A Leap Across the Abyss. Макс Глебов

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      We set up in the study of my Admiral’s cabin, where there was a comfortable chair for me and some very specific furniture for my guest, as soon as a tail, especially as massive as the lizard’s tail, had certain requirements for furniture.

      “Aren’t you afraid, Admiral?” asked Lit-ta suddenly.

      I knew exactly what she was asking about, but I chose to ask her a follow-up question, “Are you afraid to let them in here?”

      “I was with you in the Kappa Ceti system, and I remember perfectly well what protective fields and plasma cannons are. Your ships were somehow able to resist them, though at great cost, and our dreadnoughts were powerless until your guns knocked down the power shields of the enemy cruisers. And there were only two smaller ships facing us. Now imagine letting an entire fleet in here, armed much better than the local toads. They’ll be able to dictate any terms they want to us. Admiral, are you aware of that? The Empire has transport rings, too, and once we let them in, they won’t need us anymore.”

      “They’re humans, like us, Lit-ta, and I’m sure we can make a deal. They’re at war there, and they’re not very successful either, which means we’ll need each other.”

      “You’re humans, and it gives you a chance to come to an agreement, I won’t argue, although there may be options. But why would the Empire want us, Admiral? Now, in our alliance with the Federation, there is a certain balance of power, for which, by the way, we thank you again – hybrid ships with mixed crews have indeed become an excellent unifying factor. But now the balance would be lost. Humans will become much stronger than us, and lizards will cease to be full partners in the new alliance.”

      “I believe it will be different, Lit-ta. Our interests don’t conflict with yours. The galaxy is huge and there’s enough room for us and you. Your biotechnologies far outpaced not only the Federation science, but the Empire science as well, so you’ll have something to offer the new allies.”

      “What makes you think their bioengineering is inferior to ours?”

      “Because they developed along our path, Lit-ta. Let me tell you a little secret. Our analysts believe that if humanity’s progress continues on the same path as it does now, we can reach your level of working with living matter no sooner than 300 years from now, if not more. The thing is, we’re used to solving all problems with the help of machinery, and that’s how it’s going to be. Bioengineering is evolving as a purely complementary activity, so it is not progressing so fast. In the Empire, the situation is exactly the same. Your technology will be a revelation to them, though perhaps less so than to us.

      Think of the same hybrid battleships. If you hadn’t grown armor and engines in space, we would have been working on building each ship for at least six months. And Dragon’s Tail was built in three months, and this is far from the limit. The last battleship of this type was commissioned 48 days after it was laid.

      And the reconnaisance?! Can you imagine the effect of combining Imperial camouflage fields with your engines? Think of Yoon Gao hybrid recon ship. It seemed like a real breakthrough compared to everything we and you had before we met, and our electronic warfare systems are nothing compared to what the Empire has. I’m counting on your technologies as one of the great trumps in the coming negotiations, Lit-ta. Now we have a unique situation where we all need each other. Perhaps, in time, even the quargs will find a place in the new alliance, though it will be more difficult with them, but it is not a question of today.”

      The lizard began to think, looking at me with an unblinking gaze.

      “You’re going to do us a favor again, Igor,” finally said she. “You informed me immediately of your contact with the Empire, and now you’re offering us a real way to integrate ourselves into a new alliance that will allow us to play a prominent role in it. Why are you doing this, man?”

      “Because I see good for us all, Lit-ta. Lizards are very convenient allies for humans, just as humans are for lizards, and I want this situation to last as long as possible. Do you remember a world without war, Governor General?”

      “I do,” responded Lit-ta after a little pause, but she didn’t go into details.

      “And I don’t. But I’ve been told a lot about how it was, and you know, I hope to see this for myself as soon as possible. My children should not lead battleships and aircraft carriers into battle. I want a completely different fate for them, and for that to become a reality, I believe it is right to lay the foundations of mutual benefit in relations between our races.”

      “I’ll tell the Senior what you’ve said, and I don’t think there will be any delay or difficulty with our decision to negotiate with the Empire. As I understand it, we’re almost there on our journey,” Lit-ta’s changed her subject, “Have you forgotten what a space suit looks like, Admiral? We’re going to have to walk on the surface of one of the asteroids.”

      The asteroid looked, frankly, peculiar on the projection screen. In fact, it wasn’t really an asteroid, but rather an asteroid stump. Once upon a time, this massive rock block had almost a spherical shape and a diameter of about 300 kilometers, but now there was only a little more than half of it left, and it seemed that once, quite a long time ago, a stone ball had been cut in half with a very sharp and hard object, leaving behind a perfectly plane surface resembling a petrographic cut. It was unclear where the other half of the asteroid had gone, at least, the scanners did not see it in the immediate vicinity. It’s been clearly not a year or two since the event that gave the asteroid its current appearance. The surface of the cut, which had once been smooth, was now covered by numerous traces left by the impact of rock fragments of various shapes and sizes, which were abundant in the outer Iota Persei belt. There was no doubt that the asteroid was being used extensively by someone at the time of the accident. On the surface of the cut, in many places there were stains of the entrances to the tunnels going deep into the rock, which were almost identical in shape and size. The asteroid was pitted with these passages, but the lizards have been unable to determine their purpose.

      “It’s a pretty old story,” said Lit-ta looking at the screen. “About 120 years ago, some 30 years before we started to develop Iota Persei, a rather nontrivial astronomical event took place here, I would even call it extremely nontrivial.”

      “What happened here?” I asked with genuine interest.

      “Our observers near Lambda Aurigae have recorded the appearance of a new star system consisting of three low-mass sub-brown dwarfs, one light month from Iota Persei.”

      “I’m sorry, Lit-ta, did I hear you correctly? Did you say «appearance»? Maybe you meant that previously unknown stars were discovered?”

      “That’s the thing. They did appear, there’s no doubt about it. They weren’t there before. Even 150 years ago, we couldn’t overlook a triple star system, even though it was made up of these little brown stars, right in front of us, in less than two dozen light years away. Naturally, this phenomenon aroused great interest among our ancestors, but at that time, flying this distance was still a difficult business, and while the expedition was being prepared, its purpose disappeared instantly and without a trace. However, it did not disappear completely – here is the trace. This asteroid is the only material evidence of the events of those years. It came from the direction of the vanished sub-brown dwarfs and was captured by the gravity of Iota Persei, becoming part of the outer belt of the system.”

      “I take it this is only part of the story?” said I with a slight smile, “I’m sure you found there something worthy of attention.”

      “Yes, we did,” confirmed Lit-ta, “but it’s better if you СКАЧАТЬ