"Donald Moffitt - Genesis Quest" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moffitt Donald)

He touched limbs with his visitor from the Father World and said soundlessly, тАЬIt will be in a moment
now.тАЭ

The visitor wore a radio sleeve and was doubtless in communication with whatever touch group he
represented on the home planet. There was the familiar delay of a couple of seconds while the
transmission was relayed to the other side of the moon and bounced down to the planetary surface and
back, and then, through the limb he had linked with the visitor, the project director felt the faint ghostly
feedback from all those absent voices.

The visitor was too courteous to express the skepticism of his touch brothers overtly; but he couldnтАЩt
entirely suppress his own involuntary reaction to it.

тАЬYouтАЩve listened to thousands of stars,тАЭ he said aloud, тАЬand found nothing?тАЭ

тАЬTens of thousands, actually,тАЭ the project director said good-naturedly. тАЬOne at a time, within our own
galaxy. But now weтАЩre about to listen to two hundred billion stars at once.тАЭ

тАЬHow can you do that?тАЭ The visitor let an eye or two wander to the endless thicket of antennae outside.
тАЬEven with this marvelous facility. How can you possibly sort them out?тАЭ

тАЬWe donтАЩt have to sort them out. The galaxy that we have chosen as our target is so far away that we
may consider it as a single radio source. In effect, we will accomplish two million years of listening in an
hour. All we have to do is to search the preferred wavelengths until we find one in which a modulated
signal outshines the background noise by a significant factor.тАЭ

тАЬAnd then?тАЭ

тАЬAnd then we shall know that life is possible elsewhere. That we need not be alone in the universe.тАЭ

At the prompting of his radio sleeve, the visitor said apologetically, тАЬBut whatтАЩs the good of it? You
canтАЩt answer such a signal.тАЭ

тАЬTrue,тАЭ the project director conceded. тАЬAny message we received would necessarily have been sent
tens of millions of years ago тАФ not the mere tens of thousands of years for signals from our own galaxyтАЩs
farther stars. Any conceivable reply we might make would take additional tens of millions of years to
bridge the gulf. By that time they тАФ and we тАФ likely would be long extinct.тАЭ

тАЬThen why bother?тАЭ the visitor persisted.

The project director had answered such questions many times over his centuries of stewardship.
Demands on the time of the great radio telescope grew ever more insistent as the race expanded into
space. There was competition from other astronomers, other project directors, each with a convincing
claim to priority, and soon, with the interstellar probes about to be sent to the nearer stars, the
magnificent instrument would be pressed into service as a communication device. The director had fought
jealously to protect the fraction of time devoted to the search for intelligent life. One day, he knew, he
would have to face a convocation of his fellows and defend the whole monumental enterprise all over