"Mike Resnick - Second Contact" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

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Copyright (C)1990 by Mike Resnick

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To Carol, as always
And to Pat and Roger SimsтАФ
intrepid travellers,
dedicated gourmets,
damned good friends

PROLOGUE
The Menninger/Klipstein Tachyon Drive, without which Man would never have been able to
physically explore his galaxy, was theorized in 2029 A.D., created in 2032, and successfully
field-tested in 2037 after a number of minor mishaps.
Mankind's first contact with an alien race was made on March 5, 2042 A.D., on the outskirts
of the Epsilon Eridani system.
Nobody knows what precipitated the events that followed, nor in what order they occurred,
but this much is known: within a matter of minutes both the Earth starship,Excelsior , and the
alien ship, name and class unknown, had completely destroyed each other.
To this day no one knows which ship fired first. There is no record of any action by either side
that might have invited such a reaction. No messages were sent back to base during the
ensuing battle. Neither ship tried to escape once the conflict began. There were no survivors.
It took Man almost a decade to regroup, and by that time all space exploration was under the
control of the military. Only the United States, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of
China, and the Republic of Brazil continued to send ships into deep space. By 2065 A.D.
there were fourteen starships exploring the galaxy, each mapping and charting the stars and
planets while fruitlessly searching for signs of alien life. Five of these ships belonged to the
United States, four to Russia, four to China, and one to Brazil. Of them, the largest was
theLenin , a massive Russian ship. The best-armed was the one-year-old Russian
starshipMoscow . By far the fastest was the Chinese shipConfucious .
But the ship that made all the headlines in 2065 was theTheodore Roosevelt , which was
currently orbiting the Earth while the fate of its captain was being decided hundreds of miles
below it.

1.
Max Becker rode the airlift up to the fifth floor of the Pentagon, walked rapidly past a row of
holographs of former Chiefs of Staff, and finally came to the office he sought. The door's
sensors scanned and identified him and allowed him to enter.
тАЬGood morning, Major Becker,тАЭ said the gray-haired man who bore three stars on his
shoulders and was seated behind a large chrome desk. тАЬI've been expecting you.тАЭ
тАЬMay I request the meaning of this, sir?тАЭ demanded Becker, waving an official-looking
document in the air.