Empyrion I: The Search for Fierra Read Online Free PDF

right. We lose a certain amount of control as soon as the colonial charter is ratified in the League Internationale.”
    “You create a colony, finance it, and then give it its freedom. So? That's the cost of doing business, isn't it?”
    “Of course. But an extrasystem colony would be an entirely different matter. First of all, there would have to be scientific studies carried out by the Lein and when they were through tramping around, trying to determine whether we had any right to be there, it would go to debate in the House of Nations, and then new legislation would have to be written, voted, enacted, and so on. Decades would pass before we saw a charter, Mr. Treet. If ever.”
    Treet had nothing to say to this. He had simply never thought about it before.
    “Now then, suppose
you
were in a position to establish such a colony, what would you do?” '
    “I don't know.”
    “I think you do. You are an intelligent and practical man; you would choose the path of least resistance.”
    “And form an illegal colony?”
    “Not illegal, Mr. Treet. Extralegal. There are no laws to govern this situation; they do not exist as yet.”
    Treet granted the point, then asked what had been uppermost in his mind all along. “But how do you get there? Even traveling at the speed of light—which we'll never get anywhere close to— it would take over ten years just to reach Epsilon Eridani.”
    “What would you say if I told you the trip could be made in slightly less than twelve weeks?”
    Treet did not let his jaw drop, though he felt like it. “Are you telling me you have a vehicle that can travel faster than lightspeed?”
    Varro smiled broadly. “I don't believe anyone has suggested that at all, though we are working on it. No, we have discovered something quite different.”
    “But you're not at liberty to tell me what it is, am I right?”
    “If I told you and you declined the Chairman's offer, I'm afraid that would put us at something of a disadvantage.”
    Something told Treet that Cynetics was seldom at even the slightest disadvantage. “I see.”
    “Let's just say that it might be possible to make the distance between points a good deal shorter.”
    Treet ran his hands through his hair and rubbed them over his face. He didn't know what to think. There were theories that such a thing as telescoping space might be possible under certain circumstances—black holes, for example. Anyway, no one had ever gotten close enough to a black hole to find out exactly what did happen, nor was anyone likely to in the near or distant future.
    Still, suppose what Varro was telling him was absolutely true. What then? “Are you saying that this whole scheme is merely the whim of an eccentric, wealthy old man?”
    “I wouldn't use just those words, but yes, that's the sense of it. But don't give me your answer just now. Think it over; sleep on it. We'll talk again in the morning.”
    Varro showed Treet out and led him to the private elevator. The uniformed attendant was there waiting for him. “Enjoy your evening, Mr. Treet. I'll be looking forward to seeing you again.”
    As he sat in his luxury apartment, thinking about all that had taken place in the last twelve (or however many) hours, it occurred to Treet that he could make no sense of the situation because he had not eaten in at least that long. His brain cells were shrieking for nourishment.
    He rose, somewhat dizzily, and made his way to the window that formed a wall of his apartment. He was somewhere in the middle of the building, judging from the height as he had estimated it from the top story (if Neviss' floor had in fact been the top story). A violet twilight, thick with faintly luminous haze, trailed across the landscape—mostly hills dense with short round trees: live oak and mesquite. Away toward the east (he presumed it was the east since he could not see the sunset at all), the faint glimmer of lights smudged the horizon. There was not enough to be seen from his