"Foster, Alan Dean - Humanx 5 - Sentenced To Prism" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

monitored. It's not easy keeping the discovery of an entire world hidden from
the rest of the Commonwealth.
"If we announce our discovery, then by Commonwealth law Prism is thrown open to
development by any company or individual that wants to go to Terra or Hivehom
and file a Research and Exploration Claim. Soon you have government types from
the Standards Bureau running all over the place making sure that you're not
abusing your permits, infringing on the claims of others; and generally making
it difficult for your own people to do business."
"I understand."
Machoka nodded slowly. "I was certain that you would. The point of all this is
that if the project is being monitored, we have to keep our activity to a
minimum. That precludes sending out a fully equipped evaluation team. That's
just the kind of activity those bastards at Reliance, or Coway‑Thranx, or the
Helvetia Consortium, or any of our other less principled competitors would be
likely to take notice of. And if we hire a free‑lance team from outside the
Croup, we risk our secrecy further.
"But it's most unlikely that the presence in the area of a single Aurora
executive would spark any undue interest. Since we don't know the nature of the
trouble on Prism, we have to send in a generalist to find out what's going on
before we can decide how best to rectify it."
"Meaning me."
"Meaning you, yes. The very fact that you are not known to our competitors as an
off‑world specialist worries in our favor. They cannot be aware of your work on
the Avilla software." Machoka considered the section of lounge which had
swallowed the video screen, decided against resurrecting it.

"I don't have to tell you that this is not to be discussed with anyone else. If
any of your coworkers ask where you're off to, tell them you're being sent to
Inter‑Kansastan to attend and report on the semiannual conference on genetic
manipulation of cereal grains. You'll be going in that direction in any event
and so your passage shouldn't arouse any suspicions. The crew of the ship you'll
be traveling on has instructions to make a single fast pass by Prism to drop you
off. You'll be picked up when you request it and not before."
"Just a minute. How can I request pickup if the problem is with the station's
communications system?"
Machoka smiled broadly. "Wait until you see the suit you'll be working with.
Unless their deepspace beam has been snapped by an earthquake or something,
you'll be able to tie right into the base generation system with your suit
electronics. There's a lot more to this suit than your Avilla software. Our
engineers are rightly proud of it." He paused, steepling his fingers.
"There are some on the Board who say I'm being too cautious in this matter. I
think not. There's too much at stake here. This is too important to the company,
to me, to all of us. There are fortunes and futures aplenty to be made from this
discovery and its subsequent exploitation‑ if we can keep it quiet for a year
or two. That means keeping greedy s.o.b.'s like the people from Reliance and
Helvetia in the dark. It also means keeping everything secret from the
Commonwealth Council. Not to mention the United Church. I don't want that bunch
of pious moralists poking around Prism until we're thoroughly established
there.
"If we can keep it quiet for a year or so we'll be set. After that it won't
matter if the whole Commonwealth knows about Prism. We'll have such a lead in