"C. Sanford Lowe & G. David Nordley - The Small Pond" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lowe C Sanford)

At a gamma of two, the starship was moving at 86 percent of
lightspeed—stretching the Sun’s yellow light to red. “That’s clever; I hadn’t thought
of doing that.”
“We should get to see it again as we slow down approaching Campbell.”
Liz’s eyes widened. “Campbell?”
David smiled. “AKA Lacaille 9352.”
“We?” Liz asked. She liked him instantly.
“Judi Lalande, Su Ahng-Lo, and the Captain—those of us who have been
awake the whole trip. Lalande is an astrophysicist doing research en route. I
understudy Ahng-Lo with biosystems; I shall have my credential and experience by
the time the voyage is over.”
“Looking to ship out again, then?”
“I must see the universe and it is good to have as many qualifications as one
can acquire. As soon as I solve the mystery of that kuiperoid you found.”
Liz raised an eyebrow. “What mystery? Other than it’s clearly something the
solar system picked up from somewhere else.”
David grinned, delighted to pique her curiosity.
Liz touched the net again; within the errors of measurement, her planetoid was
the same age as the Lacaille 9352 system—make that the Campbell system—7.392
billion years, plus about 3.6 million or minus 2.2 million.
 “That could be a coincidence,” she started.
David looked at her, a glint in his eye. “I think it is nearly a twin of the rock
that’s going to crash into Martin, maybe even the other half.”
“The other half?”
“A rapidly rotating binary rock comes close to a giant planet, like Munro, and
gets pulled apart. The slower half goes into a chaotic orbit around Campbell. The
faster half gets ejected from the system entirely.”
“This happened recently? Campbell is moving very rapidly.”
David nodded. “But in a halo orbit about the galactic center that turns out to
be commensurable with that of Sol. They come close every 560 million years. Three
times around for us, two for it.”
“That’s still an incredible coincidence.”
He laughed. “Oh, I do not think it is so much. There are five hundred billion
plus stars or near stars floating around that big black hole in Sagittarius. What are the
odds that none of them come close to Sol periodically?”
Liz chuckled. “Well, if you put it that way...”
He nodded and his eyes blazed. “Now I go a little off the path that is beaten.
About 560 million years ago, life on Earth got a good, uh, kick in the trousers.”
“The Cambrian explosion?” She began to roll her eyes. “That’s way too
much of a coincidence.”
David shrugged. “That is why I’ve said nothing, officially, yet. But I think
maybe I will find some biology around this red star we go to. And I wonder if it is
biology we have already seen.”
The importance of what he said sank into Liz. An independent origin on Earth,
or an import from elsewhere ... “Campbell is almost three billion years older than the
Solar System...”
David’s eyes glowed. “Ah, you understand!”
Liz thought about her finding the kuiperoid, their chance meeting in the hall of
the administration tower, and now heading together for Lacaille 9352, sharing the
same passion to do something significant. Perhaps there was something to fate.