"Haldeman, Joe - Tricentennial" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

"It's easy to sell bridges and power plants and shuttles. Hard to sell pure science."

"The more reason for you to-"

"Yeah, sure. Ask for double and give half to the Ad

boys. Maybe next year. That's-not what I came to talk about."

"That radio stuff?"

"Right. Did you read the report?"

Connors looked into his glass. "Charlie, you know I don't have time to-"

"Somebody read it, though."

"Oh, nighty-o. Good astronomy boy on my staff: he gave me a boil-down. Mighty interesting, that."

"There's an intelligent civilization eleven light-years away-that's `mighty interesting'?"

"Sure. Real breakthrough." Uncomfortable silence. V "Uh, what are you going to do about it?"

"Two things. First, we're trying to figure out what they're saying. That's hard. Second, we want to send a message back. That's easy. And that's where you come in."

The Senator nodded and looked somewhat wary.

"Let me explain. We've sent messages to this star, 61 Cygni, before. It's a double star, actually, with a dark companion."

"Like us."

"Sort of. Anyhow, they never answered. They aren't listening, evidently: they aren't sending."

"But we got-"

"What we're picking up is about what you'd pick up eleven light-years from Earth. A confused jumble of broadcasts, eleven years old. Very faint. But obviously not generated by any sort of natural source."

"Then we're already sending a message back. The same kind they're sending us."

"That's right, but---21

"So what does all this have to do with me?"

"Bo, we don't want to whisper at them-we want to shout! Get their attention." Leventhal sipped his wine and leaned back. "For that, we'll need one hell of a lot ` of power."

"Uh, nighty-o. Charlie, power's money. How much are you talking about?"

"The whole show. I want to shut down Death Valley for twelve hours."
The Senator's mouth made a silent O. "Charlie, you've been working too hard. Another Blackout? On purpose?"