"Procyon's Promise" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

spacecraft whose hull reflected sunlight directly into the cameraТs lens. The
ship was an antique model that had not been seen in the solar system in nearly
three centuries.
УNow, letТs see where weТre going. Show me our destination in real time.Ф
УAcknowledged.Ф
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 probeТs 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. УI had no idea,Ф 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 the tally. By the narrowest of margins, the resolution passed. Five months
later, the probe took up a parking orbit around the Sun.
Negotiations between the probe and the UN began immediately. The complexities
involved in arranging for both the probeТs overhaul and the exchange of
scientific knowledge were considerable. Before any agreements could be reached,
there was much to learn on both sides. To speed the negotiations, the probe had
split off a portion of its circuits to form a separate personality. This new
entity, which the probe dubbed SURROGATE, was intended to act as translator
between the probe and its hosts.
Shortly after the probeТs arrival in the solar system, six Pan African
spacecraft attacked humanityТs first visitor from the stars. Two outgunned UN
defenders and the probe itself met them. All six attackers were destroyed in a
hard fought battle, but not before they were able to unleash an irresistible
weapon against their target.
In the twenty-first century as in the twenty-fourth, ships of deep space were