"Gunn, James - Listeners" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

And then maybe Adams was right. Maybe nobody was
there. Maybe nobody was sending signals because there was
nobody to send signals. Maybe man was all alone in the
universe. Alone with God. Or alone with himself, whichever
was worse.
Maybe all the money was being wasted, and the effort, and
the preparationall the intelligence and education and ideas
being drained away into an endlessly empty cavern.
Habe nun, ach! Philosophic,
luristerei und Medizin,
Under leider auch Theologie
Durchaus studiert, mit heissern Bemiihn.
Da steh' ich nun, ich armer Tor!
Und bin so klug als wie zuvor;
Heisse Magister, heisse Doktor gar,
Und ziehe schon an die zehen Jahr
Herauf, herab und quer und krumm
Meine SchUler an der Nose herum
Und sehe, doss wir nichts wissen konneni .
Poor fool. Why me? MacDonald thought. Could not some
other lead them better, not by the nose but by his real wis-
dom? Perhaps all he was good for was the Saturday night
parties. Perhaps it was time for a change.
He shook himself. It was the endless waiting that wore him
down, the waiting for something that did not happen, and the
Congressional hearings were coming up again. What could
he say that he had not said before? How could he justify a
project that already had gone on for nearly fifty years without
results and might go on for centuries more?
"Gentlemen," he said briskly, "to our listening posts."
By the time he had settled himself at his disordered desk,
Lily was standing beside him.
"Here's last night's computer analysis," she said, putting
down in front of him a thin folder. "Reynolds says there's
nothing there, but you always want to see it anyway. Here's
the transcription of last year's Congressional hearings." A
thick binder went on top of the folder. "The correspondence
and the actual appropriation measure are in another file if
you want them."
MacDonald shook his head.
"There's a form letter here from NASA establishing the
ground rules for this year's budget and a personal letter from
Ted Wartinian saying that conditions are really tight and
some cuts look inevitable. In fact, he says there's a possibility
the Project might be scrubbed."
Lily glanced at him. "Not a chance," MacDonald said
confidently.
"There's a few applications for employment. Not as many
as we used to get. The letters from school children I answered
myself. And there's the usual nut letters from people who've