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

"Aliens don't send out real starships?"
"It is far too expensive," Smith offered.
The boy pushed out his lower lip. "Humans are different,"
he maintained.
"No."
"We're going to build a working stardrive. Soon, I bet. And
then we'll visit our neighboring stars and colonize those
worldsтАФ"
"We can't."
"Because they tell us we can't?"
"Because it is impossible." His father shook his head,
saying with authority, "The texts are explicit. Moving large
masses requires prohibitive energies. And terraforming is a
difficult, often impossible trick. And that is why almost every
world that we have found to date looks as sterile as the day
they were born."
But the teenage boy would accept none of that. "You
know, don't you? That these aliens are just lying to us?
They're afraid of human beings, because they know we're the
toughest, meanest things in the universe. And we're going to
take them on."
10
 Eight Episodes
by Robert Reed


For a long moment, Dr. Smith held silent.
Then the boy continued his game, and into the mayhem of
blasters, the father mouthed a single dismissive word:
"Children."
****


Eighteen months later, the fledging Web network declared
bankruptcy, and a small consortium acquired its assets,
including Invasion of a Small World. Eager to recoup their
investment, the new owners offered all eight episodes as a
quick-and-dirty DVD package. When sales proved somewhat
better than predicted, a new version was cobbled together,
helped along by a genuine ad budget. The strongest initial
sales came from the tiny pool of determined fansтАФyoung and
well educated, with little preference for nationality or gender.
But the scientists in several fields, astronomy and
paleontology included, were the ones who created a genuine
buzz that eventually put Invasion into the public eye.
The famous sixth episode helped trigger the interest: That
weak, rambling tale of Dr. Smith, his family and students,
was temporarily suspended. Instead, the full fifty-three
minutes were dedicated to watching a barren world spinning
silently in deep space. According to corporate memos, the last