"Joe Haldeman - Tricentennial (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

Tricentennial -- JOE HALDEMAN


Joe Haldeman is a. public relations department's dream. Handsome, with
a dashing beard, and in his early thirties, he is not only a world
traveler, a teacher, a lecturer, a former senior editor of ASTRONOMY
magazine, guitar player, and skin diver, but in addition to his science
fiction he has written adventure novels, nonfiction books, short
stories, articles, poems, and songs. In 1976 he won a Nebula Award for
his novel THE FOREVER WAR, which also that year won a Hugo, the award
given out by the World Science Fiction Convention annually. This year
he is nominated in two categories for the Hugo-both his novel
MINDBRIDGE and "Tricentennial," the short story that follows.

You would think that this would be enough for anyone. Add, however, the
fact that Joe Haldeman's university degree is in astrophysics, with
postgraduate work in mathematics, computer science, statistics, and
art, and the further fact that he is a decorated Vietnam War veteran
who was severely wounded in combat, and you have, as I said, a package
that a public relations department even one that deals with authors
year in and year out-tends to find almost embarrassingly rich in
interesting details.

Nonetheless, all these things are as true and real as Joe Haldeman
himself is real. And you will see as you read "Tricentennial," on the
pages that follow, that this is one of his geniuses as a writer-his
writing also has a rare element of reality within it.
December 1975

Scientists pointed out that the Sun could be part of a double star
system. For its companion to have gone undetected, of course, it would
have to be small and dim, and thousands of astronomical units distant.
They would find it eventually; "it" would turn out to be "them";
they would come in handy.

January 2075

The office was opulent even by the extravagant standards of twenty-
first-century Washington. Senator Connors had a passion for antiques.
One wall was lined with leather-bound books; a large brass telescope
symbolized his role as Liaison to the Science Guild. An intricately
woven Navajo rug from his home state covered most of the parquet floor.
A grandfather clock. Paintings, old maps.
The computer terminal was discreetly hidden in the top drawer of
his heavy teak desk. On the desk: a

A1
blotter, a precisely centered fountain pen set, and a century-old
sound-only black Bell telephone. It chimed.