"Larry Niven - Rainbow Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

The World Globe was new: Waldemar the Tenth's last construction project. The whole Earth was
projected onto the interior of a globe, updated every few minutes with data from myriads of
weather satellites. A walk with no railings led through the Globe. It was large enough that Svetz
couldn't tell its size.
Miya Thorsven and Willy Gorky walked ahead of them. Miya glanced back. "Point out something
interesting," Ra Chen said, "or else get moving."
"It's like looking at the Earth from inside, isn't it? Boss, have you spent a lot of time in the
garden and the Globe? / never took enough advantage of the perks. This could be our last chance."
"It could, couldn't it?"
Miya dropped back and engaged Svetz in conversation. Ra Chen took it as a hint and caught up with


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Gorky. Oddly lit by the white glare of ice caps above and below, and a whorl of hurricane over the
Pacific, the Heads of Space and Time walked ahead of
their aides. They talked like old friends who hadn't mot in some time: cordial and a little
cautious.
Svetz heard a little of that. Gorky speaking: "I've always been sure that the Earth will need to
be terraformed. More nuclear power, or orbiting solar power arrays-"
'Too late, Willy. Those forms of power don't leave residues, not even oxides of nitrogen and
carbon. You stop putting that stuff in the atmosphere, people will stop breathing!"
"Do it earlier? Time machine ..."
The World Globe was big. Svetz looked down at Antarctica and wondered how far he would fall. The
height didn't bother Miya. He suppressed a sigh when he and Miya reached the far end.
The Zoo-Vivarium-had been a favorite place to Waldemar the Tenth, forty-first Secretary-General to
the United Nations. Of course it was supervised. Bureau of History cameras were hidden everywhere.
But any spy or media camera found here would carry a death penalty.
The Heads would have privacy from all but their own people.
Gorky noticed nothing but the dominance game he was playing with Ra Chen. Miya's eyes danced left,
right, further, back. Owl. Horse. Snake watched Svetz pass. Svetz bowed. Snake nodded its regal,
brilliantly feathered head.
Here a cage was torn open as if some monstrous bird had hatched from it. Two down was another, its
shredded roof bowed inward. Ostrich. Elephant.
Horse's head came up when Miya walked past. It glared at Svetz along its fearsome spiral horn, and
Svetz stepped away from Miya Thorsven without quite knowing why.
Gorky asked, "Have you done anything about replacing Elephant?"
He knew what the torn cages meant!
Ra Chen answered, "We had a pickup mission planned. Sir, what's our budget like?"
"Call me Willy."
"In public too?" asked Ra Chen.
"Please. Now, I can keep us going for a year, Bureau of the
Sky Domains and anything connected with Space. You can have anything you can convince me you need.
Saving money won't help us. Keeping the time machine in repair, that would be normal maintenance.
Another elephant, another ostrich ... well, why?"
"Elephant can wait," Ra Chen agreed, and Svetz smiled. He had not looked forward to trying to get
another elephant into the big X-cage.
"My thought is, extinct life-forms can wait! They aren't going anywhere," Gorky said. "On a
legitimate mission, sure, bring home anything you like. We decide what's a legitimate mission."