"A. R. Yngve - Argus project" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yngve A. R)

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PROLOGUE: The Last Politician


He was the last politician, and everyone called him "Kansler".
Of all the political offices from previous times of human history -
chief, warlord, king, president, prime minister, governor, mayor,
councilman - only the Kansler's title carried real authority in the 22nd
century. He was the appointed Chancellor of the Outer Defense Ring
Charter - a title rarely used - and his jurisdiction stretched across a
vast space of the Solar System. From the orbit of Mars to the orbit of
Pluto, the Kansler was the acting supreme commander of Earth's military
forces. A thirty-year career had finally taken him to this, the last
remaining position of ultimate power in the Solar System, and he had
built up a strong fleet of warships.
And yet, the Kansler's power hung by a thread - for his title would be
lost, the moment he made a significant mistake in the eyes of the Terran
public. And with Earth at war with its Jovian colonies, his career was
at stake. The populace of the old homeworld regarded itself "genetically
superior" to the renegade "little moles" who built underground cities on
Jupiter's moons, and cared little for what was done to them. But defeat
- after having paid trillions of tax credits to sustain attacks and
blockades - that they would never forgive.
Time was on the side of the Jovian rebellion; time which the Kansler
did not have...

"What we need is a hero," the Kansler explained to Boulder Pi.
"What do you mean, Kansler?" the midget engineer asked.
"A man who the public can identify with, who can embody the strength,
purity and superiority of the Terran fleet. Someone who can rack up my
hits and bring us the funding we need to keep the war effort going."
The kansler's problem boiled down to money - or rather Popularity
Points, "hits", the currency of the times. The more popular one was, the
more electronic credits one raked in from the world's computer indexes
of all humans. A citizen known to nobody, a child or a moron, could earn
as little as 1,000 PP - not enough to buy a decent set of clothes. A
megastar actress or musical artist, known to billions across the Solar
System, could peak a career with a hundred trillion PP. Most citizens of
Earth never earned more than 1,000,000 PP during a year; there was not
an infinite supply of popularity for all.
The Kansler's PP Index now lay at an unstable 300 billion points - and
he needed at least ten times that amount over a period of several years,
to fill the war chest.
"Kansler, might you consider shrinking our offensive to just one of the
breakaway colonies?" a deputy officer cautiously suggested. "It could be
less financially risky to take the system back one planet at a time,
instead of all in one sweep..."
"You talk like the underling you are," the Kansler said, stating a fact
rather than venting his emotions. "You are an underling because you