[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
was trying deny the whole thing and Krin didn t look happy at all listening to him. I caught Dr. Ritter
looking at her very thoughtfully.
There were no pictures of aliens yet. Komoto was reporting that the authorities said there were delays in
working out the digital interface between the starship and the planetary communications net with a
skeptical edge to her voice when the house interrupted to tell Mom that the local newspeople wanted to
set up an interview about the alien propulsion system. She told it that she didn t know anything about the
particulars yet, but to tell them she would be happy to talk on the general subject.
Frustrated with the news pablum, Krin and I went to my room to look for some real background. I dug
out a cyberbook and some data wands, loaded one on spacecraft, and flopped down on the rug. I called
up a diagram of the solar system navigation aids to show how the aliens had surprised everyone by
coming in from far below the plane of the planet s orbits. All the radar and optics were concentrated on
the ecliptic, where all the traffic was. Krin s arm pressed against mine and it was hard to keep my mind
on things.
Next, I loaded a biology stick and went right to the speculative stuff at the end where the authors were
guessing about what aliens would be like.
I think I have to read the first part to understand this, Krin sighed. What s convergent evolution?
That s the idea that similar environmental problems evolve similar solutions. Like kangaroos and deer, or
bats and owls. Some people think it applies to cultural development, too, and aliens will be a lot like us.
Others say no, they ll be too weird to even talk to.
If they rethat weird, Krin asked, why would they want to talk to us, or even visit us?
Good question. Uh, I just remembered I ve got to recycle the fax paper. Mom used a lot of hard copy
in her engineering business; it was a lot less expensive than having dozens of cyberbooks for thing she
wanted to have in front of her all the time. One of my chores was to gather up all the used paper and
stick it in the recycler to be laser bleached and used again.
I got a sharp look from Mom as I put a stack in the almost-empty hopper just in time. Mom had ordered
all sorts of stuff about magnetic sails and neutral particle beam-focusing, and it came about as fast as I
could keep the hopper full. She had diagrams pasted up all over the walls of the study. In fact, it was
clear that we were going to need more paper, so we started organizing a trip into town.
Then, in the stuff they sent Mom, we got our first look at the Korkol. A diagram of a Korkol spacesuit
had somehow slipped through. In fact, that was how we realized that data were definitely being
censored. Dad was phlegmatic as usual, but Mom and Dr. Ritter were furious.
One look at Mom s back-channel stuff and it was obvious why the Korkol came to Mars rather than
Earth; we ve got a third the gravity and almost twice the atmospheric pressure. If you re a Korkol, that
makes it a lot easier to fly. To me, they looked a bit like a cross between a frog and a crow, but that
makes them sound ugly. They weren t. They lookedright ..
I went to get Krin to show her, and asked her if she wanted to go to Viking City for paper and blank
data rods with us. She didn t answer right away, playing with the fish ring on her hand. I probably
should, she finally said, sighed, gave me a little hug and kissed my cheek. I ve got to get some stuff and
talk to Dad. My heart was beating so loud from the kiss that I was sure that everyone in the house could
hear it, but I held together, somehow.
Meanwhile, Mom had started the interview using the main screen in the living room instead of the study,
because the background in the study was too messy. She d even put on a businesslike jump suit. Krin
and I walked right behind her, still in our beach towels, not realizing we were live across the whole
planet; Mom had put the comm unit on the coffee table to get her living room view in the background.
Dad almost laughed out loud in the middle of Mom s interview, but held himself together and motioned us
to the side, out of the field of view.
We stopped to listen to the interview.
The newspeople were trying to get Mom to say that the Korkol had some dangerous new sort of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
was trying deny the whole thing and Krin didn t look happy at all listening to him. I caught Dr. Ritter
looking at her very thoughtfully.
There were no pictures of aliens yet. Komoto was reporting that the authorities said there were delays in
working out the digital interface between the starship and the planetary communications net with a
skeptical edge to her voice when the house interrupted to tell Mom that the local newspeople wanted to
set up an interview about the alien propulsion system. She told it that she didn t know anything about the
particulars yet, but to tell them she would be happy to talk on the general subject.
Frustrated with the news pablum, Krin and I went to my room to look for some real background. I dug
out a cyberbook and some data wands, loaded one on spacecraft, and flopped down on the rug. I called
up a diagram of the solar system navigation aids to show how the aliens had surprised everyone by
coming in from far below the plane of the planet s orbits. All the radar and optics were concentrated on
the ecliptic, where all the traffic was. Krin s arm pressed against mine and it was hard to keep my mind
on things.
Next, I loaded a biology stick and went right to the speculative stuff at the end where the authors were
guessing about what aliens would be like.
I think I have to read the first part to understand this, Krin sighed. What s convergent evolution?
That s the idea that similar environmental problems evolve similar solutions. Like kangaroos and deer, or
bats and owls. Some people think it applies to cultural development, too, and aliens will be a lot like us.
Others say no, they ll be too weird to even talk to.
If they rethat weird, Krin asked, why would they want to talk to us, or even visit us?
Good question. Uh, I just remembered I ve got to recycle the fax paper. Mom used a lot of hard copy
in her engineering business; it was a lot less expensive than having dozens of cyberbooks for thing she
wanted to have in front of her all the time. One of my chores was to gather up all the used paper and
stick it in the recycler to be laser bleached and used again.
I got a sharp look from Mom as I put a stack in the almost-empty hopper just in time. Mom had ordered
all sorts of stuff about magnetic sails and neutral particle beam-focusing, and it came about as fast as I
could keep the hopper full. She had diagrams pasted up all over the walls of the study. In fact, it was
clear that we were going to need more paper, so we started organizing a trip into town.
Then, in the stuff they sent Mom, we got our first look at the Korkol. A diagram of a Korkol spacesuit
had somehow slipped through. In fact, that was how we realized that data were definitely being
censored. Dad was phlegmatic as usual, but Mom and Dr. Ritter were furious.
One look at Mom s back-channel stuff and it was obvious why the Korkol came to Mars rather than
Earth; we ve got a third the gravity and almost twice the atmospheric pressure. If you re a Korkol, that
makes it a lot easier to fly. To me, they looked a bit like a cross between a frog and a crow, but that
makes them sound ugly. They weren t. They lookedright ..
I went to get Krin to show her, and asked her if she wanted to go to Viking City for paper and blank
data rods with us. She didn t answer right away, playing with the fish ring on her hand. I probably
should, she finally said, sighed, gave me a little hug and kissed my cheek. I ve got to get some stuff and
talk to Dad. My heart was beating so loud from the kiss that I was sure that everyone in the house could
hear it, but I held together, somehow.
Meanwhile, Mom had started the interview using the main screen in the living room instead of the study,
because the background in the study was too messy. She d even put on a businesslike jump suit. Krin
and I walked right behind her, still in our beach towels, not realizing we were live across the whole
planet; Mom had put the comm unit on the coffee table to get her living room view in the background.
Dad almost laughed out loud in the middle of Mom s interview, but held himself together and motioned us
to the side, out of the field of view.
We stopped to listen to the interview.
The newspeople were trying to get Mom to say that the Korkol had some dangerous new sort of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]