"Bud Sparhawk - Childish Things" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sparhawk Bud)

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Childish Things
by Bud Sparhawk
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Science Fiction




Copyright ©1994 by Bud Sparhawk

First published in Analog, December 1994


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“I think it is time to go,” the humaniform complex prompted itself gently as it floated above the warm
green world. “We can't wait much longer.” The complex contemplated the planet's attributes in
ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and radio bands, wondering with each frequency shift at the beauty
revealed. Here was the place of a civilization's birth. Here was the cradle of science, philosophy, of
literature, and art. Here was where a people had learned of their limits and possibilities, of their place in
the universe. It was a lovely place, an empty place, the sweet cradle of knowledge.

****

“We've confirmed that it's definitely an ordered set of signals, using the protocol that you requested,” the
Lunar watch office reported from the Clarke Bank late in the evening, Greenwich time. “We're recording
it on sixteen discrete frequencies, none of which have a common harmonic nor run afoul any of the
absorption windows.”

“So you're saying that you definitely have a confirmed extraterrestrial signal,” Dr Hugh Banker asked
dryly from his High Street office, near the “observatory” where no significant star had been seen
optically for fifty years because of the luminescent pollution of greater London, and awaited the
inevitable delay for the signal to bounce through the satellite links to the Lunar base.

“That's affirmative! Yes, yes, and yes! We have a guaranteed, gold plated, died in the wool, absolutely,
positively certain...”