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

the reception party; he probably knew more about Ganymean biology and psychology than anybody else
in the worid's scientific community. Caldwell had broached the subject confidentially with the
Director of the Westwood Institute, who had agreed and advised Danchekker accordingly. Danchekker
had not needed very much persuading. He was far from happy at the manner in which the eminent
personages responsible for managing Earth's affairs had been handling things, however.
"The whole situation is preposterous," Danchekker declared irritably while he was loading
the instruments he had been using into a sterilizer on one side of the room. "Politics, cloak-and-
dagger theatrics-this is an unprecedented opportunity for the advancement of knowledge and
probably for a quantum leap in the progress of the whole human race, yet here we are having to
plot and scheme as if we were dealing in illicit narcotics or something. I mean, good God, we
can't even talk about it over the phone! The situation's intolerable."
Lyn straightened up from the dissecting table, where she had been curiously studying the
exposed innards of Daphoenodon. "I guess the UN feels it has an obligation to humanity to play
safe," she said. "It's a contact with a whole new civilization, and they figure that up front it
ought to be handled by the professionals."
Danchekker closed the sterilizer lid with a bang and walked over to a sink to rinse his
hands. "When the Shapieron arrived at Ganymede, the only representatives of Homo sapiens there to
meet it were, as I recall, the scientific and engineering personnel of the UNSA Jupiter missions,"
he pointed out coolly. "They conducted themselves in exemplary fashion and had established a
perfectly civilized relationship with the Ganymeans long before the ship came to Earth. That was
without any 'professionals' being involved at all, apart from sending inane advice from Earth on
how the situation should be managed, and which those on the spot simply laughed at and ignored."
Hunt looked across from a chair by a desk that stood in one corner of the lab, almost
surrounded by computer terminal equipment and display screens. "Actually there is something to be
said for the UN line," he said. "I don't think you've thought yet just how big a risk we might be
taking."
Danchekker sniffed as he came back around the table. "What are you talking about?"
"If the State Department wasn't convinced that if we don't go it alone and fix a landing
the Soviets will, we'd be a lot more cautious too," Hunt told him.
"I don't follow you," Danchekker said. "What is there to be cautious about? The Ganymean
mind is incapable of conceiving anything that could constitute a threat to our, or anybody else's,
well-being, as you well know. They simply have not been shaped by the factors that have
conditioned Homo sapiens to be what he is." He waved a hand in front of his face before Hunt could
reply. "And as for your fears that the Thuriens may have changed in some fundamental way, you may
forget that. The fundamental traits that determine human behavior were established, not tens but
hundreds of millions of years ago, and I have studied Miner-van evolution sufficiently to be
satisfied that the same may safely be said of Ganymeans also. On such timescales, twenty-five
million years is scarcely significant, and quite incapable of giving rise to changes of the


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magnitude that your suggestion implies."
"I know that," Hunt said when he could get a word in. "But you're going off at a wrong
tangent. That's not the problem. The problem is that we might not be talking to Ganymeans at all."
Danchekker seemed taken aback for a moment, then frowned as if Hunt should have known
better. "That's absurd," he declared. "Who else could we be talking to? The original transmission
from Farside was encoded in Ganymean communications format and understood, was it not? What reason
is there to suppose its recipients were anything else?"