《The mote in God's eye 》作者： - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle【EPUB】

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The Mote In God’s Eye Larry Niven amp Jerry Pournelle Prologue quotThroughout the past thousand years of history it has been traditional to regard the Alderson Drive asan unmixed blessing. Without the faster than light travel Aldersons discoveries made possible humanitywould have been trapped in the tiny prison of the Solar System when the Great Patriotic Wars destroyedthe CoDominium on Earth. Instead we had already settled more than two hundred worlds. quotA blessing yes. We might now be extinct were it not for theAlderson Drive . But unmixedConsider. The same tramline effect that colonized the stars the same interstellar contacts that allowed theformation of the First Empire allow interstellar war. The worlds wrecked in two hundred years ofSecession Wars were both settled and destroyed by ships using theAlderson Drive . quotBecause of theAlderson Drive we need never consider the space between the stars. Because wecan shunt between stellar systems in zero time our ships and ships drives need cover only interplanetarydistances. We say that the Second Empire of Man rules two hundred worlds and all the space betweenover fifteen million cubic parsecs. quotConsider the true picture. Think of myriads of tiny bubbles very sparsely scattered rising through avast black sea. We rule some of the bubbles. Of the waters we know nothing. . -from a speech delivered by Dr. Anthony Horvath at the Blaine Institute A.D. 3029. A.D. 3017 THE CRAZY EDDIE PROBE 1 CommandPage 1 quotAdmirals compliments and youre to come to his office right awayquot Midshipman Staley announced. Commander Roderick Blaine looked frantically