"Jack McKinney - Kaduna Memories" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

maintainedтАФtemporarily at least. So, to explain the aborted mission, a rumor had been spread about a
virus outbreak aboard the ship. Those few technicians onstation who had been in direct communication
with the Excalibur had been transferred to a half-completed habitat module that was soon to become
operations center for Project Kaduna.

Knowledge of "the find" was already having an ill effect on some of them. Stripped of long-cherished
beliefs regarding humankind's special situation in the cosmos, several techs were overheard promising XT
miracles or mayhem. Emeric hadn't seen such madness since the fin-de-siecle millennium and in response
to it had handpicked an OLD intelligence specialist named Simon Bov├й to oversee security.

Thus far Bov├й had been successful in keeping things quiet. Many of OLD's technicians were Offworld
only through the good graces of Emeric Bulkroad, and that was enough to keep them in line; no one
wanted to spend more time in the soup than was absolutely necessary. They were scientists after all and
used to this sort of thing. A few techs, however, had to be remanded to constant observation in a private
habitat clinicтАФfor their own protection, to be sure.

Emeric decided that the few that got away to preach salvation or doom would be dismissed downside as
space happy, particularly in the absence of corroboration from Offworld spokespersons.

Emeric himself had given the order for the alien captive to be brought sunward after communications with
the Ex-

calibur began to grow more and more strained. Few things were more frustrating than the speed of light,
and while Earth and 2008FC were currently ecliptically aligned on the same side of the sun, even the
simplest of burst transmissions required hours to complete.

Bulkroad was also worried that Clay Nugget's idealistic streak was going to prompt him to do something
foolish, like set the little fish-eyed creature free.

Transporting the XT had necessitated the fashioning of a special atmospheric chamber aboard the
Excalibur. But no one could make any more sense of the alien's speech than they had of the XT ship
systems. Even MOLLY, tentatively back online, was in over her bits.

And that was where REC was meant to come in.

"Given what you know about aliens, REC," Emeric said, leaning forward for emphasis, "what do you
think about Dr. Nugget's handling of the encounter?"

REC took his time with it. "Frankly, Emeric, I was rather surprised by Dr. Nugget's actions."

Bulkroad narrowed fiercely blue eyes. "What surprised you?"

"Well, to begin with, the Excalibur's actions were in direct violation of SETI protocols, which state that
no response to a signal or other evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence should be sent until appropriate
international consultation has taken place."

"So Excalibur was at fault then," Emeric said, encouraged.

"Simply put: yes. Furthermore, the ship's command erred in trusting a robot-machine to convey a
greeting. It's a well-documented fact that such attempts at face-to-face salutatory encounters between