"Paul Levinson - Loose Ends (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Levinson Paul)

after itself -- does what it can to make sure there aren't too
many loose ends, joints out of time, around at any one time.
From that perspective, we're irritants to the universe -- our
very being here disturbs it. But that doesn't mean we'll
definitely be killed. Maybe we're just, I don't know, accident
prone, more likely in a statistical sense to meet harm than
others. If we're really careful, maybe we'll live. After all,
you and I are still alive and kicking."
Laura pulled him down next to her on the couch.
Jeff's mind flipped back to the images of the Challenger.
"It's so frustrating. To be back here, and not be able to even
do anything about it. I mean, we have almost 20 years to plan
some sort of intervention -- maybe we can do something,
something small that won't rock the boat too much, but just
enough the deflect the disaster, or the worst of it." He saw
the faces again. "Over a hundred kids were killed when the
Challenger crashed into that schoolhouse near Miami. The kids
dead, the astronauts dead, those images and flames burning into
everyone's brains all over America and the world -- no wonder it
stopped the space program dead in its tracks. No President or
Congress could support it in after an accident like that -- even
dictators couldn't force it on their people--"
"What did you say?" Laura looked at him.
"What? About the Challenger?"
"What do kids in a schoolhouse have to do with that?" Laura
asked.
Jeff looked puzzled.
"The Challenger explosion was a terrible thing for the
country, and the space program, yes," Laura said. "It was
horrible -- everyone saw those seven astronauts walking to their
death, waving to the cameras, right on television. But it blew
up just a minute or so after launch -- nowhere near Miami or a
school filled with kids."
Jeff gasped. "And the space program continued in your
timeline?"
"Oh yes," Laura said. "I mean, it's got its problems.
Serious ones. But we've got settlements on Mars and the asteroid
belt and--"
And for the first time since he had stood in front of the
NYU Student Building with police lights mocking him in the
night, Jeff had more than a whisper of hope.
"Maybe the difference between your version of reality and
the one I remember," he said, "is us."

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