"C. Sanford Lowe & G. David Nordley - The Small Pond" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lowe C Sanford)

something was even as much as a nanosecond off.”
Mutori shook her head. “He is talking momentum, Liz. Hitting at the right time
but with just a little less momentum. A slight amount of momentum bias would send
the hole back this way, where he could gain control over it. He would then have, I
think, very great power.”
David gave her a blank look, consulted the net, frowned grimly, and said,
“Oh.”
 “Power, literally and figuratively,” Liz said. “David, this isn’t just about me
and my job anymore. The reason Hilda sent me out here was because I’d be
absolutely loyal to her and ensure that everything be done exactly right. I don’t mean
to insult you, Cyan. You’re a good person. But the project needed that certainty.
Humanity needed that certainty.”
Cyan looked down. “I took entirely too local a view of things. I
compromised. I am sorry.”
David tried to digest what he heard. “Gunheim. In charge of a black hole!”
Liz snorted. “That’s hardly the worst case. One other thing that might happen
is that the hole comes jetting this way. If it doesn’t have enough mass, it might be
ready to explode in a final burst of Hawking radiation, converting millions of tons of
mass into hard radiation in a fraction of a second. Perhaps right in our faces.”
“It sounds like a good argument for not trying this at all. What if someone else
has the same idea? Maybe we should shut it down.”
“David!” Liz sounded horrified.
He gave her a lopsided grin. “Just thinking out loud. Okay, I’ll give up my
project and support your reform slate publicly. Do we have any more options?”
“Black hole formation is not all that Gunheim does not understand. I think he
thinks I will want to share his power with him—that I will be his compliant partner in
exploiting the black hole and ... in other ways.”
David looked at her expressionless face. Why am I surprised, he thought.
“I came to make an apology,” Cyan said. “I shall make my apology in this
way. I am local, a first colonist. Some think that by watching much, and saying little,
I have leadership qualities. So like David, I will sacrifice my position, and I shall run
for the council on your reform slate as its leader. That may change the political
dynamics in some small way. If I am so lucky as to be chosen by our people and the
council as System Executive, I shall give the project back to you, Liz. Will you
accept such an offering?”
“Cyan!”
David watched the two women embrace—his eyes riveted to the beauty of it.
Much later David realized what he’d been witness to. That demure, self-effacing, shy
speech by the achingly beautiful, vulnerable Cyan Mutori might prove to be one of
the most devastatingly effective power grabs in the history of any democracy.
****
Chapter 4
At Minot, 15 March 2274
 Liz stared at the poll numbers floating in the air. Cyan’s slate was still
marginally ahead, but...
“The undecided have the real lead,” David remarked.
“People don’t want to contribute to a bandwagon effect, whoever they
support,” Judi said, while throwing a Frisbee to her son, Oscar.
“A bandwagon would be fine with me,” Liz said.
Liz, this is Cyan.