Unexpected meeting. Chapter 18

The early warning point of the Union of Central Worlds was in a very inconvenient system with a rather active red dwarf in whose orbit four planets rotated. The first two of them were located too close to the star and could not rotate around its axis, which excluded the presence of the magnetosphere. The absence of an atmosphere, any significant protection against radiation during stellar outbursts and a large temperature difference in the daytime and nighttime hemispheres made the planets not at all convenient for human activity. The next planet, although receiving little energy from the star, was much more comfortable than its neighbors and it was on it that all the basic residential infrastructure was located. The fourth planet could be quite arbitrarily called even a dwarf, but for some reason in all bases this lifeless piece of an overgrown asteroid was designated by a planet. The planet was still farther from the star, had an almost circular orbit, high speed of rotation around its axis and was ideally suited for the location of scanning equipment.





Heavy carrier of the Republic Kraon emerged from hyperspace at a distance of hundreds of millions of kilometers from the SPM base. "Boran" has absorbed all the space achievements of this single State of the Periphery, which could almost entirely create their own spacecraft. Despite its impressive size, this ship was not the flagship of the fleet, did not have any significant mosquito fleet, shock or defense systems. And nevertheless, it was the most formidable weapon of the republic, which sometimes predetermined the outcome of a space battle only with its appearance. The ship on its board carried only one torpedo. Large pulse torpedoes.
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After jumping out of the hyper, the torpedo bomber immediately began preparations for delivering his first strike. The navigation complex was quickly oriented in space and the ship slowly maneuvered. Massive armor plates on board the ship began to move, and along the port side they began to occupy their working positions as platforms with various equipment. The opposite side of the ship was covered with dips, in which it was possible to distinguish the nozzles of the compensating engines. “Boran” bristled with radiators, the power plants turned on started fast charging the drives of huge impulse torpedoes.

The ship’s power supply was so great that he couldn’t afford to work only on heat accumulators during the battle, so that later, at a convenient and safe time, he could dump the accumulated heat from them, as the ships of lighter classes did.

The torpedo bomber never found himself in the thick of things, trying to jump so as to be on the edge of his maximum range of combat use with a slight shift from it towards its goal. After three volleys, the ship became absolutely useless, so he had to hurry to leave the combat area, quickly picking up speed for a hyper-jump. But this was not always the case - the jumps were not as accurate as desired, by the time a large torpedo bomber appeared, the fighting could shift in space due to which enemy warships could be dangerously close, and then the ship’s task was to make at least one effective salvo and immediately leave the unsafe battle zone.

This time the ship was in space, all alone. There was no usual cover, which was previously distributed in the area of ​​appearance of "Boran". There was not a single ship between him and the target. The launch complexes gradually earned and golden plasma ripples began to spread from the ship into the space. A few minutes later, the emitters of hyper-fields started working and at a distance of just over a million kilometers from the ship, the space was distorted by flashes of the created hyper-junctions. The torpedoes were ready by that time, but for some reason the ship was slow, spending a lot of energy on maintaining the hyper-junction points. A few minutes passed and finally the carrier made a volley. Two "opposite" torpedoes - one from the bow and one from the stern of the ship - simultaneously left their launch positions. Torpedoes always launched in pairs with a few pauses between the volleys. The torpedoes were huge. After each salvo, the ship slightly demolished in space, despite the compensation of launching torpedoes with special engines on the starboard side of the carrier. During the time, it seemed insignificant, the pauses between the two volleys powerful computing complexes of the torpedo bomber had time to shortcut the correction of hyper-transitions, the starting conditions and the parameters of the transition points for the next pair of torpedoes, although from the side it seemed that the ship just beautifully releases torpedoes one after another. When all the torpedoes were fired the ship began preparing for the second volley.

An hour later, the first fired torpedo pair reached its transition points. Torpedoes rotating at a monstrous speed split into several pieces. The warhead continued its flight by inertia, the torpedo body was divided into several independent parts, each of which slightly changed the frequency of its axial rotation and corrected its position in space. After a short time of group flight, parts of the torpedo's hull synchronously exploded, forming a spinning plasma rose with elongated petals in the direction of motion. Powerful impulse warheads, hiding inside these energy flowers, exploded and a couple of flashes blossomed in space. A directional vortex of superpowerful high-frequency radiation, born of a huge compression of magnetic fields, instantly dispersed the plasma reflectors, but was quickly pulled to the point of the hyperjunction, which immediately collapsed.

In the command center of the ship on the huge information panel the numbers have changed. Peripheral states, for understandable reasons, very reluctantly used the complete neural network control of their military equipment, not completely abandoning neural networks as effective tools, but always trying to duplicate their functionality to the maximum. The captain of the ship saw the results of the first salvo and expectedly twisted at the result of his work, literally yesterday and not on his own will, of the renewed team.

- Is this data correct? - the captain stared at the instantly blurred senior assistant. - Is this exactly what I see now? Here is this figure, to the point ... - the captain jabbed his finger in the direction of the wall with various information floating in the air in front of it in the form of numbers, diagrams and incomprehensible icons. “Is she ... non-zero?”

“This is the correct data,” the chief mate somehow immediately regretted his recent and such desirable assignment.

- Going beyond four and a half! Million !!! And this is a launch on a static target with previously known coordinates! The abyss of space, how will you work in a real fight ?!

- Captain, the starters worked out normally, but before the series of launches an unexpected situation with calculators arose. The parameters of the second wave are refined, we will meet in half a million. The problem arose only on the vector to the planet, with the first volleys we successfully covered all three nodes of the hyperlink.

The captain of the ship expressively looked at the assistant, but he restrained himself. The new team showed its results after a few trainings on simulators. And this result could be much better. Devil tear these mozglyak of the combined headquarters - and who just got a brilliant idea about the rotation of the composition right before the start of the operation? Yes, the Chief Officer is right, the Kraon calculators were inferior in capabilities to the Allies and the team now everywhere will have to work with a less intuitive interface and get used to more obtuse equipment, which can also play a prank and need to be able to parry it. And in a real fight, you need to parry quickly and without errors. Because their opponent will never forgive mistakes.

“If at least one of the following volleys confirms your level of skills and abilities, then all those responsible for the remainder of their lives will refine on support ships.” - The captain turned away from the assistant. - I guarantee.

They have a little less than a couple of hours left before the arrival of the main strike ships, and during this time the torpedo bomber should have made the task of clearing this system as easy as possible. And although the first volley certainly covered the space for the purpose, the captain rightly classified it as “missed”.

The early warning points of the Union of Central Worlds were not an easy object to destroy. Usually, SCM installed its peripheral fort posts in fairly large planetary systems. The system was strengthened so that it was simply impossible to take it right away. The defense system was distributed throughout the system. Nodal elements are usually located in planetoids or large asteroids, creating a natural solid protection. The Fleet of the SPM almost immediately recognized the attack, since the hyperlink equipment could not be destroyed at the same time everywhere. The location of the fixed nodes could somehow be known in advance, but it was almost impossible to detect inactive “floating” mobile hypertransmitters. The base could be destroyed, but after that the aggressor was expected by an inevitable meeting with the All-Union Football Federation of the SPM, which did not promise anything good.

In this system there was not the base itself, but only an early warning point. From the point of view of control of transport activity, the location was chosen strategically correctly - the point was located on the well-known and used route of the ships and covered the direction to the whole sector. The presence of a hyperdrive allowed the ships to jump in any direction in space, but for certain vectors it was somewhat energetically more profitable to jump, and sometimes even a little faster, therefore commercial ships always moved along such routes. To the military base itself and the habitable system in which it was located, from here there was exactly half the maximum jump. The base covered the next five worlds, including the system where one of the leading laboratories of the corporation Hypertech was located. The corporation that owned the technology that Kraonu lacked.

The attacked base must have withstood the first salvo, and it was hardly unexpected for it. The scanners could not fail to notice the exit of a large ship from the hyper and identify the “Boran” in it from the available signatures of the gravitational field perturbations and the characteristic spectrum of the propulsion system. And even more so the base learned about the preparation for the torpedo salvo, in time defended its sensitive equipment. But the second salvo will cover the target "to the point" and the fact that now somehow it can work guaranteed to stop working. The system of coordinated protection of space will collapse together with the automatic coordinating complex. The third salvo will disable the scanner complex on the fourth planet and the semi-automatic reserve command post located in the second planet's terminator, and also create a hole in the defensive belt of the few battle emptiness platforms between the orbits of the third and fourth planets. Such a scenario of capturing the system gave only a tactical advantage, because everything that happened in the system will be transmitted by one of the autonomous hypertransmitters, slowly spinning in very large orbits around the star. Cleaning the system, assembling a shock group and unexpectedly jumping straight to the SPM base will fail. It seems that there is no strategic sense in the operation. But the betrayal and timely sabotage by one of the officers of the early warning point completely changed the picture of what was happening.

The frontier space of the SPM was enmeshed in a double layer of early detection and warning points. Therefore, at a distance of three billion kilometers, the heavy carrier Krius, the twin of Boran, similarly ironed another early warning point. The network of automatic stations scattered in this sector of space will take almost two days to realize that the connection with the local control centers has been completely lost and several nodal stations will have to spend almost all their energy reserves on sending a hyper alarm to the SPM base. But the direction and time of the attack was not chosen by chance: after receiving the first alarms, within three to four hours high-speed raiders will appear in the vicinity of the SPM base, not yet expected by anyone, who will be the first to slip into the rather narrow channel formed in the sphere of defense of the Union of Central Worlds.

One of the most epoch-making confrontations between the SPM and the Periphery began, to which the leading States of the Peripherals, united in the Alliance, were preparing, no less, the last half of the millennium.

***

“The road to Maroua is clear. Two waves of tactical ship groups have already been sent. The torpedo bombers have almost finished reloading. ” The man in the blue military overalls quietly got acquainted with the neural network notification. He turned to the company of strictly dressed men, among whom only one stood out against the rest with his inappropriate jumper.

- As you probably already know, the first stage was successfully completed. Where is our beauty? We all gathered here so casually that it would be very convenient ...

The man broke off, being distracted by the neural network notification, and snorted.

“Yeah, that fox is already heading here.” I informed her that we are all here.

“It was necessary to attract her in advance, then you wouldn’t have to spend so much time on this whole circus,” grumbled one of the men who sat. - One anonymous trip here is worth something.

- She is very careful. Sometimes paranoid. An analysis of her psychological portrait says that, for our benefit, the official proposal should be made right now. Otherwise, she will start playing her games again, balancing between us. Suffer a little more and soon everyone will be able to part. We will never meet so secretly. Appreciate this moment, gentlemen!

“He is right,” said another man, “all the more so it was unreliable and even dangerous to attract her in advance.” I would prefer not to get involved with it even now, but the most advanced neurotechnologies are with her. Do you need someone to work with the NBS archives?

“Actually, I understand you,” said the man in the blue jumpsuit, pensively looking through a translucent window, “I myself, you know, despite my love of adventure, did not get used to being substituted like that.” This, after all, to think, ”he grunted,“ is one rocket in this window and the nine most powerful states of the Periphery will lose their rulers. She knows that we are all here. And surely sure that almost no one else knows about this. She can solve all her old offenses with one blow. She understands that we risk. We risk as they are not accustomed to risk. And it should work. Trust must be mutual. And the stakes are already more than just our lives.

An hour later, right in front of the most expensive metropolitan apartments of this world, the first pair of aeromobiles landed, from which people poured in combat gear and various robotic ground and flying support. This pair was followed by the following. Finally, from a single car, absolutely not distinguished from the rest, a short woman appeared, dressed in a white outfit.

The door to the room swung open and several bodyguards quickly entered, shook their heads and proceeded to the panoramic windows outside the mirror, which they clearly did not immediately like. Then a rapid-fire combat complex rolled into the door. After the appearance of several more combat complexes, the people present were a little nervous, since each was not under one gun. Finally, a lady appeared who critically and meticulously examined all those present.

- I propose to conduct mutual identification. After that, the guards will leave us and we will be able to communicate normally, - she smiled sweetly.

The man in the blue jumpsuit gallantly offered the woman to sit down and sat beside him. The identification procedure did not take long and the room was empty. In the corners only small listening protection systems remained.

- You are here so all randomly gathered. - The woman leaned back on the couch. - Officially, I now have a sudden visit to my social friend. Is everything official here?

The man wearing the jumper took a chair and sat down opposite the woman.

“Officially, only he is here,” he pointed towards the man in the blue jumpsuit. - Today he is our coordinator, it was he who organized the meeting and contacted you, Vivedit.

The man and the woman looked at each other for a long time.

- I wonder how long ago the first persons of as many as 10 far from the most recent states met?

- Yes, the meeting is historic. In all respects and with any completion. Vivedit, do you remember our last conversation? And my hypothetical suggestion? Now it is a reality.

Vivedit continued to stare coldly at her companion. A long minute passed before the woman broke mutual silence.

- But the hub base of the VKF is not an early warning point, which can be filled up with Kraon missiles alone.

- We do not expect to quickly get rid of the hub base, however, we reasonably believe that we will be very productive in using the effect of surprise and fully link the Union military forces in this sector of space while the second part of our combined fleet will perform its tasks in the nearby worlds data banks and research complexes of such corporations as Hypertech, NBS, Energon. The Maroua base is weakened enough as a result of the corporate confrontation in the Union that we have skilfully designed. A few months ago, remember? It was us - our best analysts showed what they can do. In the Maroua sector, the NBS and Hypertech corporations behaved unusually peacefully and this provoked the taking of ships from the base in other sectors. Some have not returned so far, and thosewho returned embarked for maintenance with partial combat unloading and disbanding of teams to rest. These powerful ships are now completely defenseless targets. You just need to know where they are located exactly and how quickly you can push the shipyard defense system through. And we know that, - the talking man spread his arms and smiled.

Silence fell again. Vivedit, a hardened politician, dragged time as best she could, trying to figure out the situation in light of new information.

- And what will happen when the Union will be shocked by your arrogance? When will some of their fleets head to Maroua?

- As soon as this fort-post collapses, we are sure that the rest, more cautious, states will realize the military power of the Allied united fleet, will join in and start biting the Union from all sides. You know that pacifism on the periphery has never been in fashion. The military might of the Union can completely erase any of us into cosmic dust. But he will have to distribute the forces to cover his habitat, and this will greatly complicate the serious expeditionary operations. We are well aware that their analysts will quickly calculate the situation and the Union Fleet will try to do everything possible to solve the local problem that has arisen. Therefore, a very important role is assigned to the dissemination of information representing the military successes of the Alliance in the light we need.All operations and combat battles will be carefully documented and spread quickly throughout the Periphery. Personnel and video clips of mass destruction of the VKF SPCM ships by the Alliance raiders, successful combat skirmishes, materials for capturing corporate complexes, safe life of the cities of the central worlds cooperating with the Alliance - all this should show that we are capable of almost everything. The man in the street does not need to know about the hundred-year preparation of sabotage at early warning points and corporate complexes, about the inability of the destroyed ships to defend themselves, about the fact that neither the Union base, nor the corporate complexes were simply ready for the invasion and there will no longer be such easy victories. A man in the street should simply believe in our power, the power of the Alliance. To believe and make a small or big contribution to the next blow to the Union.The information system of the Alliance will deliver new and vivid information every few hours, and we will make sure that this data is overused by the Allies and correctly presented to end users. This is no less a simple task than hitting Maroua, perhaps even more difficult, but we have leverage in the right worlds to get exactly the result that is required.

Again a minute of silence. All those present understood everything perfectly without words. They even knew how this meeting would end. But it was a game and it was necessary to play it to the end. One side pressed with opening opportunities, the second side resisted anxiously.

- It is somehow doubtful that you will succeed in countering Allied propaganda well. On the other hand, - she slightly shrugged her shoulders, - no one forbids the first time to effectively suppress the known hyperlink nodes, although this will lead to destabilization of communication throughout the Periphery. What do you even have to hand. But ... In any case, the Union will destroy someone. Under my supervision, the population of almost five worlds. I care about his welfare and would not want it to suffer.

Some men smiled at the corners of their lips. Vivedit cares about the population? The politician began a veiled trade participation in the war of his fleet. The case has moved from the dead point.

- Vivedit, the official participation of your armed forces is a prerequisite. I think you yourself understand that this is very important. But each of the participants has the right to leave up to fifteen percent of their ships in their system. In any case, you are in the second circuit. For Craon and Nemeresta, the risk of retaliation is disproportionately higher than for your worlds. And when the Union will be up to you ... I think by that time it will be too far for you to reach out.

The woman sighed emphatically and asked the next question.

- And what are the first corporate goals?

- The first world is already defined - the world of Gauss, in which the complex of the corporation Hypertech is located. The operation is almost entirely carried out by the Kraon military space forces, which will be the main beneficiary of this operation in the event of its success. Any corporate complex was a tough nut that is inaccessible in peacetime and usually difficult to crack even after orbital strikes. But this time, the right people in the nodes of the complex management have the right motivation, which greatly increases the likelihood of rapid capture of intact equipment, entire data banks and living lab workers. At the same time, a large NBS complex in the neighboring world will be hit. And the probability of his successful capture is also high. We will take it without your military, everything will be clean for you.But an urgent need to create and send a team of specialists, so that they all have a good look. This is your direct interest. After all, you are given the future role of our Dyad Ivor. If you agree to it.

They looked at each other for a long time.

- Well, hell with you. I agree. - Vivedit nodded and quite smiled. It was noticeable that she was flattered by such a comparison and she did not even consider it necessary to hide it.

The man got up and looked at the woman with a picture of his hand around all those present.

- Welcome to the Alliance!

***

The President of the Union of Central Worlds thoughtfully looked at the three-dimensional scheme. The irregular sphere was pierced with yellow threads and covered with golden growths, all this visually visualized the NBS infrastructure involved in the new project of the neurostop. Obviously, Sergeev very soon will not return to the project, but it is possible that it is even better - it took the project under its complete control, and with her grip there is no doubt that everything shown will become a reality. The sharp and unpleasant neural network call of the highest priority interrupted all human thoughts.

- We have an emergency. - The interviewee did not introduce himself and even omitted the formalities when addressing the president of the CMS. - In the world of Maroua made a military invasion. The hub of the sector in this world currently has only thirty percent of combat-capable ships, the rest have been transferred to the opposite border of the sector to participate in resolving the conflict of corporations. Almost everyone who managed to return and get up to the docks, destroyed by enemy raiders, we have already lost twenty-three percent of the total number of ships of this base. The planned defense of the system is organized, but the enemy is rapidly pushing it. We incur losses in unequal single skirmishes. The opponent is too well informed. According to preliminary analysis, - the speaker made a pause and swallowed almost imperceptibly,- we will lose the Maroua system and the nearest worlds to it in the next couple of days. In such a case, the code Silvea-14 is provided, but you must authorize its activation.

The president was silent. Who attacked? Craon? Duina? Markaneeeoah? Who ever dared to attack !? How did they manage to strike suddenly? Didn't the early warning network work? Why precisely Maroua? Base CMS? Or do they need Gaussi with the Hypertech Research Center? Or experimental production Energona? Maybe the NBS complex? Why the defense of the system is quickly crushed? What the hell is going on? A loud heartbeat with a bell struck in the ears, a perceptible vibration from it spread throughout the body. The neural network of the president did not receive a response to a request for a hormonal correction of the state of its carrier and quickly introduced corrective drugs into the blood. The man blinked and took a deep breath.

- Who is the enemy?

- We still do not know exactly. All information received is contradictory and indicate different States of the Periphery. Transport infrastructure is disrupted throughout the sector. Communication is unstable. In the system of panic.

- Where is Arus?

- But the day before yesterday Arus was biologically corrected. I thought you know ... The

President took a deep breath again. Yes, he remembered. Accident?And the corporate conflict? In the head of a man, the events of the last six months began to fly with lightning speed. Events clung to each other, stretched one after another, and formed into a single, not promising anything good, picture. The analytical neural network of the president helped to quickly recall and link individual episodes of past history. Everything was connected very logical, if you look at it from a slightly different angle than was considered before.

- Isolate the threat in that part of the sector. I immediately impose a general martial law. The code will be confirmed within half an hour, start preparing for its quick working out.

The neural network call ended, leaving a clear silence. The man swept out of the air already a meaningless hologram with golden threads and called for a sector plan. Lists of worlds, icons of large hyperlink stations, significant infrastructure points, nodes of union and corporate significance, military bases. The union of the central worlds has not globally fought for a long time. But the threat of invasion periodically studied. Arous even conducted unexpected trainings, about the beginning of which the Council of the SCM found out just a few hours before they began. The activated security code did a lot for the people: the military received clear instructions, corporations were ordered to immediately evacuate or destroy their critical infrastructure of development and production, the introduction of martial law automatically redistributed powers between politicians and the militaryrelatively quickly translating the life of society on a war footing. One was a problem - all this was already needed by very few people, since it was assumed that early warning points would detect the enemy's invasion beforehand, giving the world to prepare for at least 24 hours. The notification of the highest priority interrupted the rapid flow of thoughts of a very middle-aged person. After reviewing him, the president nodded in satisfaction — the head of security did not waste time on the report, but he was already working. The president did not hesitate any more and sent out to all members of the high council a notice of an urgent virtual meeting within five minutes.The notification of the highest priority interrupted the rapid flow of thoughts of a very middle-aged person. After reviewing him, the president nodded in satisfaction — the head of security did not waste time on the report, but he was already working. The president did not hesitate any more and sent out to all members of the high council a notice of an urgent virtual meeting within five minutes.The notification of the highest priority interrupted the rapid flow of thoughts of a very middle-aged person. After reviewing him, the president nodded in satisfaction — the head of security did not waste time on the report, but he was already working. The president did not hesitate any more and sent out to all members of the high council a notice of an urgent virtual meeting within five minutes.

***

Zarkon was looking at an image of an unknown star system containing several planets. This star did not have a habitable zone. Rather, it was, but there were two very small rocky planets, obviously not having any conditions for life.

Syed disappeared at the most inopportune moment. Disappeared guaranteed for a long time, and maybe forever. And it was on Zarcon that the burden of decision-making was laid down. The periphery started another war with the center. The scale hit. It was amazing how the security service of the SCS was able to miss the long preparation for such a scale of warfare. It was even more striking that the Order of the Guardians was not ready. How can you miss the preparation for such a grand event, having huge amounts of data and using various methods of indirect analysis? They fixed the increasing tension of the SPM and the Periphery, its result was predictable, but no one expected it to grow into an open conflict so quickly. The periphery does not have any special resource constraints, but it is in dire need of modern technologies,export of which SPM is very limited. As a result of the policy of the CMS, which technologically equalizes the state of the Periphery and does not allow an excessive amplification of the influence of any one state over others, local conflicts periodically occur over the redistribution of spheres of influence and resource extraction. As a rule, the SPM is the first to win, and the warring worlds are thrown back in a balanced development. Of course, not everyone liked this and infinity could not continue.and the warring worlds are rejected in a balanced development. Of course, not everyone liked this and infinity could not continue.and the warring worlds are rejected in a balanced development. Of course, not everyone liked this and infinity could not continue.

The recent corporate conflict within the SPC has now played with completely different colors: the role of the States of the Peripherals was defined by the custodians correctly, but they incorrectly interpreted what happened. Cid wanted a balanced development of civilization? So it came - a number of new politicians appeared with a fundamentally different assessment of the current reality, who managed to step over their sole leadership ambitions and unite large states, and they did it so masterfully that no one suspected anything until the very last moment. What will happen next is more than clear. With such an overwhelming military superiority, the Maroua system will be completely destroyed and the Allies will start hurriedly, fearing that they will not have time, to bite off pieces of the possessions of the SPC. The Union of Worlds burns along its border and is unlikely to be able to quickly and effectively fight back,that will only generate confidence in the forces of the peripheral worlds. Throw half of the worlds to effectively protect the rest? The reputational losses of such a decision will be enormous. Confidence in the reliability of the Union will not even those whom he will be able to protect. If the SCM cannot preserve integrity, then this is fraught with a strong increase in the role of the Alliance. However, the Alliance itself will not be able to be united for a long time: it was created by a group of strong personalities, and it is precisely this that predetermines its split, this is evidenced by the whole history of mankind. Zarkon was looking into the future, but, without the intervention of the Order, he saw there alone chaos.whom he will be able to protect. If the SCM cannot preserve integrity, then this is fraught with a strong increase in the role of the Alliance. However, the Alliance itself will not be able to be united for a long time: it was created by a group of strong personalities, and it is precisely this that predetermines its split, this is evidenced by the whole history of humanity. Zarkon was looking into the future, but, without the intervention of the Order, he saw there alone chaos.whom he will be able to protect. If the SCM cannot preserve integrity, then this is fraught with a strong increase in the role of the Alliance. However, the Alliance itself will not be able to be united for a long time: it was created by a group of strong personalities, and it is precisely this that predetermines its split, this is evidenced by the whole history of humanity. Zarkon was looking into the future, but, without the intervention of the Order, he saw there alone chaos.

What to do right? You can carry out a point intervention and return the status quo. This will certainly work, but how long will the world last? The next time Peripherals will simply take into account the existence of the Order. Mankind has spread too much into space, it is becoming more and more difficult to control and coordinate, and this is what becomes the natural cause of the emerging conditions for splitting it. The technology for attempting to smooth this effect is already there, but it will take centuries to develop and bring to a safe use the neurostop. During such a time, it is difficult to guarantee the safety of the project, any major collision can slow down or completely throw the development back. People are very intelligent and inventive creatures. This perfectly demonstrates the beginning of this war.
And if the plan of externalists already takes into account the existence of the Order? To preserve the mystery and neutrality of the Order is impossible endless time. Or suddenly it is a cunning trick of the Union of Central Worlds? And in fact, they merged with the Periphery to manifest the Order and, finally, end it and delete it from their history? After all, SCM wants it for a long time, time has long erased the psychological consequences of confronting the Order in the past.

Zarkon looked at the image. There, in the depths of the system in space, the fleet of the Order of Guardians drifts slowly. Not a few pennants. Not a tactical ship group. And not even a battle group. The squadron, which in combat power is fully consistent with the full fleet. Twenty different warships and support ships and a half dozen long-distance breakthrough raiders. Combat spacecraft, upgraded to the Order technologies, which the Union of Central Worlds is just beginning to introduce. Yes, you need to honestly admit that there are problems with the crews for ships, but what can be put on alert will be very impressive.

Democratic-corporate model of the Central Worlds? Or maybe a model of directory submission? A model in which you can simply determine what to do and how to do and stop wasting significant time, effort and money on observing and adjusting social formalities, balancing the interests of worlds and various social groups. After all, if for people the conditions and standard of living will be the same, then what's the difference? Why this gradation and retention of significant technologies at any cost? Take the Order - after all, its upper level of governance is essentially clearly prescriptive, the liberalization of governance comes from the top down, but even then not for all branches of government. Yes, centralization carries a lot of risks. Reduced flexibility and autonomy. Atrophy of the initiative. Uncontrolled collapse of civilization in the event of a rupture of its controlling rod.And one of today's greatest risks is to make a mistake and not have time to carry out the interception and restructuring of management. In the Union of Central Worlds, and now in the Alliance, there are excellent analysts, the confrontation with which can plunge all civilization into uncontrollable chaos. However, the Order of the offensive "dark time" Order now had at least some kind of insurance.

Zarkon has long suspected that the Order of the Guardians did not arise just like that. It is very unlikely that a management structure formed by itself that would specifically drag the development of another, essentially competitive, system. The Order is constantly looking for the knowledge and technology of the ancients and even occasionally finds something. Despite the fact that for the most part this is rubbish, one discovery of neural network equipment justified almost everything. However, this is not so important. Indeed, probably, the Order is the main and unconscious legacy of the past civilization. It is not known for certain what happened to that civilization, but it was so developed that it could have taken care and left some kind of recovery subsystem that did not allow humanity to slide back to a completely wild planetary level. Zarkon felt this intuitively. Because in the last century,with Siid’s silent approval, did the same. Well-hidden two ships in a star system, located far from transport routes. Moderately developed and peaceful world. The underground complex strengthened and stuffed with the most up-to-date technology and archives of the Order, reliably protecting the male and female contained in it, whose human qualities combined with intelligence, knowledge and skills, are able to try to revive the Order. Zarkon understood that the more complex the plan, the more he had successive stages of execution, the higher the probability of his failure. However, to have at least something better than not having anything at all. The head of the Order managed to make only the first step towards the creation of the reserve-restoration subsystem of the Order. And this step was made so wellas far as one can imagine stopping the bomb timer a second before its explosion.

It seemed to him that there, in the depths of the system, sparkled a sparkle - the flagship of the fleet with some mirror-polished elements for some reason - the ship of the ancients, whose technical characteristics and firepower allowed him to feel on an equal footing with an enhanced tactical ship group. Even in spite of the fact that almost all the stuffing of the ship had to be replaced with a modern, probably less effective than the original one. This ship alone could have a huge impact on the current conflict. Until the last conversation with Siid, Zarkon did not even imagine what real power the Order had, although as the second coordinator he was very well aware of the possibilities and available resources of the organization. The fleet is a tool that gives great power. The tool to be used correctly.

To interfere or not to interfere? Who and where to help? Zarkon did not just understand the scale of what was happening, he felt a chill from this understanding. He has never encountered such a scale and speed of events. Need to work quickly and accurately. For the Union of Central Worlds and the Periphery, this is just another milestone in history, and each of its sides will try to get through quickly. For the Order it is a test, a test of the goal and the very idea of ​​its existence. At the periodic collections of the Order of the Cid, they often offered to familiarize themselves with one or another book from their library and Zarcon always leafed through them, selectively reading them. Now he felt like the next page of the book “The History of Mankind” turned over and there was paper dust on his fingers after turning over this page. Zarkon darkly looked at her next absolutely blank page, realizingthat it is for him to start writing it, regardless of what names and events on it will be mentioned. How can you not believe in fate, even if his inaction will write his own hand the first sentence on this page. Zarcon's eyes softened. What will be in this first line? Union of Central Worlds and Peripherals? Or ... maybe ... Star Empire?

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Unexpected meeting. Chapter 18.
Text version: 1.0.0.
Date of first publication 02.10.2018.
Last edited date: 10/02/2018.

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The full table of contents is given in Chapter 1 .

Quick navigation:
Chapter 17 - previous chapter.
Chapter 18 is the current chapter (last).

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Everything in our world tends to end. Depending on the situation and subjective perception, someone perceives it with regret, someone with joy, and someone neutral. 33 months after its beginning, this story finally ended, in order to give life to a new one. Thanks to all who still endured;)

I want to thank the users of Habr, as well as those who addressed me through the website dedicated to the book, for their feedback. I am even surprised that quite a few people spent their personal time and sent me, sometimes quite voluminous, corrections and remarks, as a result of which the chapters of the novel were constantly adjusted. Just over a year ago, I even had to enter the version numbering in order not to get confused in the text variants. Thank you, I really appreciate your participation, support and constructive, regardless of tonality, criticism. Separately, I thank Anatoly Smakayev for a large-scale proofreading and stylistic-editorial notes for the last chapters of the book.

The “Unexpected Meeting” was originally conceived as a short story from two to four chapters with a shifted emphasis on the technical part. However, by the end, we already had a full-fledged novel, which went far beyond the plot inside the steel box, called the Trilem spaceship. The main article, the initially unplanned plot change, the author's unprofessionalism with its stylistic and editorial mistakes make the “Unexpected Meeting” published by a deep draft of the draft. Even the name no longer reflects what was originally intended. In fact, now it looks like an overly extended script for the film, in which many scenes are described in detail. Therefore, as I promised in the epilogue to chapter 12, I decided to continue working on this book.

This novel will be transformed into a new book called "Neurostop". On the crowdfunding platform Planeta, the project “Neurostop” was created and I invite you to take direct (sponsoring) or indirect (for example, mentioning a project on your blog or social networks page) in it. The purpose of this project is a large-scale author's correction, the funds raised, if they are of course collected at all, go to proofreading, editing, registering and publishing a package, as well as issuing an electronic version of a full-fledged book. I initially do not aim at the paper version, most of the amount is required for professional proofreading and editing. Why so? Why am I addressing crowdsourcing specifically, and not going along the classical path to the publishing houses - now there are no problems to publish a book for free? First of all, I would like to make an artistically high-quality product completely retaining the rights to the work. Unfortunately, the policy of many, if not the overwhelming majority, of publishing houses implies the transfer of rights to a work and the universe to the publisher, or their transfer for a specific period. I would like to leave at least the first version of the book in the public domain. Secondly, I am afraid that the publishing editorial will very much wash the technical component of the book as opposed to the artistic and storyline, I would like to keep it - fantastic books with a similar style I meet not very often, but it is the technical accent, the revealed highlight of technomagy that makes them fictional The world is very appealing. Thirdly, the work on the “Unexpected Meeting” was public and quite a few people took part in proofreading and editing, many expressed interest in material support for the author’s work. Now you can not just support my work, but do it with an understanding of the final result.

However, crowdfunding is not the main thing. The book "Neurostop" will be written regardless of the success of this project! If the crowdfunding fails, then the "Neurostop" can be followed in social networks and a blog. The success of crowdfunding will only affect the quality and timing of the work. In the process of working on the correction of the book I need, already more concentrated, to look at the resulting world and decide whether I would be interested further and whether it is worth developing it further. As a result of these corrections and adjustments, the work will be somewhat transformed, and the volume will most likely increase. I think that all this together will make the reading of “Neurostop” interesting even to those who know “Unexpected meeting” well.

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Information for readers
For the book and the possible continuation of the development of this universe, if it, of course, follows, you can follow in the relevant groups on Vkontakte or Facebook , as well as on my website , where you can subscribe to the old, kind, convenient, anonymous and tube RSS , and also download a book in fb2 or pdf format.