"James Patrick Kelly - St. Theresa of the Aliens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kelly James Patrick)

Logic, isn't your avowed bias toward the Soviet Union a tacit endorsement of
the suppression of human rights there? What conclusions would you expect the
American people to draw from the current situation, sir?"
Twisted Logic giggled. "The rights of the one versus the rights of the
many. We have resolved this conflict to our satisfaction. You have not.
Infer only that we await your enlightenment and will instruct if asked."
"Why have you come to earth?" called another.
He nodded. "Because you could not come to us."
"What's that supposed to mean?" someone shouted. The room filled with
cries of derision.
"My response lacks content?" Twisted Logic looked for help to the
President, who looked away. "Pardon. We bring ourselves to you because we are
impatient for friends."
He might have made some friends had he continued in that vein. I tried
to help him along. "Sir, we all recognize that your science is very advanced.
Can we expect you to share your knowledge and technology with us? In
particular, will you teach us to build star ships of our own?"
"Exactly." He pointed at me and nodded again. "Exactly. The universe
is very large and we are very small. Intelligence must coalesce to grow."
"Coalesce?" whispered the woman sitting next to me. "Coalesce?"
"Sir!" Father Estragon from the Logos channel waved at the alien. He
was Terry Burelli's favorite telelink commentator. "Sir, as you may know,
many of our most diffcult problems on this planet arise out of religious
factionalism. Would you comment please on your own religious beliefs."
"I hold no such beliefs."
Estragon turned as white as his Roman collar. "You don't believe in
God?"
"When there is no evidence," said Twisted Logic, tail wagging, "the
theory is discarded."
In a bar afterwards Joe Perkins from the Times nicely summed up the
play that the press conference was going to get. "Godless commies from outer
space," he said.
There were no more press conferences. Access to Twisted Logic and the
other aliens who eventually came to this country had to be approved by the
State Department. Congress passed the Alien Secrets Act which allowed instant
classification of any alien remark deemed "controversial." It proved
unenforceable once Twisted Logic took his space silo on a so-called "Goodwill
Tour" of the world, a tour which was haunted by demonstrations, riots and
misunderstanding.
All things considered, the reaction from the Vatican was circumspect.
They insisted on the eternal truth of Divine Revelation and announced that the
Pope would begin saying a special Mass on the first Sunday of each month for
the souls of the aliens. For the most part the East did not care. The
Buddhists regarded the aliens as part of the general anitya of the universe;
they too would pass and so no action was indicated. Most Hindus were willing
to tolerate the alien heresy as long as it did not lead to social upheavals.
The reaction from Islam was less tempered. There was talk of spiritual jihad,
although how this might be accomplished was not immediately clear. The Shiite
imams had a more concrete program: expel the aliens. The First National
Baptists and the Moonies and the Brides of Christ agreed.