"Eric Flint - Grantville Gazette - Vol 7" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

So, grab your coffee (or whatever beverage), load up on the chocolate bonbon's, kick back in the
chair, and have a good time. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
Paula Goodlett and the Editoral Board
April 2, 2006




FICTION

Canst Thou Send Lightnings?
By Rick Boatright
In like manner the lightning when it breaketh forth is easy to be seen; and after
the same manner the wind bloweth in every country.
(Deuterocanonical Apocrypha, The Epistle of Jeremiah:61)

To: The Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Rome
From: Adolph Wise S.J., University of Eichstaett.
Enclosed with this letter you will find an example of the 'Crystal Radio' that is being
distributed throughout Thuringia. I enclose also instructions for the construction of more of these
Radios as distributed by the American government.
I testify, of my own knowledge, further attested by the witnesses signatures hereto affixed and
sealed, that anywhere within fifty miles of Grantville on most evenings, when you place your ear
next to the opening in the box, you can hear voices and music and other sounds which originate
miles away in Grantville. These voices are sent through the air itself by the lightnings into the
wires of the Radio. The Radio is delicate and fails to function with the least mis-adjustment.
However, when adjusted properly, at the correct time of day anyone can hear the Voice of
America sent forth from the great stone tower of the Radio Station in Grantville.
No one that I have spoken with here in the university can begin to understand how this works.
The Americans insist that this is nothing but another of their mechanical arts, related to the
"electricity" of which I wrote in an earlier letter. They maintain that there is nothing more
involved than the proper arrangement and composition of mundane physical materials. If so,
then, as with so many other devices to be found in and around Grantville, it is the knowledge they
possess that is important.
I have spoken with the local clergy, and they inform me that the Radios are being built mostly
by jewelers and others who are used to working with fine wires and small detail work. There are
others who are working on the equipment to send the lightnings from the great tower to the
Radios. Again, the local clergy tell me that this equipment, although considerably more robust
than the Radios, is still remarkably delicate in some ways and requires the deft touch of jewelers
and similar folk.
The Americans insist that they welcome students. They also are training workers to assist in
building their next "Radio Station," which they plan to locate in Magdeburg. When completed, it
will be placed at Gustav Adolphus' disposal. It is said that he intends to use this voice to promote
Lutheranism.
I beg of you to find within our ranks a young man, skilled in the jeweler's arts and firm in the
Church, and send him to us. Some one of us must take this training, in order that we may first
gain the knowledge of how this art works, and second, perhaps in some way delay or prevent the
establishment of Gustavus Adolphus' Voice of Luther. Simultaneously, we must work to produce a
Radio Station that can bring to the people the saving grace of the Holy Mother Church.
Signed