"Timothy Zahn - Spinneret" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

Though Beaeki never actually said so, Meredith got the distinct impression the
Rooshrike were relieved that the beings from Earth were taking their former place
at the bottom of the pecking order.

"Nice that at least no one's all that much more advanced technologically than all
the others," Meredith noted at one point. "Still seems sort of odd, though,
considering all the time that's been available for life to develop in."

"An accident of nature," Beaeki said, gazing out the side window as he drove.

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Zahn, Timothy - Spinneret


"Approximately one hundred forty million years ago a supernova saturated this
part of space with enhanced cosmic radiation, resulting in rapid mutation of
disease organisms, destruction of high-atmosphere protective regions, and direct
large-creature destruction via tissue damage. Those peoples capable of survival
lost nearly all technology; the few who survived are more primitive now than even
your people."

"I would have thought some of their knowledge would have survived with them."

"But the material base did not. Too much of their metal was already in forms too
difficult for a primitive technology to extract."

Meredith swallowed. Metal again; metal, and lack of same. Just what his low-
flying morale needed to hear about.

"Other more advanced races are reputed to exist," Beaeki continued. "But they are
far away and few have seen them. They show as little interest in us as we do in the
non-space-going peoples within this region."

"Um." Probably, Meredith thought, just as well.

He probed for information about the other nearby races, too, but here he had
somewhat less success. Whether Beaeki simply wasn't interested in talking about
their trading partners or whether the Rooshrike had learned the folly of giving
away useful information for free Meredith didn't know. Still, he managed to get
the races' names and general locations and, in a couple of instances, a brief
physical description. Of those, the most interesting was that of the Poms, sea-
going creatures that sounded something like dolphins equipped with manipulative
tentacles. Meredith had often heard that a mechanical culture was impossible
without fire, but Beaeki wouldn't say what the Poms had discovered as a
substitute.

"That's something else that seems odd about this whole setup," Meredith
commented. The tour over, Beaeki had brought his vehicle back to the ship and set
it down expertly beneath its davits. "You said the edge of the Poms' territory is
only a couple of light-years away. Since you're only interested in hot, Mercury-