"Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Roadside Picnic (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автораValentine 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?" "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?" |
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