"Reed, Robert - ShapeOfEverything" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

She didn't know how to respond. Leave now? Perhaps she should leave, if he
wanted quiet.

But when she turned, he said, "No," with force.

"Sir?"

"Here. Come see this."

As always, she did as she was told. She kicked across the room and used a single
eye, knowing the trick but not having done this nonsense in years. Why did
anyone bother with lenses? Even when this observatory was built, digitized
images were the norm. The best. And besides, what she saw here was just the
focused light from a single mirror -- a representative sampling of the whole --
meaning it was almost useless to their ongoing work. Too simple by a factor of
ten million. Yet she wasn't the old man's maybe-favorite for nothing, feigning
interest, squinting into the little hole until he seemed satisfied.

"It's the same as last time," he said, "and the time before. It's always the
same, isn't it?"

She looked at him, nodding and saying, "Why shouldn't it be?"

"But doesn't it amaze you?" He asked the question, then he spoke before she
could answer. "But not like it amazes me. Do you know why? Because you grew up
expecting to see the beginning of time. When you were a little girl, this place
was catching first light with its first mirrors, and by then the goal was
obvious. Isn't that right?"

A little nod, and she thought of what was out there. It did amaze her, yes, and
what right did he have to minimize her feelings? But it wasn't exactly the
beginning of time either. She remembered the digitized images, scrubbed clean by
computers, contrasts added and the noise deleted. She could see little blobs of
spiraling light-- the earliest galaxies -- and the best images resolved
individual stars. No, it wasn't fair of him to claim a greater amazement. Not
when she thought of the work she'd done, the long hours and the years invested
in helping him and everyone else, a great mystery now solved, more than likely
--

-- and the old man was laughing almost gently.

Was it a trick? A joke? Had he been teasing her? It wouldn't be the first time,
of course.

"No, I'm not laughing at you, dear." He smiled, implanted teeth too white to be
real. "I'm the amusing one. I look at you and remember someone else. Please,
please don't take this wrong but you've always reminded me of her."

He's been drinking, she realized. At least a little bit.