"Michael McCollum - Maker 2 - Procyion Promise" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

recognized the central bulge of a mass converter and the familiar shape of an electromagnetic nozzle
among the unfamiliar bits and pieces of alien machinery.

тАЬBig, isnтАЩt it?тАЭ she muttered aloud.

тАЬNull program. Please repeat,тАЭ the computer responded.

тАЬCancel,тАЭ Chryse said absentmindedly. Her eyes were suddenly drawn to a bright, starlike point inside
the cube. тАЬCenter on Coordinates X-3, Y-5, Z-2. Expand view one hundred times.тАЭ

тАЬAcknowledged.тАЭ

The view moved to one side and expanded to resolve the spark of light into a spacecraft whose hull
reflected sunlight directly into the cameraтАЩs lens. The ship was an antique model that had not been seen in
the solar system in nearly three centuries.

тАЬNow, letтАЩs see where weтАЩre going. Show me our destination in real time.тАЭ

тАЬAcknowledged.тАЭ

At first, the view seemed to be the same as before, with the exception that the speck of light was gone
and the viewing angle caused the probe to be considerably foreshortened. The daycruiser was
approaching at a thirty-degree angle to the probeтАЩs major axis, with the control sphere closer than the
drive sphere. Chryse called for a close up view.

The awesome machine, that she had viewed in its splendor just seconds earlier, was no longer hale or
whole. As every schoolchild learned before they were ten, the probe had fallen victim to the most
celebrated incident of treachery in the history of the human race. Chryse gazed at the wreck in the
holocube and felt a tug of remorse at what her people had done.

The evidence of the catastrophe was everywhere and unmistakable. The perfect sphere of the control
section had been caved in on one side, as though smashed by a giant fist. Opposite the blow, the sphere
bulged noticeably outward, stretched nearly to the bursting point by an irresistible force. Large sections
of interior structure had been vaporized in a titanic explosion and a twisted forest of support beams -
transformed into odd shapes by the force of the blast - gave the play of sunlight and shadow inside the
probe a surrealistic quality.

Chryse gulped. тАЬI had no idea,тАЭ she said. It was only then that she realized she had been holding her
breath.

Not everyone, it seemed, had been happy with the discovery of the alien spacecraft on the edge of the
solar system. Most objections had come from the newly industrialized nations of the Southern
Hemisphere, each of which saw the probe and its cargo of knowledge as a threat to their hard-earned
equality. It was felt that the older, longer industrialized nations of the north would be better equipped to
use the advanced knowledge that the probe carried. The nation that emerged as leader of the opposition
was the Pan-African Federation.

The struggle had been wholly political at first. A resolution welcoming the probe into the system was
introduced into the General Assembly of the old United Nations. The Pan-Africans and their allies fought
skillfully against it, but when it came time to vote, the southerners found themselves on the losing side of