"John D. MacDonald - Flaw" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacDonald John D)

Rudely I snatched the binoculars from Dr. Rawlins and looked,
knowing even as I lifted them to my eyes what I would see.

Because at that moment I knew the answer to something that the
astronomers and physicists had been bickering about for many years.
There is no expanding universe. There is no tired light.

As I sit here at my writing desk, I can imagine how it was during those
last few seconds. The earth looming up in the screen on the instrument
panel, but not nearly large enough. Not large enough at all. Incredulity, then
because of the error in size, the sudden application of the nose jets. Too
late. Fire and oblivion and a thud that shook the earth for hundreds of miles.

No one else knows what I know. Maybe soon they will guess. And
then there will be an end to the proud dreams of migration to other worlds.
We are trapped here. There will be no other worlds for us. We have made
a mess of this planet, and it is something that we cannot leave behind us.
We must stay here and clean it up as best we can.

Maybe a few of them already know. Maybe they have guessed.
Maybe they guessed, as I did, on the basis of the single object that was
brought up out of that shaft on that bright, cold afternoon.

****

Yes, I saw the sun shining on the six-pointed star. With the binoculars I
looked into the heart of it and saw the two dots and a curved line that made
the flaws look like a smiling face. A ruby the size of a bungalow.

There is no expanding universe. There is no тАЬtired light.тАЭ

There is only a Solar system that, due to an unknown influence, is
constantly shrinking.

For a little time the Destiny II avoided that influence. That is why they
arrived too soon, why they couldnтАЩt avoid the crash, and why I am quite
mad.

The ruby was the size of a bungalow, but it was, of course, quite
unchanged. It was I and my world that had shrunk.

If Johnny had landed safely, I would be able to walk about on the
palm of his hand.

It is a good thing that he died.

And it will not be long before I die also.

The sea whispers softly against the rocks a hundred yards from the