"A. R. Yngve - Alien Beach" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yngve A. R)

A.R.Yngve
ALIEN BEACH
Chapter One
DAY 1
"You're not listening to me," the woman told the soldier.
She was right; he did hear her, but he wasn't listening. The soldier lay staring at the tiny
black-and-white TV set before the bed. The newscast was hurried, stunned, as if the Second
Coming had happened without warning. The soldier was initially testy enough to shout at the
woman to shut up, but in the next few seconds he didn't care to. Transfixed by the small screen,
he took in the breaking news.
"The signals are being received from a point off the plane of our solar system, at a distance
twice that to Mars. World-famous astrophysicist Carl Sayers, known for his work to find
extraterrestrial intelligence, has gathered with other scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, the NASA command-and-monitoring station for deep-space probes, to study the
signals. "Professor Sayers could finally give this comment to the CNN just a minute ago…”
"We have now established, beyond all reasonable doubt, that this is not a hoax. The TV
broadcast comes from an extraterrestrial source, extremely strong and with tremendous
bandwidth; that's why it shows up on so many of the world's stations. The source is a moving
transmission disk, with a diameter of… roughly, a thousand kilometers. And from the way the
signal increases in intensity, we have calculated that the disk is approaching the Earth with
decreasing speed.
"We now have reason to believe, that the disk is in fact an enormously huge solar sail, made
up of very, very thin metal foil, which is slowing down as it moves into an orbit…parallel to that of
Mars. It will probably settle in orbit, in the wake of Mars, where it will be shielded from the solar
wind - kind of a port in a cosmic mistral, if you like.
"And according to the alien broadcast, a smaller ship will leave the solar sail and orbit the
Moon while awaiting our invitation to visit Earth. I cannot express to you the excitement I feel, as
do all my colleagues here at the JPL. This is... this is..."
The excited scientist obviously hadn't slept very well for the last few 24 hours; neither had
the soldier. The headaches were still interrupting his nights - despite the booze, the women, and
the pills. The soldier's head was a little less heavy this morning, and he felt like getting some more
sleep - but the news of the alien TV broadcast pestered his brain, not with the dull pain of
headache but with the rush of anticipation. He couldn't remember being this excited since the war.
The woman, next to him in the bed, gave him an impatient push.
"What's the matter, soldier? You want me to go?" He sighed, rubbing his temples, avoiding
her sharp voice and stare.
"Yes," he groaned. "Go. I don't know you."
She pulled back strands of black hair from her tanned face and leaned closer to him, her soft
hands trying to gently pull his gaze from the TV. "But we just met," she said softly into his ear. "I
want to get to know you better..."
He turned to face her, and gave her an angry look. No you don't, he thought, and she let go -
as if she had heard his thoughts. Without a word, the woman gathered her clothes and began to
dress. From the other side of the half-closed window shutters, the street was teeming and
clamoring with human life.
The soldier had not wanted to be part of such life for the last two years. He had been drifting
around the Middle East since the war, in permanent early retirement, going nowhere, until this
morning when his life got a purpose again. Struck by instant epiphany after the TV news, he now
knew that he had to learn everything he could about the aliens. And then, just maybe, get a
chance to see them. And then - he couldn't picture what next.
Already, mocking his noble intentions, the thirst for booze, pills, whatever, was setting in.