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

Three more: a mountaineer woman with Plateau eyes (Matt Keller's talent;
see A Gift from Earth), and a Kzin for a central character, and a Grog for
her mind-reading ability.
Ready?

DOWN IN FLAMES
SOON TO BE A MINOR MOTION PICTURE

I

Old Beowulf Shaeffer is relaxing somewhere when the Truesdale-monster
taps him on the shoulder. ``I need you,'' he says, and produces whatever
credentials it takes. ARM, Belt Speaker, King, Secretary-General, he's got
'em. Shaeffer's interest is captured. Truesdale leads him away, talking a
blue streak.
We last saw the Truesdale-monster taking a fleet of ships to confront an
oncoming fleet of Pak refugee ships. Whatever they found out there
(evidence of existence of the Kzinti Empire? Maybe.) it caused them to send
one of their number home to watch over human space. They sent the only
flatlander: Truesdale.
At sublight speeds he arrived only recently. Things seem calm enough in
known space. Against all expectation, the Kzinti seem harmless. But there
is a mystery to be tracked down, and the Core explosion needs some
attention too.

II

They are attacked at the spaceport. The weapons are of the Soft Weapon
type: ``soft'' in the sense used by Salvidor Dali, in that the weapon
changes shape. The species attacking is an unfamilar one, agile as a Pak,
without much brain, and with hands to fit their weapons.
Truesdale takes them in a mad run for his ship. He loses a leg,
cauterizes it with his own laser, and off they go, Truesdale hopping. The
alien weapons do ferocious damage; they include a total-conversion setting;
but Truesdale's ship is largely stasis fields.

III

Truesdale takes them to Camelot: his refuge in the cometary halo.
Camelot is similar to Kobold (see Protector) in that Truesdale has been
using gravity generators as an art form. On the way, Truesdale gives his
own background, and gets Shaeffer to go over his tale of the trip to the
Core (At the Core).

IV

At Camelot Truesdale takes Shaeffer once more through the Core trip,
under drugs. He still hasn't said what he's after. He doesn't get it.
But they were attacked, and that must be important.
He examines the corpse of their attacker. It would have been no