《War No 81-Q Rewritten Version 》作者：- Cordwainer Smith【EPUB】

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War No. 81-QRewritten VersionFor a few brief happy centuries war was made into an enormous game. Then theworld population passed the thirty-billion point Acting Chief MinisterChatterji presented the quotRightful Proportionsquot formula to the worldauthorities and war turned from a game into realities. When it was overhideous new creepers covered the wreckage of cities saints and morons campedin the overpasses of disused highways and a few man-hunting machines scouredthe world in search of surviving weapons.ILong before real war set mankind back a thousand ages the nations played withtheir formulae of quotsafe war.quot Wars were easily declared safely fought won orlost with noblesse oblige and accepted as decisive. Wars were rare enough tosweep all other events from the television screens beautiful enough towarrant the utmost in scenic decoration and tough enough to call forchampions with perfect eyesight and no nerves at all. The weapons weredirigibles armed with missiles countermissiles and feinting screens theyhad been revived because they were slow enough to show well on theviewscreens hard enough to demand a skillful fight. A whole class of warriorsdeveloped to manage these—men who trained on the ski-slopes and underwaterbeaches of the worlds resorts and who then tanned and fit sat in controlrooms and managed the ships from their own home bases. The kinescopes werepaired up so that pictures of the battle alternated with scenes of thewarriors sitting in their controls the foreheads wrinkled with worry theirgasps of dismay or smiles of triumph showing plainly and the whole drama ofhuman emotion revealed in their performance of a licensed war.War came near between Tibet and America.Tibet had been liberated from the Goonhogo the central Chinese governmentonly with generous American help and with the threat was it bluff was itdeath trembling in the rocket pits around Lake Erie. No one ever found outwhether the Americans would have risked real war because the Chinese did notforce a show of strength. The Americans had been supported by the Reunion ofIndia and the Federated Congos on the floor of the world assembly and therewere political debts to be settled