"Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Roadside Picnic (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

Valentine examined his mug with a look of distaste.
"You don't like it?"
"I usually don't drink," Valentine said hesitantly.
"Really?"
"The hell with it!" Valentine moved the mug of beer away from him. "Why
don't you order me a cognac in that case."
"Rosalie!" Noonan called out, finally cheering up.
The cognac arrived. Noonan spoke.
"But you really shouldn't go on like that. I'm not talking about your
picnic--that's too much--but even if we accept the version that this is a
prelude to contact, I still don't like it. I can understand the bracelets
and the empties. But why the witches' jelly? The mosquito mange spots and
that disgusting fluff?"
"Excuse me," Valentine said, taking a slice of lemon. "I don't quite
understand your terminology. What mange?"
Noonan laughed.
"That's folklore. Stalkers' slang. Shop talk. The mosquito mange spots
are areas of heightened gravitation."
"Ah. Graviconcentrates. Directed gravity. That's something would enjoy
talking about for a couple of hours, but you wouldn't understand a thing."
"Why wouldn't I? I'm an engineer, you know.'
"Because I don't understand it myself. I have systems of equations, but
no way to interpret them. Witches' jelly, is that colloidal gas?"
"The very same. Did you hear about the catastrophe at the Currigan
labs?"
"I heard something about it."
"Those idiots put a porcelain container with the jelly into a special
room, highly insulated and isolated. That is, they thought it was isolated.
And when they opened the container with manipulators the jelly went through
metal and plastic, like water through a sieve, and outside. And everything
it touched also turned into jelly. Thirty-five people were killed, more than
a hundred were crippled, and the entire building was destroyed. Did you ever
go there? Marvelously equipped place! And now the jelly has seeped down into
the basement and the lower Boors. Some prelude to contact."
Valentine made a face.
"Yes, I know all that. But you must agree, Richard, that the visitors
had nothing to do with it. How could they have known about the existence of
our military-industrial complexes?"
"They should have known," Noonan insisted.
"Their answer to that would be that the military-industrial complexes
should have been done away with a long time ago."
"That's for sure. That's what they should have taken care of, if
they're so powerful."
"You mean you're suggesting interference in the internal affairs of the
human race?"
"Hmmm," Noonan said. "I guess we're going too far. Let's drop it.
Instead, let's go back to the beginning of our discussion. How will it all
end? Well, look at you, for instance, you're a scientist. Are you hoping for
something fundamental to come out of the Zone, some- thing that will alter
science, technology, our way of life?"