"Ian R. Macleod - Starship Day" - читать интересную книгу автора (Macleod Ian R)

Starship Day - a short story by Ian R MacLeod



Starship Day
a short story by Ian R
IP fiction
MacLeod



The news was everywhere. It was in our dreams, it was on TV. Tonight, the travellers on the first
starship from Earth would awaken.

That morning, Danous yawned with the expectant creak of shutters, the first stretch of shadow across
narrow streets. The air shimmered with the scent of warming pine, it brushed through the shutters and
touched our thoughts even as our dreams had faded. For this was Starship Day, and from tonight,
nothing would ever be the same. Of course, there were parties organised. Yacht races across the bay.
Holidays for the kids. The prospect of the starship's first transmission, an instantaneous tachyon burst
across the light years, had sent the wine sellers and the bakers scurrying towards their stocks and
chasing their suppliers. And the suppliers had chased their suppliers. And the bread, the fruit, the hats,
the frocks, the meat, the marquees, the music had never been in such demand. Not even when... Not
even when... Not even when. But there were no comparisons. There had never been a day such as this.

As if I needed reminding, the morning paper on the mat was full of it. I'd left my wife Hannah still
asleep, weary from the celebrations that had already begun the night before, and there were wine
glasses scattered in the parlour, the smell of booze and stale conversation. After starting with early
drinks and chatter at the Point Hotel, Hannah's sister Bernice and her husband Rajii had stayed around
with us until late. At least, they'd stayed beyond the time I finally left the three of them and went to bed,
feeling righteous, feeling like a sourpuss, wondering just what the hell I did feel. But some of us still
had work to do on this starship morning. I opened the curtains and the shutters and let in the sound and
the smell of the sea. I stacked a tray with the butts and bottles and glasses. I squeezed out an orange,
filled a bowl with oats and yoghurt and honey. I sat down outside with the lizards in the growing
warmth of the patio.

Weighted with a stone, my newspaper fluttered in the soft breeze off the sea. Page after page of gleeful
speculation. Discovery. Life. Starship. Hope. Message. Already, I'd had enough. Why couldn't people
just wait? All it took was for the tide to go in and out, for the sun to rise and fall, for stars and darkness
to come, and we'd all know the truth anyway. So easy -- but after all this time, humanity is still a
hurrying race. And I knew that my patients would be full of it at the surgery, exchanging their usual
demons for the brief hope that something from outside might change their lives. And I'd have to sit and
listen, I'd have to put on my usual caring-Owen act. The stars might be whispering from out of the black
far beyond this blue morning, but some of us had to get on with the process of living.




file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/D...er/Ian%20R.%20Mcleod%20-%20Starship%20Day.htm (1 of 18) [2/24/2004 10:45:45 PM]
Starship Day - a short story by Ian R MacLeod