"William C. Dietz - By Force of Arms" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dietz William)

Evidence had been found suggesting that the AI's quarry
had traveled into that particular sector of space—and it
wanted confirmation. If the soft bodies knew anything
about the Thraki, they would tell the one called Jepp, and
he would tejl the Hoon. Or would he? Based on data
gleaned from the biped's navigational entity, this was the
biological's planet of origin. Perhaps he would run. No
great loss, the Hoon concluded, none at all.

Jepp boarded the Sheen shuttle, followed by his robots,
each one of which progressed by its own means of pro-
pulsion, which meant that Alpha walked. Henry rolled, and
Sam scampered about. The human had been given grudg-
ing use of smaller ships in the past, but this felt different,
as if the Hoon actually wanted him to go. Form has a
tendency to follow function—so the control room looked
like what it was. The presence of two pedestal-style chairs
confirmed the fact that the ship's architects, whoever they
might be, liked to sit down once in awhile.

There was a view screen, a stripped-down control panel,
and a joystick. Did that mean the creators had a preference
for simplicity? Or that the controls were regarded as little
more than an emergency backup? Jepp favored the second
theory but had no way to know if he was correct.


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BY FORCE OF ARMS 15

The ex-prospector sat down, wished the chair was more
comfortable, and felt the ship lift off. It hovered for a mo-
ment, scooted out through the enormous hatch, and fell
into orbit. The sight of Long Jump brought a lump to his
throat. It looked like a chocolate ball dusted with powdered
sugar. There were people down there, lots of them, and he
hungered for the sound of their voices- Could the ship
patch him through? There was only one way to find out.
"Contact the surface," Jepp ordered, "and tell them I wish
to speak with Neptune Small."

Three minutes passed while the robots communicated
with the ship and the ship communicated with someone on
Long Jump's surface.

Then, much to the human's amazement. Alpha touched
a section of the control panel, waited for a small cover to