"David Brin - Uplift Saga 00 - Aficianado" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brin David)

Aficionado
a short story by David Brin

Originally published as "Life in the Extreme" by Popular Science Magazine
Special Edition, 8/98.



Cameras stare across a forbidden desert, monitoring disputed territory in a
conflict that is so bitter the opponents cannot even agree what to name it.

One side calls the struggle a war, with countless innocent lives in jeopardy.

The other side claims there are no victims.

And so, suspicious cameras peer and pan, alert for encroachment. Vigilant
camouflaged monitors scan from atop hills or under innocuous piles of stones.
They hang beneath highway culverts, probing constantly for a hated enemy. For
some time -- months, at least -- these guardians have succeeded in staving off
incursions across the sandy desolation.

That is, until technology changes yet again, shifting the advantage briefly
from defense to offense.

When the enemy struck this time, their first move was to take out those
guardian eyes.

Infiltrators arrived at dawn, under the glare of the rising sun. Several
hundred little flying machines jetted through the air, skimming very low to
the ground on gusts from whispering motors. Each device, no larger than a
hummingbird, followed a carefully-scouted path toward its selected target,
some stationary camera or sensor. The attackers even looked like native desert
birds, in case they were spotted during those crucial last seconds.

Each little drone landed behind the target, in its blind spot, and unfolded
wings that transformed into a high resolution graphics displays, depicting
perfect false images of the same desert scene. Each robot inserted its
illusion in front of the guardian lens -- carefully, so as not to create a
suspicious flicker. Other small spy-machines sniffed out camouflaged seismic
sensors and embraced them gently, providing new cushioning that would mask the
tremors to come.

The robotic attack, covering an area of more than a hundred square kilometers,
took only eight minutes to complete. The desert now lay unwatched, undefended.

From over the horizon, giant vehicles started moving in. They converged along
several roadways toward the same open area -- seventeen quiet, hybrid-electric
rigs... tractor trailers disguised as commercial cargo transports, complete
with company holo-logos blazoned on their sides. But when their paths
intersected at the chosen rendezvous, a more cryptic purpose revealed itself.