"Anderson, Poul - Man-Kzin Wars - Inconstant Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Poul)

centrifugal acceleration of

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 8 Poul Anderson

one g at the circumference. With its axial orientation, the velocity
changes for spacecraft to dock were minimal, and magnetic anchors easily
held them fast until they were ready to depart. The excavation of rooms
and passages in the yielding material went rapidly. Thereafter, spaces
just under the surface provided Earth-weight for such activities as
required it, including the bringing of babies to term; farther inward were
the levels of successively lower weight, where Belters felt comfortable
and where other undertakings were possible.
Everywhere around orbited members of the Swarm, their mineral wealth held
in negligible gravity wells. Tiamat boomed. It became an industrial
center, devoted especially to the production of things associated with
spacefaring.
When the kzinti invaded, they were quick to realize its importance. Their
introduction of the gravity polarizer changed many of the manufacturing
programs, but scarcely affected Tiamat itself; one seldom had any reason
to adjust the field in a given section, since one could have whatever
weight was desired simply by going to the appropriate level.
Out of the years that followed have come countless stories of heroism,
cowardice, resistance, collaboration, sabotage, salvage, ingenuity,
intrigue, atrocity, mercy. Some are true. Certainly, when the human
hyperdrive armada entered the Centaurian System, Tiamat might well have
been destroyed, had not the Belter freedom fighters taken it over from
within.
So ended its heroic age. The rest is anticlimax. More and more, new
technologies and new horizons are making it a relic.
However, it is still populous and interesting. Not least of its
attractions, though a mixed blessing, are the kzinti. Of those who stayed
behind at this sun, or actually sought there, after the war---disgraced
combatants, individuals who had formed ties too strong to break, Kdaptist
refugees, eccentrics, and others
 INCONSTANT STAR 9

less understandable-a goodly proportion have their colony within Tiamat.
Tigertown is well worth visiting, in a properly briefed tour group with an
experienced guide.
Tiamat also contains the headquarters of the Interworld Space Commission,
which likewise is not as much in the awareness of the general public as it
ought to be. Now that the hyperdrive has abruptly opened a way to far more
undertakings than there are ships and personnel to carry out, rivalry for
those resources often gets bitter. It can become political, planet versus
planet at a time when faster-than-light travel has made peace between them
as necessary as peace between nations on Earth had become when humankind
was starting its outward venture. Until we have created enough capability
to satisfy everyone, we must allocate. Alpha Centauri-Wunderland, parts of
the Serpent Swarm-alone among human dwelling places, suffered kzin