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

Gil the ARM and Lucas Garner.
Larry Greenberg solves one problem fast. He points at the Kzin and
says, ``That's a Tnuctip!''
The Grog says, ``No, he isn't.''
Deduction comes fast for the Shaeffer monster. If Kzinti and Tnuctip
are related species, then there are Tnuctip spies among the Kzinti. By now
they will have a Fifth Man-Kzin War going, probably.

XI

Third piece of the problem comes by straight extrapolation. The
Tnuctipun didn't interfere with Shaeffer's life, throughout 250 years or
more, because he could testify to the Core explosion. But Truesdale might
have seen through that hoax. So the Tnuctipun sent assassins.
Shaeffer turns back toward known space. On the way he turns all of the
slowboat's crew of fifty or so, except for those too old, into protector
stage humans. (He doesn't need tree of life, he needs only a culture of
the virus, and that's in his own body. A little biochemical work does it.)
He does not expect the Tnuctipun to attack in hyperdrive! But then they
aren't expecting fifty protectors playing games with gravity generators.
Humans would expect use of a gravity generator in hyperspace to destroy the
ship at once; but that hoax is obvious as soon as the attacking ships
appear.

XII

Eight years after leaving known space, Shaeffer's band returns. There's
no Fifth Man-Kzin War going. The Tnuctipun tried that and failed. Now
they're attacking throughout known space with half a dozen slave races.
The Kzinti Empire (second most powerful among the Good Guys) is paralyzed
by Tnuctipun among them, and distrusted by their allies because some
Tnuctip corpses have been recovered from attacking ships. Shaeffer leaves
a team to clear that up, with the Grog to point out the ringers. He goes
to war.

XIII

Before it's over, we'll need billions of human protectors. It's a Flash
Gordon/E.E. Smith war, with superior Tnuctip technology battling tools and
weapons worked up on the spot by a billion Dr. Zarkovs. To Outsiders those
same new inventions are money; will they sell us the location of the
Tnuctipun?
If they don't it can be deduced. The Tnuctipun are among the stars of
the galactic rim. The Core explosion hoax was to drive millions of refugee
ships right to their tables. Of course the Puppeteers avoided that; they
drove their fleet up along the galactic axis, and none but the suicidal
ever boarded a spacecraft at all.
So we come to the final phase, as Shaeffer's legions bring the war to
the enemy.