"Philip E. High - The Prodigal Sun" - читать интересную книгу автора (High Phillip E)

found a man child, a six-month-old baby boy, the sole survivor of the
ill-fated Mackley."

"Whether the child's mother had a premonition of danger and carried
the baby boy to safety before the Mackley met her end we shall never
know. Perhaps there was prior warning but that, too, will never be
knownтАж"

"To give the Mattrain their due, they immediately notified Earth and
arrangements were made to return the child to its own race."

"Fate, however, decreed otherwise. Before the negotiations could be
completed Earth's Empire was invaded by the cone ships of the Vrenka.
And, in the years of terror which followed, the Mackley and the baby boy
were forgotten."

"Only today, thirty years after the Mackley's disappearance, does the
survivor return, no longer a baby but a mature manтАФa man named Peter
Duncan."

There was a carefully timed pause. "What can we expect of this man
Duncan, raised on an alien planet by alien foster parents? Here is a symbol
denoting the unknown. A human being, yes, but with an alien background
and an alien education. A man whose mind must reason differently to our
own. A man to whom our way of life, our hopes, dreams and aspirations
may be totally incomprehensible."

The announcer lowered his voice dramatically. "Why does he return
now to his own race? We must remind ourselves that he was in no great
haste to return when our resources and strength were strained to the
limit."
 "Again, what does he bring us? Does he come with the blessings of a
superior technology or as an agent of an alien race. Is he friend or foe?
Does he despise or pity us?

"All these questions must be asked and, when answered, proved beyond
shadow of doubt.

"Although today we killed the fatted calf for the returning prodigal,
shall we one day deplore his return and the efforts we made to make him
welcome?"

Duncan sat down to the solitary meal which the announcer had
described as the fatted calf. Earth had done her best but a calf?

There was syntha-steak, medium rare, mock onions and pseudo-tubers.
There was a dessert of lab-fruit and custard-concentrate.

Unhurriedly he finished the meal, fully conscious that alert eyes and
large numbers of instruments were recording every movement he made.