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

Heller replied. "To put it in a nutshell, they're scared of what it might mean if this planet
simply opens up to a civilization that's millions of years ahead of us...our whole culture could
be torn up by the roots; our civilization would come apart at the seams; we'd be avalanched with
technology that we're not ready to absorb...that kind of thing."
"But that's ridiculous!" Hunt protested. "They haven't said they want to take this place
over. They just want to come here and talk." He made an impatient throwing-away motion in the air.
"Okay, I'll accept that we'd have to play it soffly and exercise some caution and common sense,
but what you're describing sounds more like a neurosis."
"It is," Heller said. "The UN's being irrational-there's no other word for it. And the
Farside delegation is following that p01-icy to the letter and operating in go-slow, stall-stall-
stall mode." She waved toward the fOlder she had indicated earlier. "You'll see for yourself.
Their responses are evasive and ambiguous, and do nothing to correct the wrong impressions that
the Thuriens have got. Norman and I have tried to fight it, but we get outvoted."
Hunt caught Lyn's eye as he sent a despairing look around the room. She sent back a faint
half-smile and a barely perceptible shrug that said she knew how he felt. A faction inside the UN
had fought hard and for the same reasons to prevent the Farside transmissions being continued
after the first, unexpected reply had come in, he remembered, but had been overruled after a
deafening outcry from the world's scientific community. That same faction seemed to be active
again.
"The worst part is what we suspect might be behind it," Heller continued. "Our brief from
the State Department was to help move things smoothly toward broadening Earth's communications
with Thurien as fast as developments allowed, at the same time protecting this country's interests
where appropriate. The Department didn't really agree with the policy of excluding outsiders, but
had to go along with it because of UN protocols. In other words, the U.S. has been trying to play
it straight so far, but under protest."
"I can see the picture," Hunt said as she paused. "But that just says that you're becoming
frustrated by the slow progress. You sounded as if there's more to it than that."
"There is," Heller confirmed. "The Soviets also have a representative on the delegation-a
man called Sobroskin. Given the world situation-with us and the Soviets competing everywhere for
things like the South Atlantic fusion deal, industrial-training franchises in Africa, scientific-
aid programs, and so on-the advantage that either side could get from access to Ganymean know-how
would be enormous. So you'd expect the Soviets to be just as impatient to kick some life into this
damn delegation as we are. But they aren't. Sobroskin goes along with the official UN line and
doesn't bitch about it. In fact he spends half his time throwing in complications that slow things
down even further. Now when those facts are laid down side by side, what do they seem to say?"
Hunt thought over the question for a while, then tossed out his hands with a shrug. "I
don't know," he said candidly. "I'm not a political animal. You tell me."
"It could mean that the Soviets are planning to set up their own private channel to fix a
landing in Siberia or somewhere so that they get exclusive rights," Pacey answered. "If that's so,
then the UN line would suit them fine. If the official channel stays clogged up, and the U.S.
plays straight and sticks with the official channel, then guess who walks off with the bonanza.
Think of the difference it would make to the power balance if a few heads of select governments
around the world were quietly tipped off that the Soviets had access to lots of know-how that we
didn't. You see
-- it all fits with the way Sobroskin is acting."
"And an even more sobering thought is the way in which the UN's policy fits in with that
so conveniently," Heller added. "It could mean that the Soviets have ways that we don't even know
about of pulling all kinds of strings and levers right inside the top levels of the UN itself. If
that's true, the global implications for the U.S. are serious indeed."
The facts were certainly beginning to add up, Hunt admitted to himself. The Soviets could