"Tom Purdom - Fossil Games" - читать интересную книгу автора (Purdom Tom)

thirty-three years travel time.
Morgan transferred the diagram to Ari's screen and pointed out the
implications. If the Island of Adventure transmitted an announcement to the
Solar System, the Green Voyager would pick it up in approximately seven years.
If the people on the Voyager thought it was interesting, they could change
course and reach 82 Eridani only twelve and a half decades after they
intercepted the message.
"That gives us over one hundred and thirty years to explore the planet,"
Ari argued. "By that time we'll have learned everything important the fossils
have to offer. We'll have done all the real work. We'll be ready to move on.
And look for a world where we can communicate with a living Consciousness."

****

Unfortunately, the situation didn't look that straightforward to the rest
of the community. To them, a hundred and thirty years was a finite,
envisionable time period.
There was, after all, a third possibility-- as Miniruta Coboloji pointed
out in one of her contributions to the electronic debate. The Green Voyager
may never come this way at all, Miniruta argued. They may reach Rho
thirty-three years from now, pass through the system, and point themselves at
one of the stars that lies further out. They've got three choices within
fourteen light years. Why can't we just wait the thirty-three years? And send
a message after they've committed themselves to some other star system?
For Ari, that was unthinkable. Our announcement is going to take twenty
years to reach the Solar System no matter what we do. If we sit here for
thirty-three years before we transmit, it will be fifty-three years before
anyone in the Solar System hears about one of the most important discoveries
in history. We all know what's happening in the Solar System. Fifty-three
years from now there may not be anyone left who cares.
Once again Morgan labored over his screens. Once again, he recruited
aides who helped him guide the decision making process. This time he
engineered a compromise. They would send a brief message saying they had
"found evidence of extinct life" and continue studying the planet's fossils.
Once every year, they would formally reopen the discussion for three tendays.
They would transmit a complete announcement "whenever it becomes clear the
consensus supports such an action."

****

Ari accepted the compromise in good grace. He had looked at the numbers,
too. Most of the people on the ship still belonged to his communion.
"They know what their responsibilities are," Ari insisted. "Right now
this is all new, Morgan. We've just getting used to the idea that we're
looking at a complete planetary biota. A year from now-- two years from now--
we'll have so much information in our databanks they'll know we'd be
committing a criminal act if we didn't send every bit of it back to the Solar
System."

****