"Mike Resnick - Birthright" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

тАЬDo you begin to understand the significance of the Department of Cartography?тАЭ asked Landon.

тАЬI think so,тАЭ replied Nelson.

тАЬWe are, in a very real sense, the expansionist movement of the Republic. With our facilities here at
Caliban, we and we alone are in possession of enough data to know which planets are of value, which
are not, which may cause problems of an environmental or military nature, which aliens may behave in
which ways. We carry the analysis of history one step further; we also see and study the ebb and flow of
the future. We can, in much the same way I showed you our current position, literally fight wars on the
map, safely predicting almost every logical outcome of every conceivable confrontation. We are not an
arm of the Navy; the Navy is a physical extension of Cartography.тАЭ

тАЬIf you can accurately predict every military outcome, why don't we embark on a full-scale war of
conquest?тАЭ asked Nelson. тАЬWe don't know what a totally alien intelligence will do, or even what it's
capable of. Don't forget: Of the thousand or so species we've already made physical contact with, we've
been completely unable to communicate with ninety percent of them. They'rethat different. And since the
big map was the product of human intelligence and endeavor, it projects outcomes based on strictly
human logic and experience. We simply have no other type of philosophical system to program into it.тАЭ

тАЬI see,тАЭ nodded Nelson. тАЬFor a while there, I was beginning to think the map had absolutely no
limitations. It's still the most impressive piece of equipment I've ever seen or heard of ... and I am now
willing to admit that you probably aren't talking through your hat when you claim to be the most powerful
man in history. I imagine no planet is explored or taken without your approval?тАЭ

тАЬRight,тАЭ said Landon.

тАЬVery impressive,тАЭ said Nelson. тАЬI see where there have been half a dozen assassination attempts on the
Secretary in the last year or two. Too bad they didn't know where the real power lay.тАЭ тАЬWouldn't do тАШem
any good,тАЭ grunted Landon. тАЬMost of our defenses aren't too obvious, but no place in the universe is
better able to protect itself. Don't forget: No ship can get within a half a hundred light-years without our
having it on the map and knowing every single thing there is to know about it. I won't say we're
impregnable, but no one is ever going to sneak in here and assassinate anyone.тАЭ

тАЬHowdo you get all your information?тАЭ asked Nelson.

тАЬThe map building itself is just a tiny part of the Cartographic complex,тАЭ said Landon. тАЬWe employ more
than four hundred thousand people whose sole duty is to collect and correlate information that pours in
from all across the galaxy every day. Beneath the surface, we have a computer complex that positively
dwarfs the map building. Someone once told me that there are more than eight hundred million miles of
circuitry involved, though I don't know who'd bother to count it all. Results are the only things that matter,
and we get them.

тАЬThe data is relayed to the map control room, also beneath the surface and adjacent to this building,
which measures some two cubic miles. The information goes directly into the memory banks, and can be
instantaneously translated into cartographic terms.

тАЬWhen I spoke to the Control Booth a while back, the man at the other end merely punched some
standard buttons that had been programmed into the Cartographic computer complex. What you saw
seemed solid and three-dimensional, but was actually a hologram simulated by a few hundred thousand
modified lasers. Anyway, the facets I showed you are static, or at least as static as the galaxy ever gets.