[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html medirobot, she told her story,
delivered her warning, and began to answer questions.
The general expressed suspicions about the way the alert had originally been
called.
"The first signal came from our distant early warning units, and yet the only
place the enemy has actually been seen is on the ground. Does anyone have an
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1664 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html explanation for that?"
(And Lily muttered, for her captain's ears alone:
"Well, general, you have to remember that this is not a planet.")
All doubt that the alert was justified had vanished long ago; but it still
seemed impossible to understand why, following that first ambiguous signal, no
enemy machines had been detected in this
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1665 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html system's space.
"We're standing guard, of course, and we'll do what we can. But anyone who
tries to fight a space battle in the inner portions of this system is going to
have the devil's own time doing it."
"How's that?" Harry demanded sharply.
"We run into the difficulty every time we try to conduct
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1666 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html maneuvers. Space and time in-system
here are never quite what you expect them to be, however much research you
do and not what your gunlaying system expects, either, whatever type you have.
To put it simply, you are not likely to hit anything you aim at."
"Are you saying the berserkers won't be able to hit the pulsar when
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1667 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html they drop their package?"
"Oh, I've little doubt that they could manage that.
But their machine will have to get very close to its target, and there may be
some lengthy maneuvering involved."
By now Dr. Kloskurb had spent several hours in
Port City, convincing the local authorities that he generally knew what he
Page 303
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1668 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html was talking about. They were listening
intently to the scientist as he admitted that he saw no reason why the threat
reported by Dr. Kochi and Harry Silver could not be true.
"In calculating the gravitational interactions between Mara-canda and other
bodies, you can treat it mathematically as if it were a sphere. But when
you're working
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1669 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html problems on the much smaller scale of
ships and launch vehicles, of human bodies if it comes to that, things get
much more complicated."
Kloskurb went on to say, "The devastation would go far beyond that caused by
any ordinary nova, beyond what happens in the ordinary supernova types. It
would reach hypernova status."
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1670 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html
Someone else put in: "I
thought that hypernovas were only a theory."
"They have been, until now. I don't claim cosmology's really my field, but "
"Then let's talk to someone who does."
Experts in celestial mechanics were quickly located and brought into the
discussion. When they had heard Dr.
Kochi's report and
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1671 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
Fred Saberhagen - Berserker's Star.html warning, none of them were inclined to
say that it was fantastic and should be disregarded.
One expressed the consensus: "In theory it would seem impossible to produce a
more violent explosion, from any objects of equivalent mass."
No way had ever been found to send
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...0Saberhagen%20-%20Berserk
er's%20Star%20(v1.0).html (1672 of 1869)3/12/2004 11:22:15 PM
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]