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

deliberately; even if it didn't remain there. Why didn't the handle fit a
Kzinti (i.e., Tnuctip) hand? Probably because the Tnuctipun have their own
slave races.
4) Even if the Ringworld is edge-on to the Core, it isn't thick enough
to shield itself (and Teela Brown!) from the gamma rays. But Teela's
``luck'' requires that she be safe there. She is, if there's no Core
explosion.
5) What of the Outsiders?
With their Helium II metabolism, they are not ``meat'' to a Tnuctip. If
they maintain their neutrality, nobody should harm them. And they must
have known of the Tnuctip plot for some time.
Now we know why the Outsiders charged such a tremendous price for the
answer to a simple question. What are they going to do, now that the
galaxy is becoming uninhabitable? Answer: it isn't!
Can we use the Outsiders? How well can we balance profit against their
fear of the Tnuctipun?
6) What happens to a ship that goes too deep into a gravity well while
using Outsider hyperdrive?
Snatched by the Tnuctipun! There is no relevant physical law, no
mysterious singularity in hyperspace. The need to enter a system at
sublight speeds will restrict the spread of humanity and keep us from
regions where the fraud is apparent.

So much for background. What of the story itself?
Obviously I'm setting up Armageddon. Exposure of the Tnuctip fraud will
result in a cataclysm to shake the stars. Fire and death, and the
Tnuctipun may win.
They will have no allies. The Kzinti have been changed, by four Man-Kzin
Wars in which the most serious war-mongers, and the ones with the least
self-control, were the ones who died. The Kzinti population has been
considerably reduced. Those left are not peaceful, but they can think
first before they jump. Telepaths are their own development. And they
have reason to hate the Tnuctipun who abandoned their ancestors. The
Kzinti will fight on our side, though we must watch for planted Tnuctip
spies.
No allies . . . but Tnuctip technology must be enormous. Slaver stasis
boxes were largely planted. What we found in them was technology the
Tnuctipun threw away! What more are they hiding?

I know some of the characters I'll need. Oddly, the most necessary are
the most familiar. And known space isn't that defenseless.
I need either Kzanol or Larry Greenberg: the only two characters capable
of recognizing a Tnuctip. Kzanol is out of the question, as you will see.
We've got to rescue Greenberg from where we left him last: aboard a
slowboat, one of the Lazy Eight series, which lost its drive systems while
moving at near lightspeed. By Louis Wu's time it will be several hundred
light-years from known space.
(Louis is out of it. So are Teela Brown and the entire Ringworld. The
Tnuctipun dare not attack the Ringworld. For reasons, see The Ringworld
Engineers in a couple of years).