"Edward M. Lerner - IV of Iv - A New Order of Things" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lerner Edward M)

K’vithian rationale for picking Jupiter as their destination rings false. Still, a
demo using a sample of antimatter from the starship’s reserves convinces them
that K’vith must already have antimatter technology. The demo, like the large
patch on the ship’s side, supports Mashkith’s assertion of an en route accident
that destroyed his antimatter-production equipment. Without human-supplied
antimatter, Mashkith tells the UP, Victorious is stranded.

Mashkith’s senior officers, Rashk Keffah and Rashk Lothwer , disparage
human antimatter technology. After detailed interviewing of UP experts, the
K’vithian engineers declare themselves reluctantly convinced: “Primitive” human
techniques can safely transfer to Victorious large amounts of antimatter. In
practice, they have tricked the UP into disclosing all the clan needs to know to
produce and manipulate antimatter on a grand scale.

After a second contrived demo, this time of a lifeboat left pre-positioned in
the Kuiper Belt, the UP agrees to swap a load of antimatter for the lifeboat and its
interstellar drive. Victorious is refueled from the UP stockpile on Himalia. Chung,
Eva, and media star Corinne Elman are among the humans then given a
ceremonial orientation cruise when the bartered lifeboat is transferred.

The UP antimatter facility explodes catastrophically, killing thousands,
much as Snake engineers had warned. The blast shatters Himalia, cripples the
naval fleet guarding the no-longer-secret facility—and destroys the returning
lifeboat filled with human scientists and dignitaries.

Art’s friend Helmut Schiller has a shadowed past: As Willem
Vanderkellen , he made a major mineral find in the Belt, only to fall afoul of a
claim-jumping criminal syndicate. Under his assumed name, Helmut works as a
pilot for Corinne. Long years hiding from the mob has honed skills in sensing
danger and deceit. He and Art work out how a Snake lifeboat caused the Himalia
disaster—and that it was not the lifeboat that their friends boarded. That ship,
with Himalia’s top scientists presumably held prisoner, is seen creeping away, far
above the ecliptic.

Pashwah-qith has flooded the black market with Centaur credits, using the
proceeds to re-supply Victorious. The unexpected surge in Centaur credits flowing
into the banking system provides a critical clue how to reconsider past anomalies.
Art deduces Victorious must be a hijacked Centaur starship—

But what can the UP do about any of this? The Himalia disaster has
destroyed or disabled most human naval resources in the Jovian system. Arblen
Ems warships that sortie from Victorious rout the few remaining UP forces. The
starship recovers its escaped lifeboat, now free from human pursuit, and rigs for
another interstellar voyage. Mashkith is exultant. He now controls the secrets of
the starship drive and antimatter production, and prisoners who are expert in
both.

Mashkith locks his human captives into the agriculture sector of the starship
with the Centaur crew. Corinne and Eva immediately begin conspiring to steal
and escape aboard a lifeboat.