"S. M. Stirling - Draka 04 - Drakon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stirling S. M)

Figures replaced the holograph. Gwen let her transducer take them in, running a mental comparison
with the previous attempts.

"These functions—what're you assuming?" she said after a moment, calling up a sequence of
equations. "Where did you get these quantities?"

Tolya shrugged and spread her hands, "We're guessing. The experimental results should give us an
order-of-magnitude answer on how wrong we are, and then we can try again. It isn't quick, I'm afraid,
overlord, but—"

"—elegance buys no yams, yes," she replied, nodding approval. "Good solid rule-of-thumb work.
More productive than any simulations, when the basic metrics aren't fully known. The space-based team
tried to go too far too fast, in my opinion."
 A heavy wash of flattered pleasure at her words scented the air; she could feel the enthusiasm like
a glow around the long plain table. Her own answered it. These were obviously a first-class group.

Progress. Back in the times of the Old Domination, when the Draka and their subjects had both
been archaic-human, it had been impossible to entrust work like this to the underclasses. She had seen the
last of that herself, being the first generation of the New Race.

"We're running the first series now, overlord," Tolya said. "You could monitor from here."

"No, I'll come down," she said thoughtfully.

Not that looking at the casings of the machinery would give her more information than she could
get here, but you never knew what prompted an intuitive leap. They crowded into the elevator, a bit of a
tight press with Wulka in one corner. The servus crowded away from the transgene's fur, squeezing
together to avoid transgressing Gwen's sphere of social space. She kept her dominance pheromones
throttled down to the minimum in the crowded quarters, but it was a relief when the doors hissed open.
They were a long way underground here. The shaft opened directly onto the centrum, with another display
monitor in the center of the circular room. Around it were consoles with recliners for the attendants. They
sat silently, seldom moving, controlling their instruments through transducers and the relay-circlets around
their temples.

"Ready to run," one of them said aloud.

Gwen stepped to the display table. It was physically over the facility, more for symmetry's sake
than anything else. Right now the graph-holos were showing standby power only. The molehole was
represented by a line of white light. Her transducer was Draka class, and she slipped effortlessly into
communion with the machines and their operators. It was not quite like artificial telepathy, but nearly. Tolya
was directing them with crisp efficiency:

bringing it up. skip level four in thirty seconds, power on. mark.

this is the level the platform had trouble with? Gwen asked.

yes, overlord, but we've reached it before without a problem.

Gwen nodded, proceed, cautiously.