"Charles Stross - Missile Gap" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

anything other than a tiny oasis in a world of strangeness.тАЭ
The astronomer pauses to pour himself a glass of water, then glances round the table. тАЬTo put it in
perspective, gentlemen, this world is so big that, if one in every hundred stars had an earth-like planet, this
single structure could support the population of our entire home galaxy. As for the massтАУthis structure is as
massive as fifty thousand suns. It is, quite bluntly, impossible: as-yet unknown physical forces must be at
work to keep it from rapidly collapsing in on itself and creating a black hole. The repulsive force, whatever it
is, is strong enough to hold the weight of fifty thousand suns: think about that for a moment, gentlemen.тАЭ
At that point Sagan looks around and notices the blank stares. He chuckles ruefully.
тАЬWhat I mean to say is, this structure is not permitted by the laws of physics as we understand them.
Because it clearly does exist, we can draw some conclusions, starting with the fact that our understanding of
physics is incomplete. Well, that isnтАЩt news: we know we donтАЩt have a unified theory of everything. Einstein
spent thirty years looking for one, and didnтАЩt come up with it.
But, secondly.тАЭ He looks tired for a moment, aged beyond his years. тАЬWe used to think that any
extraterrestrial beings we might communicate with would be fundamentally comprehensible: folks like us,
albeit with better technology. I think thatтАЩs the frame of mind youтАЩre still working in. Back in sixty-one we had
a brainstorming session at a conference, trying to work out just how big an engineering project a spacefaring
civilization might come up with. Freeman Dyson, from Princeton, came up with about the biggest thing any of
us could imagine: something that required us to imagine dismantling Jupiter and turning it into habitable real
estate.
тАЬThis disk is about a hundred million times bigger than DysonтАЩs sphere. And thatтАЩs before we take into
account the time factor.тАЭ
тАЬTime?тАЭ Echoes Fox from Langley, sounding confused.
тАЬTime.тАЭ Sagan smiles in a vaguely disconnected way. тАЬWeтАЩre nowhere near our original galactic neighborhood
and whoever moved us here, they didnтАЩt bend the laws of physics far enough to violate the speed limit. It
takes light about 160,000 years to cross the distance between where we used to live, and our new stellar
neighborhood, the Lesser Magellanic Cloud. Which we have fixed, incidentally, by measuring the distance to
known Cepheid variables, once we were able to take into account the measurable red shift of infalling light
and the fact that some of them were changing frequency slowly and seem to have changed rather a lot. Our
best estimate is eight hundred thousand years, plus or minus two hundred thousand. ThatтАЩs about four times
as long as our species has existed, gentlemen. WeтАЩre fossils, an archaeology experiment or something. Our
relevance to our abductors is not as equals, but as subjects in some kind of vast experiment. And what the
purpose of the experiment is, I canтАЩt tell you. IтАЩve got some guesses, butтАжтАЭ
Sagan shrugs, then lapses into silence. Gregor catches BrundleтАЩs eye and Brundle shakes his head, very
slightly. DonтАЩt spill the beans. Gregor nods. Sagan may realize heтАЩs in a room with a CIA spook and an East
German defector, but he doesnтАЩt need to know about the Alienation Service yet.
тАЬWell thatтАЩs as may be,тАЭ says Fox, dropping words like stones into the hollow silence at the table. тАЬBut it
begs the question, what are we going to tell the DCI?тАЭ
тАЬI suggest,тАЭ says Gregor, тАЬthat we start by reviewing COLLECTION RUBY.тАЭ He nods at Sagan. тАЬThen, maybe
when weтАЩre all up to speed on that, weтАЩll have a better idea of whether thereтАЩs anything useful we can tell the
DCI.




Chapter Five: Cannon-Fodder
Madeleine and Robert Holbright are among the last of the immigrants to disembark on the new world. As she
glances back at the brilliant white side of the liner, the horizon seems to roll around her head, settling into a
strange new stasis that feels unnatural after almost six months at sea.
New Iowa isnтАЩt flat and it isnтАЩt new: rampart cliffs loom to either side of the unnaturally deep harbor (gouged
out of bedrock courtesy of General Atomics). A cog-driven funicular railway hauls Maddy and Robert and their