"CLARKE, Arthur C. - Odyssey 2 - 2010 Odyssey Two" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clarke Arthur C)

'That wasn't my idea.'

'Glad to hear it: I even believe you. And we appreciate the fact that you're now letting everyone examine the thing - which of course is what you should have done in the first place. Not that it's done much good...'

There was a gloomy silence while the two men contemplated the black enigma up there on the Moon, still contemptuously defying all the weapons that human ingenuity could bring to bear upon it. Then the Russian scientist continued.

'Anyway, whatever the Tycho monolith may be, there's something more important out at Jupiter. That's where it sent its signal, after all. And that's where your people ran into trouble. Sorry about that, by the way - though Frank Poole was the only one I knew personally. Met him at the '98 IAF Congress - he seemed a good man.'

'Thank you; they were all good men. I wish we knew what happened to them.'

'Whatever it was, surely you'll admit that it now concerns the whole human race - not merely the United States. You can no longer try to use your knowledge for purely national advantage.'

'Dimitri - you know perfectly well that your side would have done exactly the same thing. And you'd have helped.'

'You're absolutely right. But that's ancient history - like the just-departed administration of yours that was responsible for the whole mess. With a new President, perhaps wiser counsels will prevail.'

'Possibly. Do you have any suggestions, and are they official or just personal hopes?'

'Entirely unofficial at the moment. What the bloody politicians call exploratory talks. Which I shall flatly deny ever occurred.'

'Fair enough. Go on.'

'Okay - here's the situation. You're assembling Discovery 2 in parking orbit as quickly as you can, but you can't hope to have it ready in less than three years, which means you'll miss the next launch window -,

'I neither confirm nor deny. Remember I'm merely a humble university chancellor, the other side of the world from the Astronautics Council.'

'And your last trip to Washington was just a holiday to see old friends, I suppose. To continue: our own Alexei Leonov -,

'I thought you were calling it Gherman Titov.'

'Wrong, Chancellor. The dear old CIA's let you down again. Leonov it is, as of last January. And don't let anyone know I told you it will reach Jupiter at least a year ahead of Discovery.'

'Don't let anyone know I told you we were afraid of that. But do go on.'

'Because my bosses are just as stupid and shortsighted as yours, they want to go it alone. Which means that whatever went wrong with you may happen to us, and we'll all be back to square one - or worse.'

'What do you think went wrong? We're just as baffled as you are. And don't tell me you haven't got all of Dave Bowman's transmissions.'

'Of course we have. Right up to that last "My God, it's full of stars!" We've even done a stress analysis on his voice patterns. We don't think he was hallucinating; he was trying to describe what he actually saw.'

'And what do you make of his doppler shift?'

'Completely impossible, of course. When we lost his signal, he was receding at a tenth of the speed of light. And he'd reached that in less than two minutes. A quarter of a million gravities!'

'So he must have been killed instantly.'

'Don't pretend to be naive, Woody. Your space-pod radios aren't built to withstand even a hundredth of that acceleration. If they could survive, so could Bowman - at least, until we lost contact.'

'Just doing an independent check on your deductions. From there on, we're as much in the dark as you are. If you are.'