"Alan Dean Foster - Alien Nation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

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both states could see it because the desert air that morning was so clear.
Also because the Ship was six miles long.
The Army demonstrated its efficiency by completely surrounding and
isolating the site within twenty-four hours of the first sighting.
Unfortunately, in its haste to mobilize, three civilians and half a
platoon of soldiers were killed in separate accidents. Beyond the actual
touchdown site, however, there was plenty of room for sightseers. You
can't hide a six-mile-long spaceship. The Army tried, though, sealing off
US 395 and the secondary highways, emplacing roadblocks on dirt tracks,
and keeping Apache attack helicopters on rotating patrol to discourage
private pilots from approaching too close. The Air Force got into the act
with flights of everything from AH-C's to F-16's. The fighter pilots got
dizzy quickly from having to fly constant tight patrol patterns. Civilian
air traffic was rerouted all the way south over Yuma and north no lower
than Fresno. Meanwhile Soviet spy satellites altered their orbits and
took all the closeups the Kremlin needed.
Nothing could prevent people from coming out to see the Ship for
themselves. They arrived in cars and campers, BMW's and Jeeps, Winnebago
and GM motor homes. Families set up picnic tables and boom boxes and
playpens and unfurled portable satellite receiving dishes to entertain
children too young to be impressed by six-mile-long spaceships. Good Sam
members mingled freely with Yuppies ftoin West Los Angeles who set up
beach chairs and broke out wine coolers full of fruit juice. Blue-collar
types from the Valley sipped Budweisers and munched Fritos, partied and
made love and played cards.
Meanwhile the media, a second arriving army, showed up in elaborate vans
and hastily aligned their Ku-band transmitters to relay pictures of the
Ship all over the world.
Duncan Crais had been one of the first reporters on the scene. His report
was notable for its brevity and for the feeling of excitement he managed
to inject into every sentence. He was older now, gray at the temples. His
work
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in covering the Arrival had landed him a cushy anchorman's job down in
Atlanta at six figures per annum.
Presently he was narrating a documentary on the Arrival for channel six
local. Those assembled in the bar recognized the familiar tense voice as
it recounted the events which had forever changed their world.
"That was the scene in California's Mojave Desert three years ago today,
the historic first television images of the Newcomer ship upon its
dramatic and wholly unexpected arrival. As with the assassination of John
E Kennedy, who among us does not remember exactly where he was and what
he was doing that October nineteenth morning when the news first broke:
that people had landed. People ftom. another star system."
Those who saw the bar called it depressing, and not a one among them
failed to stay for a few minutes at least.
It was crowded and dark. Something about big-city bars makes them seem