《Retief Piecemakers 》作者：- Keith Laumer【EPUB】

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deep synthetic interest. quotSlox Magnan S-L-O-X. Inveterate troublemakers from the Slox System half a dozen lights in-Arm. It appears both they and the Groaci are claiming mandateship of Yudore an unexceptionalplanet of a small Class G sun well off the trade routes.quot quotWell why doesnt one of them just go mandate somewhere elsequot a Commerce man demanded. quotThereare scads of available planets out that way.quot quotThe Groaci state that Yudore falls within their natural sphere of influencequot Thunderstrokesaid. quotAs for the Slox their position is that they found the place first.quot quotThey could flip a coin for itquot the Commerce man snapped. quotThen we could all get back tomatters of importance such as the abnormal rate of increase in the rate of decrease of theexpansion of the trend toward reduction of increasing berp-nut consumption among unwed fathersages nine through ninety on backward worlds of the Nicodeman group a development which I justdetected this morning through the use of refined psychostatistical techniques.quot quotGood lord Chesterquot—a political forecast specialist picked up the cue—quotwhat will be theprojected impact of this downturn in the upturnquot quotUpturn of the downturn if you must use laymans languagequot Chester corrected. quotWhy at thepresent rate it appears that by fiscal ninety-seven therell be a record high in unwedfathers.quot quotTo return to the subject at hand gentlemenquot Thunderstroke cut in ominously quotboth parties tothe dispute have dispatched battle fleets to stand by off Yudore primed for action.quot quotHmm. Seems to me theres a solution of sorts implicit in that datumquot someone murmured. quotLet us hope not An outbreak of hostilities in the Sector would blot our copybooks badlygentlemenquot Thunderstroke glared at the offender. quotUnfortunately the Groaci Ambassador has assured me privatelyquot he continued grimly quotthat hisgovernments position is unalterable. Groaci doctrine as he explained matters makesaccommodation with what he terms vile-smelling opportunists impossible while a spokesman forthe