"Arthur Tofte - The Day the Earth Stood Still" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tofte Arthur)

Tofte, Arthur - The Day The Earth Stood Still (v1.0) Jacked.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.
1976 by Arthur Tofte.

Aa novelization written by Arthur Tofte based on the original short story,
Farewell to the Master, by Harry Bates, published in Astounding Stories -
October, 1940.

Chapter 1.

Out of the sky it came--silent and mysterious and menacing. For more than two
days, people of Earth watched as it moved in orbit in a crisscross pattern
around the globe.
Never again would there be doubts about "flying saucers" and puzzling UFO's.
Here was an unidentified flying object that was being seen by half the world's
population.
Office workers in the great cities rushed to their windows to look out at its
passage overhead. Peoples of the South Seas looked up and were awed. On the
wide plains of Russia, farmers turned off their machines to stare at it.
Throngs of worshippers on the Ganges stopped their sanctifying ablutions long
enough to look. All over the world there was the same reaction:
mystification... and fear. Even the most conservative scientific authorities.
agreed that it was real, that it was alien, and that it offered potential
danger to mankind.
Its shape, oddly enough, was quite traditional. At least it looked like the
"flying saucers" that people had been claiming to see for almost a century.
The big difference was that this one made no effort to conceal itself.
Circular in design, it was not more than 35 or 40 meters in diameter. Its
middle bulged up to approximately 20 meters. Its color was a metallic green.
People had plenty of opportunity to study it, for it often hovered over
heavily-populated cities for minutes at a time. Thousands of photographs were
taken by amateur and professional photographers.
Pursuit planes were sent up to intercept the strange craft. At their approach
it always sped off, almost faster than the eye could follow. None of the
planes had the speed to keep up with it.
Nor could it be seen how the alien ship was powered. There were no jet
exhausts or other evidence of propulsion equipment of any kind. It simply
skimmed through the air effortlessly and silently. The green surface was
smooth and even. No lights. No port-holes. No marks to show where openings
might be.
Military men of all nations admitted they were baffled. Scientists were
hopeful that this could be the breakthrough in man's age-old hope to
communicate with a civilization other than his own. And what a civilization it
must be--to design and build a spaceship capable of doing what this one was
doing.
Yet, with it all, was a growing sense of apprehension, even of fear. What was
the purpose that brought the stranger to planet Earth? Was it friendly? Was it
hostile?
What deadly weapons did the alien ship carry with it? All the fictional