"Jack Dann - Jumping The Road" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dann Jack)

even spoke HebrewтАж well, they spoke something like Hebrew.
Why didnтАЩt I want to go to TobiasтАФto Covenant, to Ulim, if you like?
Why wouldnтАЩt I want to verify a miracle and renew my faith?
The truth?
I was afraid. I had come to terms with history. Faith could not supplant
reason. The evidence was incontrovertible.
Had been incontrovertibleтАж



The shuttle landed in the country of Chakk, which had once been the
Mesopotamia of this planet. Although it was in a northern latitude, it was
quite temperate. The landing field was huge, for this was a major
spaceport, but it was, in effect, a crater in the center of a coral green city
of bole and root and leaf the size of New Boston. I waited in the airlock,
alone, staring out the bolted plastocene door, as if I was a pariah; the crew
and other passengers had debouched earlier. As this was my first visit, I
had to wait in isolation. It seemed like days, but it was only hours. By
exposing me to enough radiation to make me glow like a tropical fish, they
would certainly make me kosher. I guess they didnтАЩt trust anyoneтАЩs
infection control procedures but their own. So what could be lost but a
little time? IтАЩm ninety-seven years old. IтАЩve got a slow metabolism. A little
radiation wonтАЩt kill me, and if it does, that wouldnтАЩt be such a loss.
The TzaddikтАФthe тАЬGood Jew who makes miracles and talks with God,тАЭ
the grand rabbi, my bossтАФwould just have to send someone younger and
less cynical to discover the nature of God.
So I stood before the lock and stared out into the landing field. It would
soon be time, for an alien stood on the field below and waited for me. He
didnтАЩt wave, nor did he move around or shift his weight from foot to foot.
He stood still as stone, his yellowish eyes fixed on me. He wore a blue
yarmulke that fitted tightly to his bald, blue-gray headтАФthe kind of
yarmulkes handed out at Bar Mitzvahs on Long IslandтАФand a
black-striped prayer-shawl was draped over his shoulders. Suddenly a
crowd of other Ulimites gathered before the shuttle, but they stayed well
away from the one dressed as a Jew. Those that came too close to him
moved away quickly with nervous grins on their faces. Except for the Jew,
they all seemed agitated. The Ulimites were dressed in fine linens that
billowed and ballooned, multi-hued gowns and coats and breeches that
were meant to create new shapes rather than accentuate or improve
nature. It reminded me of sixteenth-century English fashion, the kind of
clothes worn during the reign of Henry VIII.
A human delegation arrived, all in evening clothes; so I was to be
formally received.
I would have preferred to go off quietly with the alien in the tallis.
Then the ship wished me farewell, the lock sighed open, and I walked
down the enclosed gangway. The mossy smells of forest and grass, which
were carried on gentle breezes, were overwhelming. I shook hands with the
ambassador from the Canadian States and his officers from the foreign
office, and was introduced to the alien ambassador and other dignitaries
who extended their seven-fingered hands to greet me. Their skin was