"Edward M. Lerner - Moonstruck" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lerner Edward M)

throng that nothing short of martial law might have kept away. The shouts faded into an awkward hush
as thousands realized that nothing was happening.
Kyle hurried to the tower elevator, descending to join the coterie of welcoming dignitaries. They were
already boarding the limos that would drive them to the Galactics' vessel. He wound up in the last car,
between a deputy undersecretary of state and an aide to the national security advisor. The woman from
Foggy Bottom studied papers from her briefcase.
Stepping from the car, Kyle obtained some new data: the concrete beneath the landing legs of the
spacecraft was broken. That thing was heavy. The shout of greeting must have drowned out the report of
the runway cracking.
The welcoming party formed two concentric arcs facing the spacecraft, heavy hitters up front, aides and
adjutants in back. Kyle took a spot in the second tier, vaguely pleased with his position: his craning at
the ship was less obtrusive this way.
Away from the crowd, only the creaks and groans of the ship cooling down from the heat of reentry
broke the silence. The sun beat down unmercifully. Kyle tried to memorize details of the shipтАФshape
and proportion, aerodynamic control surfaces, view ports, thrusters and main engines, antennaeтАФeven
though photographers around the airport and in helicopters overhead were busily capturing everything
with telephoto lenses. Sensors hastily installed in the limos were measuring and recording any radiation
from the ship.
His overriding impression was one of age, that this ship had been around for a while. Why? After a
moment's thought, he focused his attention on the skin of the ship. Under the cloudless noon sky, not a
bit of surface glinted. He wasn't close enough to be sure, but the shadowed underbelly of the ship
seemed finely pitted. How many years of solar wind had it withstood? How many collisions with the
tenuous matter of the interstellar void? Beside him, the diplomats were absorbed in their own

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 - Chapter 1

unanswered, perhaps unanswerable, questions.
And then, at long last, with soundless ease, a wide ramp began its descent from the underside of the
alien ship.



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- Chapter 2

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