Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - Reflex

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REFLEX by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Any damn fool can die for his country. General George S. Patton.

3017 AD

The Union Republic War Cruiser Defiant lay nearly motionless in space a half

billion kilometers from Beta Hortensi. She turned slowly about her long axis.

Stars flowed endlessly upward with the spin of the ship, as if Defiant were falling

through the universe. Captain Herb Colvin saw them as a battle map, infinitely

dangerous. Defiant hung above him in the viewport, its enormous mass ready to fall

on him and crush him, but after years in space he hardly noticed.

Hastily constructed and thrown into space, armed as an interstellar cruiser but

without the bulky Alderson Effect engines which could send her between the stars,

Defiant had been assigned to guard the approaches to New Chicago from raids by the

Empire. The Republic’s main fleet was on the other side of Beta Hortensi, awaiting an

attack they were sure would come from that quarter. The path Defiant guarded sprang

from a red dwarf star four-tenths of a light year distant. The tramline had never been

plotted. Few within New Chicago’s government believed the Empire had the

capability to find it, and fewer thought they would try.

Colvin strode across his cabin to the polished steel cupboard. A tall man, nearly

two meters in height, he was thin and wiry, with an aristocratic nose that many

Imperial lords would have envied. A shock of sandy hair never stayed combed, but he

refused to cover it with a uniform cap unless he had to. A fringe of beard was

beginning to take shape on his chin. Colvin had been clean-shaven when Defiant

began its patrol twenty-four weeks ago. He had grown a beard, decided he didn’t like

it and shaved it off, then started another. Now he was glad he hadn’t taken the annual

depilation treatments. Growing a beard was one of the few amusements available to

men on a long and dreary blockade.

He opened the cupboard, detached a glass and bottle from their clamps, and took

them back to his desk. Colvin poured expertly despite the Coriolis effect that could

send carelessly poured liquids sloshing to the carpets. He set the glass down and

turned toward the viewport.

There was nothing to see out there, of course. Even the heart of it all, New

Chicago—Union! In keeping with the patriotic spirit of the Committee of Public

Safety, New Chicago was now called Union. Captain Herb Colvin had trouble

remembering that, and Political Officer Gerry took enormous pleasure in correcting

him every damned time. —Union was the point of it all, the boredom and the endless

low-level fear; but Union was invisible from here. The sun blocked it even from

telescopes. Even the red dwarf, so close that it had robbed Beta Hortensi of its

cometary halo, showed only as a dim red spark. The first sign of attack would be on

the bridge screens long before his eyes could find the black-on-black point that might

be an Imperial warship.

For six months Defiant had waited, and the question had likewise sat waiting in

the back of Colvin’s head.

Was the Empire coming?

* * *

The Secession War that ended the first Empire of Man had split into a thousand

little wars, and those had died into battles. Throughout human space there were

planets with no civilization, and many more with too little to support space travel.

Even Sparta had been hurt. She had lost her fleets, but the dying ships had

defended the Capital; and when Sparta began to recover, she recovered fast.

Across human space men had discovered the secrets of interstellar travel. The

technology of the Langston Field was stored away in a score of Imperial libraries; and

this was important because the Field was discovered in the first place through a series

of improbable accidents to men in widely separated specialties. It would not have

been developed again.

With Langston Field and Alderson Drive, the Second Empire rose from the ashes

of the First. Every man in the new government knew that weakness in the First

Empire had led to war—and that war must not happen again. This time all humanity

must be united. There must be no worlds outside the Imperium, and none within it to

challenge the power of Emperor and Senate. Mankind would have peace if worlds

must die to bring it about.

The oath was sworn, and when other worlds built merchantmen, Sparta rebuilt

the Fleet and sent it to space. Under the fanatical young men and women humanity

would be united by force. The Empire spread around Crucis and once again reached

behind the Coal Sack, persuading, cajoling, conquering and destroying where needed.

New Chicago had been one of the first worlds reunited with the Empire of Man.

The revolt must have come as a stunning surprise. Now Captain Herb Colvin of the

United Republic waited on blockade patrol for the Empire’s retaliation. He knew it

would come, and could only hope that Defiant would be ready.

He sat in the enormous leather chair behind his desk, swirling his drink and

letting his gaze alternate between his wife’s picture and the viewport. The chair was a

memento from the liberation of the Governor General’s palace on New Chicago. (On

Union!) It was made of imported leathers, worth a fortune if he could find the right

buyer. The Committee of Public Safety hadn’t realized its value.

Colvin looked from Grace’s picture to a pinkish star drifting upward past the

viewport, and thought of the Empire’s warships. Would they come through here,

when they came? Surely they were coming.

In principal Defiant was a better ship than she’d been when she left New

Chicago. The engineers had automated all the routine spacekeeping tasks, and no

United Republic spacer needed to do a job that a robot could perform. Like all of New

Chicago’s ships, and like few of the Imperial Navy’s, Defiant was as automated as a

merchantman.

Colvin wondered. Merchantmen do not fight battles. A merchant captain need not

worry about random holes punched through his hull. He can ignore the risk that any

given piece of equipment will be smashed at any instant. He will never have only

minutes to keep his ship fighting or see her destroyed in an instant of blinding heat.

No robot could cope with the complexity of decisions damage control could

generate, and if there were such a. robot it might easily be the first item destroyed in

battle. Colvin had been a merchant captain and had seen no reason to object to the

Republic’s naval policies, but now that he had experience in warship command, he

understood why the Imperials automated as little as possible and kept the crew in

working routine tasks:

washing down corridors and changing air filters, scrubbiig pots and inspecting

the hull. Imperial crews might grumble about the work, but they were never idle.

After six months, Defiant was a better ship, but.. . she had lifted out from. . . Union

with a crew of mission-oriented warriors. What were they nów?

Colvin leaned back in his comfortable chair and looked around his cabin. It was

too comfortable. Even the captain—especially the cáptain!—had little to do but putter

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摘要：

REFLEXbyLarryNivenandJerryPournelleAnydamnfoolcandieforhiscountry.GeneralGeorgeS.Patton.3017ADTheUnionRepublicWarCruiserDefiantlaynearlymotionlessinspaceahalfbillionkilometersfromBetaHortensi.Sheturnedslowlyaboutherlongaxis.Starsflowedendlesslyupwardwiththespinoftheship,asifDefiantwerefallingthrough...

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