"Clarke, J Brian - The Last Walk" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clark Brian)

The Last Walk
by J. Brian Clarke

PART ONE
THE INVITATION

Ottrah.
My name is Ottrah. I am from Aelak.
My species is ancient compared to the mammalian
humanoids of the other Aelak, which is called Earth. I was
seventy-three years old, barely out of adolescence and the
youngest aboard the Green and Plenty, when we sideshifted
into their continuum. Because of my youth, I was chosen to
make first contact. At my age, I was told, humans are
already nearing the end of their short lives. It would be
imprudent to intimidate them with what they might perceive
to be an individual of superior age and wisdom.
I vividly remember the moment I stepped out of the
daughter craft on to the soil of that strange alternate. The
faded blue sky, the ugly structures of their space launching
facilities, the unpleasant odors of primitive technology,
the noise, and above all the incredible number of humans,
combined to momentarily shock me into inanity. Although I
had no problem with their simple language, my opening
words were clumsy.
"You are Degruton," I remember saying to the male who
stepped forward from the crowd. There was a female with him.
Their hands were tightly joined.
"Yes." I sensed his nervousness.
"You expected us."
"I--think so."
"That is good. The circle is complete."
It was not my intention to be obtuse, and his
consequent confusion worried me. I am not sure of my next
words, other than I tried to explain that in the same manner
Degruton sideshifted his ship into my continuum and diverted
the asteroid which would have impacted my world sixty five
million years ago, we did the same in his continuum--except
we made sure the asteroid continued its course to impact.
The reaction of the male and his mate was that strange
noise they call laughter, which I now understand is a human
reaction to irony.

Frederick Degruton
As the scientist responsible for the development of
shift dispersion, I suppose I should have expected it.
Having this strange being as my guest during her stay on
Earth, was the inevitable outcome of my fiddling with the
dimensions which led to our ability to translate in time as
well as across continua.