"David Weber & Linda Evans - Hells Gate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

"Unless Gadrial and I are badly mistaken," he said, waving a hand at the letters and esoteric formulae
glittering in the water-clear heart of his crystal, "it's at least a class eight. Actually, I suspect it may be
even larger."
Jasak sat back in his chair, regarding the old man's lined face intently. Had it been anyone else, he
would have been inclined to dismiss the preposterous claim as pure, rampant speculation. But Magister
Halathyn wasn't given to speculation.
"If you're right about that, Sir," the hundred said after a moment, "this entire transit chain may just
have become a lot more important to the Authority."
"It may," Magister Halathyn agreed. "Then again, it may not." He grimaced. "Whatever size this portal
may be—" he tapped the crystal containing his notes "—that portal—" he pointed out through the open
fly of his tent at the peculiar hole in the universe which loomed enormously beyond the muddy clearing's
western perimeter "—is only a class three. That's going to bottleneck anything coming through from our
putative class eight. Not to mention the fact that we're at the end of a ridiculously inconvenient chain at
the moment."
"I suppose that depends in part on how far your new portal is from the other side of this one," Jasak
pointed out. "The terrain between here and the coast may suck, but it's only seven hundred miles."
"Seven hundred and nineteen-point-three miles," Magister Halathyn corrected with a crooked smile.
"All right, Sir." Jasak accepted the correction with a smile of his own. "That's still a ridiculously short
haul compared to most of the portal connections I can think of. And if this new portal of yours is within
relatively close proximity to our class three, we're talking about a twofer."
"That really is a remarkably uncouth way to describe a spatially congruent trans-temporal transfer
zone," Halathyn said severely.
"I'm just a naturally uncouth sort of fellow, Sir," Jasak agreed cheerfully. "But however you slice it, it's
still a two-for-one."
"Yes, it is," Halathyn acknowledged. "Assuming our calculations are sound, of course. In fact, if this
new portal is as large as I think it is, and as closely associated with our portal here, I think it's entirely
possible that we're looking at a cluster."
Despite all of the magister's many years of discipline, his eyes gleamed, and he couldn't quite keep
the excitement out of his voice. Not that Jasak blamed him for that. A portal cluster . . . In the better part
of two centuries of exploration, UTTTA's survey teams had located only one true cluster, the Zholhara
Cluster. Doubletons were the rule—indeed, only sixteen triples had ever been found, which was a rate of
less than one in ten. But a cluster like Zholhara was of literally incalculable value.
This far out—they were at the very end of the Lamia Chain, well over three months' travel from
Arcana, even for someone who could claim transport dragon priority for the entire trip—even a cluster
would take years to fully develop. Lamia, with over twenty portals, was already a huge prize. But if
Magister Halathyn was correct, the entire transit chain was about to become even more valuable . . . and
receive the highest development priority UTTTA could assign.
"Of course," Magister Halathyn continued in the tone of a man forcing himself to keep his enthusiasm
in check, "we don't know where this supposed portal of mine connects. It could be the middle of the
Great Ransaran Desert. Or an island in the middle of the Western Ocean, like Rycarh Outbound. Or the
exact center of the polar ice cap."
"Or it could be a couple of thousand feet up in thin air, which would make for something of a nasty
first step," Jasak agreed. "But I suppose we'd better go find it if we really want to know, shouldn't we?"
"My sentiments exactly," the magister agreed, and the hundred looked at the chief sword.
"How soon can we move out on the Magister's heading, Chief Sword?"
"I'm afraid the Hundred would have to ask Fifty Garlath about that," Threbuch replied with absolutely
no inflection, and this time Jasak did grimace. The tonelessness of the chief sword's voice shouted his
opinion (among other things) of Commander of Fifty Shevan Garlath as an officer of the Union of
Arcana. Unfortunately, Sir Jasak Olderhan's opinion exactly matched that of his company's senior
non-commissioned officer.