"Down in Flames" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

but apologize? For those of you who have, remember: it's all a hoax.

PRELIMINARY ASSUMPTIONS

1) Beowulf Shaeffer never visited the galactic core.
2) The Long Shot, the alleged Quantum II hyperdrive ship used in At the
Core, was a hoax. For eight months that ``spacecraft'' rested somewhere in
the West End of Jinx, while Beowulf Shaeffer was treated to an elaborate
movie of a trip to the galactic core and back. The hyperdrive machinery he
saw through Long Shot's transparent hull was hiding other machinery: 3D
movie projectors, artificial gravity, computer controls on a fake mass
sensor. It wouldn't take much.
3) The core suns are not exploding.
4) The Thrintun or Slaver Species, supposed to exist a billion and a
half years ago (World of Ptavvs), never existed.
5) The Tnuctipun (supposed to be a slave race to the Slavers) are real
enough, but they are contemporary with humanity.
6) The Puppeteers are in their pay.
7) They have accepted employment because they dare not refuse. The
Tnuctipun are vicious and vindictive.
8) Since the Puppeteers are not fleeing the explosion in the galactic
core, what are they fleeing? Why, they're fleeing the Tnuctipun, of
course. And taking some of their funds from the Tnuctipun.
9) Kzanol (World of Ptavvs) is neither the last Thrint (Slaver), nor a
robot. He is, now get this, he is a product of Tnuctipun biological
engineering: a tailored species with only one member. His memories are
heavily detailed science fiction.
10) Many of the stasis boxes are relics of the Tnuctipun occupation of
known space. So are the genetically tailored species, the sunflowers and
stage trees and Bandersnatchi, found throughout known space.
The Tnuctipun were all through here. They evacuated our region of space
not long ago, certainly less than a million years ago. They were forced to
leave a lot of gene-tailored life and a number of lost stasis boxes; though
they could count on most of the relics of the empire disintegrating with
age.
But they had time to leave other evidence, in stasis boxes, to
contribute to the hoax. Later they created Kzanol and left him in stasis
on the continental shelf off Brazil.
The major hoax is the Slaver War, supposed to have occurred a billion
and a half years ago. The Tnuctipun could not conceal their presence in
known space; but they could hide the fact that they are contemporary.
11) The truth is that the Tnuctipun are all through known space. It will
be seen how this is possible.
12) Clearly the Bandersnatchi were not designed to spy on the Slavers for
the Tnuctipun. Tnuctipun get a kick out of eating meat that was sentient
when alive. So, they designed the Bandersnatchi sentient.
13) When the Tnuctipun cleared out, some of their number got left behind.
That group went to savagery, then built its civilization again, and began
carving out an interstellar empire. We call them the Kzinti. The Kzinti
know nothing of the Tnuctipun; but there are Tnuctipun hidden among the