Ben Bova - New Earth

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New Earth: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

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“You should have let them pump their biology program into your brain, Paul,” Thornberry said as they went along the trail.

“Maybe,” Longyear replied guardedly.

From the rear, Brandon quipped, “We’re still waiting to see if you turn into an alien clone or something, Mitch.”

“A leprechaun, more likely,” Thornberry rejoined.

De Falla turned in his seat to face Elyse. “You’re absolutely certain that what they’re telling us is true?”

Looking as if she were tired of answering the same question over and again, she answered, “Absolutely certain. Yes.”

“Data can be faked.”

“I know,” said Elyse. “But they have such a massive amount of data. Visual imagery, radio telescope returns, gamma ray measurements. I looked for inconsistencies, for flaws … it all appears to be true.”

“Appears,” de Falla said.

Elyse stared at him for several silent moments, then said, “I suppose at the heart of everything is the fact that I trust them. They’re astronomers and astrophysicists, not politicians. They deal with observations and measurements, not rhetoric.”

Jordan said over his shoulder, “Have you shown their data to Zadar?”

“Yes. Demetrios agrees, the data are conclusive.”

Brandon said, “The only question now is, what are we going to do about it?”

Jordan replied, “We try to convince Harmon. He’s our test case. If we can’t convince him, we won’t have the ghost of a chance of convincing the movers and shakers back on Earth.”

Without taking his eyes off the trail twisting through the trees, Longyear said, “Well, you’ve just about got me convinced.”

Surprised, Jordan asked, “You’re not totally sure?”

“Adri and his people wouldn’t be the first to speak with forked tongues.”

“Oh, for god’s sake!”

“Think about it,” Longyear insisted. “We know they’ve got terrific technologies. I’m itching to learn about their biotech. But suppose they’re using technological tricks to convince us about this gamma eruption?”

That silenced the rest of them.

Until Jordan said, “If they are, and there’s no gamma wave threatening Earth, then why did they invent such a story?”

“How should I know?” Longyear said.

“But on the other hand,” Jordan went on, “if the gamma burst truly is real, we’d be consigning the entire human race to extinction if we did nothing.”

“We’d be consigning the whole human race to falling for some alien scheme if we swallow their story,” Longyear countered.

Thornberry piped up, “By their fruits you shall know them.”

“What?”

“From the Bible. You can determine what’s good and what’s bad by looking at the consequences of the way people behave.”

“But we don’t know the consequences,” de Falla pointed out. “We won’t know the consequences for another two thousand years.”

Jordan said, “I think I see what Mitch is driving at. If we fail to act and the threat is real, the human race dies. If we do act and the threat is a fake, then … what?”

“Are we willing to take the chance?” Thornberry asked.

“Do we have the right to take that chance?” Jordan replied.

“Certain death versus some unknown motive of the aliens,” said de Falla.

“Some choice,” Brandon said.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Jordan insisted.

“Try telling that to Meek,” said Brandon.

Resolution

As soon as they reached the camp, Brandon called a meeting of the entire group. Jordan watched with a mixture of amusement and anxiety as they filed into the dining area. He, his brother, Elyse, and Thornberry sat on one side of the long table. Meek, Longyear, and de Falla chose the other, facing them. Jordan was surprised and a little disheartened when Yamaguchi came in, looked at the lineup, and chose Meek’s side. Verishkova sat beside Thornberry.

Hazzard, Zadar, and Trish Wanamaker were on the screen at the foot of the table. No telling which side they’d be on if they were here, Jordan thought.

Once everyone was settled in their chairs, Brandon slowly got to his feet. Reluctantly, Jordan thought.

“Mitchell has taken the brain boost,” he began, “and he seems no worse for it.”

From the screen, Hazzard quipped, “He’s become a nuisance, pestering me to build an energy shield for the ship.”

Most of the people around the table chuckled.

“It’s astounding, it is,” Thornberry enthused. “I got a university education in physics, I did—inside of a few hours.”

“And what else did they pump into your brain?” Meek asked, his long face scowling.

Thornberry shrugged his heavy shoulders. “Nothing, far as I can tell.”

“As far as you can tell.”

Jordan started to reply to the astrobiologist, but hesitated, looking to his brother. Bran’s in charge, let him handle this.

But Brandon turned to Elyse and said, “Tell them about the gamma burst.”

Looking straight at Meek, Elyse said in a measured tone, “All the evidence I have seen convinces me that the danger is real. The core of the galaxy gave off an enormous burst of gamma energy some twenty-eight thousand years ago. The death wave will reach Earth’s vicinity in two thousand years.”

“And wipe out all life in its path,” Brandon added.

Good for you, Bran! Jordan exulted silently.

Meek looked unconvinced. “How do we know that the ‘evidence’ they showed isn’t faked?”

“Why would they do that?” Jordan blurted.

“To get us to go along with them,” Longyear replied.

“For what purpose?”

“How should we know?” Meek answered. “They’re up to something, and they’re certainly not going to tell us what it is until it suits them.”

Brandon planted his fists on his hips and asked Meek, “What do you think we ought to do?”

“Leave here immediately and go back home.”

“And the gamma burst?”

“It’s a trick. I’m sure it’s a trick.”

“And if it’s not?” Jordan asked.

Meek blinked at him several times, said nothing.

“If it’s not a trick,” Brandon said, his voice iron hard, “then we’re consigning the human race to extinction.”

Waving a long-fingered hand in the air, Meek said, “We have two thousand years to deal with that possibility.”

“And other intelligent races, they’ll be wiped out also,” Brandon went on.

“I don’t believe it!” Meek fairly shouted. “I can’t believe it!”

Jordan asked his brother, “May I have the floor?”

With a surprised grin, Brandon spread his arms and said grandly, “The floor is yours.”

Getting to his feet as Brandon sat down, Jordan began, “Harmon, Paul … we hold the fate of the human race in our hands. The twelve of us. What we decide can mean life or death for the entire human race. There’s no one we can turn to, no higher-ups that we can buck the problem to. There’s only we twelve. It’s up to us. Entirely up to us.”

Meek shook his head stubbornly. Longyear stared at Jordan, his face a frozen mask.

Jordan went on, “What this boils down to is a matter of faith. Some of us believe what the aliens have told us, some of us don’t. Those who believe point to palpable evidence, those who don’t worry that the evidence may have been faked.”

“My education isn’t a fake,” Thornberry muttered.

“But it could be a tactic,” Meek immediately countered. “They boost your brain to convince us that the rest of what they’re telling us is true.”

“That’s a possibility,” Jordan admitted. “How do we decide whether it’s true or not?”

Silence fell across the table. Longyear opened his mouth, then thought better of it and said nothing.

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