"George R. R. Martin - The Plague Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

carrying out its programs more than a millennium after the Collapse. Don’t you see? Can’t you guess?”
“I admit to failure,” said Tuf, “lacking your familiarity with the subject at hand.”
“It’s a warship, Tuf, a warship in a long elliptical orbit around Hro B’rana. It’s one of the most
devastating weapons Old Earth ever put into the void against the Hrangans, in its own way as terrible as
that mythical hellfleet they talk about from those last days before the Collapse. But it has vast potential for
good as well as ill! It’s the repository of the most advanced biogenetic science of the Federal Empire, a
functioning artifact packed full of secrets lost to the rest of humanity.”
“Indeed,” said Tuf.
“It’s a seedship,” Jefri Lion finished, “a biowar seedship of the Ecological Engineering Corps.”
“And it’s ours,” said Kaj Nevis, with a small grim smile.
Haviland Tuf studied Nevis briefly, nodded to himself, and rose. “My curiosity is satisfied,” he
announced. “Now I must fulfill my portion of the trade.”
“Ahhh,” said Celise Waan. “My meat.”
“The supply is copious, though the variety is admittedly small,” said Haviland Tuf. “I shall leave you the
task of preparing the meat in a manner most pleasant to your palate.” He went to a storage locker,
punched in a code, and removed a small carton, which he carried back to the table under his arm. “This
is the only meat aboard my vessel. I cannot vouch for its taste or quality. Yet I have not yet received a
complaint on either count.”
Rica Dawnstar burst into laughter and Kaj Nevis snickered. Haviland Tuf, neatly and methodically,
removed a dozen cans of catfood from their carton, and stacked them in front of Celise Waan. Havoc
leapt onto the table and began to purr.


“It’s not as big as I expected,” Celise Waan said, her tone as petulant as ever.
“Madam,” said Haviland Tuf, “the eyes can often deceive. My main viewscreen is admittedly modest, a
bare meter in diameter, and this must of course diminish the size of any object displayed thereon. The
ship itself is of sizable dimensions.”
Kaj Nevis came forward. “How sizable?”
Tuf folded his hands together atop the bulge of his stomach. “I cannot say with any precision. The
Cornucopia of Excellent Goods at Low Prices is but a modest trading vessel, and its sensory
instrumentation is not all that it might be.”
“Approximately, then,” Kaj Nevis snapped.
“Approximately,” Tuf repeated. “Regarded at the angle at which my viewscreen is now displaying it, with
the longest axis taken as ‘length,’ the ship we are approaching would seem to be, approximately, some
thirty standard kilometers long, approximately some five kilometers in width, approximately some three
kilometers in height, but for the domed section amidships, which rises slightly higher, and the forward
tower which ascends, approximately, one additional kilometer above the deck from which it rises.”
They had all gathered in the control room, even Anittas, who had been awakened from his
computer-regulated sleep when they emerged from drive. A hush fell over them; even Celise Waan
seemed briefly at a loss for something to say. All of them stared at the viewscreen, at the long black
twisted shape that floated against the stars, here and there shining with faint lights and pulsing with unseen
energies.
“I was right,” Jefri Lion muttered at last, to break the silence. “A seedship—an EEC seedship! Nothing
else could possibly be so large!”
Kaj Nevis smiled. “Damn,” he said.
“The system must be vast,” Anittas said speculatively. “The Earth Imperials had a sophistication far
beyond ours. It’s probably an Artificial Intelligence.”
“We’re rich,” burbled Celise Waan, her many and varied grievances forgotten for the moment. She
grabbed hold of Jefri Lion’s hands and waltzed him around in a circle, fairly bouncing. “We’re rich, rich,
we’re rich and famous, we’re all rich!”