"Charles L. Harness-George Washington Slept Here" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harness Charles L)

Oliver Potts suppressed a moan. "So we're back to that. If the Rock goes, they go? Poof?" He
pantomimed blowing a feather from his palm. "Like that?" He looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Poof, like that."
"Hard to get more contingent than that."
"That's true."
"But how did you make them, Sena?"
 "Actually, Oliver, I didn't make them. They made them for me. They made them on a matter copier."
"They...?"
"The People who made the Rock, and who made me. The Dhorans."
(Was he beginning to believe? Potts, stop! Remember that big red brick building across the street,
with the chain-link fence.) He mused aloud: "And they made the Rock to be the Earth terminus of a
bridge-- their bridge. That's kind of funny, isn't it?"
"You're not laughing, Oliver."
He smiled wanly. "Your original coin was fresh out of the Philadelphia mint when your People copied
it. That was two hundred years ago. Have they been here since?"
"No. They're not really due for another couple of months."
"Where do they come from? Where is Dhora?"
"Dhora is the second planet of Alpha Centauri."
He had to think about that. "They've done this on other planets?"
"I think so, though I've never seen the other places."
"Why do they do it, Sena? What do they want?"
"The Rock is several things. Besides being a bridge terminus, it's also a weather station. It records
interspatial dust, cosmic temperatures, interstellar radiation, that sort of thing. They need to know all that,
because they have great interstellar commerce. Also, the last several times they were here, the Rock was
a big trading post with the Indians. The Dhorans bought beaver furs with knife blades and beads and
blankets."
"The beavers are long gone."
"I know; so are the Indians."
"Nowadays, I doubt we'd have anything they'd want."
"I don't know. They're great traders. They'll find something. You have orchids, butterflies, rosewood,
seashells. They can give you a list."
"What would they offer in return?"
"Technologies."
Of course. But none of it was going to happen. Not now. "And you, Sena, why are you here?"
"I try to keep the Rock clear, at least for the two-hundred-year entries. Up to now, it's been just a
question of clearing away leaves and storm debris. This is the first time the Rock itself has been
threatened. As a preserver I'm not doing so well, am I?"
"You're doing fine, Sena." He didn't want to believe. Why was he doing this to himself? He shook his
head vigorously, as though to shatter the fantasy. But it didn't shatter. It stayed right there. "The master
coin, Sena, where did it come from?"
"He gave it to me. George."
"George Washington?"
"Your first president."
"He was just passing by? In seventeen ninety-five?"
"There was more to it than that. Don't you read your history? They were giving him hell about the
treaty John Jay had negotiated with the British finally to end the War and define all the boundaries and
commercial rights. The proposed treaty was tearing the country apart. Some told him, the British are
stealing us blind, don't sign. The Senate said, sign immediately, before they change their minds. He had to
think, weigh all the pros and cons. He got away to Mount Vernon, but they followed him there. And then
one weekend he really disappeared."