"Robert Doherty - Area 51 - The Reply" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doherty Robert)

15


control room snapped on and a high-pitched tone screeched.
At those two simultaneous occurrences, Brillon dropped his Coke, the can
bouncing on the carpeted floor, dark fluid pouring out unnoticed as he stared at
the flashing warning light. Comp-ton was more practical. She immediately hit the
record button on the console in front of her, which turned on every piece of
monitoring machinery in the control center. Then she focused her attention on
the large screen to her left, which had a series of electronic grid lines laid
over the section of star map the radio scopes were currently aimed at.
"Off center, move quadrants. Left four, up two," she ordered.
Brillon shook his head, trying to get back in reality, and Compton had to
repeat the order until he sat down at another console and began realigning the
radio telescopes to be more on line with the incoming message.
Compton spun her chair to the left and looked at another screen. A jumbled
mass of letters and numbers filled the entire display. "We've got data coming
in," she said in a surprisingly calm voice. "Real data," she added, meaning it
was not random radio waves generated by astral phenomena.
"Sweet Jesus," Brillon muttered, realizing what this meant. Contact. Not first
contact as they had always dreamedтАФthat had occurred with the discovery of the
Airlia artifactsтАФbut this was first live contact, beside which even those
earlier discoveries paled.
Compton checked another display. "Damn, it's

16


a strong signal. Very strong." She glanced over at her partner. "Are you dead on
yet?"
"I've centered up as best I can," Brillon reported, "but it's a very tight
transmission beam and I can't seem to center."
"How do you make a radio transmission on a beam?" Compton asked. "They're not
directional."
Brillon didn't have time to answer the hypothetical question as he continued
to work. Compton quickly turned to another computer and accessed the secure
Department of Defense Satellite Internet Link. She typed in the two addresses
that she had long ago memorized but never used. As soon as she got a line and a
prompt, she typed.
>NSA AND STAAR THIS IS DSCC-10. WE'VE GOT A TRANSMISSION AT 235 DEGREES AND AN
ARC OF PLUS 60 FROM ZERO.
Compton cursed to herself as she read the message. She quickly typed in more
information.
>NSA AND STAAR THIS IS DSCC-10. TRANSMISSION IS NOT RANDOM.
Compton sat back in the chair and waited while replies came back.
RECORDING MESSAGE?
Compton shook her head in irritation at the STAAR questions.

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151152153154155156157158159160161162163164165166167168169170171172173174175176177178179180181182183184