"James P. Hogan - Giants 3 - Giant's Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

kind of thing. Whoever was sending the messages seemed concerned...as if they considered us a
threat to it for some reason." Heller paused, seeing the look of non-comprehension that was
spreading across Hunt's face.
"Are you saying they didn't know about the ship before we beamed that first signal out
from Farside?" he asked.
"So it would appear," Heller replied.
Hunt thought for a moment. "So again, whoever is handling the surveillance isn't talking
to whoever is sending these messages," he said.
"Exactly," Pacey agreed, nodding. "The ones handling the surveillance could hardly have
not known about the Shapieron while it was here if they have any access to our communications
network. There were enough headlines about it."
"And that's not the only strange thing," Heller went on. "The Thuriens that we have been
in contact with seem to have formed a completely distorted picture of Earth's recent history. They
think we're all set for World War III only this time interplanetary, with orbiting bomfs
everywhere, radiation and particle-beam weapons commanding the surface from the Moon...you name
it."
Hunt had been growing even more bemused as he listened. He could see now why it looked as
if the Shapieron couldn't have been intercepted-at least not by the Thuriens who were talking to
Earth; the Ganymeans from the ship would have cleared up any misunderstandings like that straight
away. But even if the Thuriens who were doing the talking hadn't intercepted the Shapieron, they
had an impression of Earth nonetheless, which meant that they could only have obtained it from the
Thuriens who were handling the surveillance. The impression they had obtained was wrong.
Therefore, either the surveillance wasn't very effective, or the story being passed on was being
distorted. But if the messages had been coming in composed in English, the surveillance methods
had to be pretty effective, which therefore implied that
the Thuriens passing on the story weren't passing it on straight. But that didn't make a
lot of sense, either. Ganymeans didn't
play Machiaveffian games of intrigue or deceive one another knowingly. Their minds didn't
work that way; they were far too rational...unless the Ganymeans who now existed on Thurien had
changed significantly in the course of the twenty-five million years that separated them from
their ancestors aboard the S/iapieron. That was a thought. A lot of changes could have taken place
in that time. He couldn't arrive at any definite conclusions now, he decided, so the information
was simply filed away for retrieval and analysis later.
"It sounds strange, all right," Hunt agreed after he had sorted that much out in his head.
"They must be pretty confused by now.',
"They were already," Caldwell said. "The reason they reopened the dialogue is that they
want to come to Earth physically- I guess to straighten out the whole mess. That's what they've
been trying to get the UN people to arrange."
"Secretly," Pacey explained in answer to Hunt's questioning look. "No public spectacles or
anything like that. What it seems to add up to is that they're hoping to do some quiet checking up
without the outfit that's running the surveillance knowing about it."
Hunt nodded. The plan made sense. But there was a note in Pacey's voice that hinted of


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things not having gone so smoothly. "So what's the problem?" he asked, shifting his eyes to glance
at both Pacey and Heller.
"The problem is the policy that's been handed down from the top levels inside the UN,"