"Robert Reed - Eight Episodes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

vessel that he had personally recovered was already ancient
when it dropped onto a river bottom near the edge of
Gondwanaland. Time had only slightly degraded its onboard
8
 Eight Episodes
by Robert Reed


textsтАФa history of the aliens and an explanation into the
nature of life in the universe. By all evidence, he warned,
human beings were late players to an old drama. And like
every other intelligent species in the universe, they would
always be small in numbers and limited in reach.
The final scene of that fifth episode was set at Dr. Smith's
home. His oldest son was sitting before a large plasma
screen, destroying alien spaceships with extraordinarily loud
weapons. In what proved to be the only conversation
between those two characters, Smith sat beside his boy,
asking, "Did you see me?"
"What?"
"The news conferenceтАФ"
"Yeah, I watched."
"So?" he said. And when no response was offered, he
asked, "What did you think?"
"About what?"
"The lessonтАФ"
"What? People don't matter?" The boy froze the battle
scene and put down his controls. "I think that's stupid."
His father said nothing.
"The universe isn't empty and poor." The boy was perhaps
fourteen, and his anger was the most vivid emotion in the
entire series. "Worlds are everywhere, and a lot of them have
to have life."
"Millions are blessed, yes," Dr. Smith replied. "But
hundreds of billions more are too hot, too cold. They are
metal-starved, or married to dangerous suns."
His son stared at the frozen screen, saying nothing.
9
 Eight Episodes
by Robert Reed


"The alien texts only confirm our most recent evidence,
you know. The earth is a latecomer. Stellar births are slowing,
in the Milky Way, and everywhere, and the production of
terrestrial worlds peaked two or three billion years before our
home was created."
"These texts of yours ... they say that intelligent life stays
at home?"
"Most of the time, yes."