at
nearly right angles to the galactic plane. The tunnel itself was a twenty-two
day transit. Imhota looked like nothing spectacular; a small human colony,