Читать книгу Coiper Belt - Valery Konstantinovich Bulygin - Страница 6

– Commander, there is important information from navigators, – Ivan said.

– Something important? – Scan asked.

– Yes, – the deputy replied.

– You are very much asked to come to the navigation department. There was some tension in the department. The faces of the staff were focused and agitated.

– Commander, – the head of the department said. We have very important information. For several months, our navigators scanned the near space. According to our observations and calculations, it turns out that some objects are approaching us. There are 80 or 100 of them. All of them fly together and apparently, their speed slows down synchronously. It cannot be asteroids or comets.

– Did you calculate their braking speed? – Scan asked.

– Yes, – the head of the department replied.

According to all our calculations, the end of braking will take place in the area of Eris.

Now the distance to us is about 5 million. Kilometers. In 10—15 days, they will be in our area. Most likely, these are objects of artificial origin, judging by their movements. Of course, I am far from thinking that this is something reasonable, but I think we should continue to scan them and send some information just in case.

– What information do you want to send? – Scan asked.

– As usual, what we sent before. Standard set: who we are, what we are, where we are. These signals in any case indicate that they are of artificial origin. We will wait for an answer if he follows. If there is an answer, we are kind of going to have to deal with something reasonable. Oddly enough, this will be the first contact with something similar to the mind. In the history of the Earth, it was not possible to hear signals similar to artificial signals from the Cosmos. I still have no confidence that there is anything reasonable in the nearest Cosmos. For almost 200 years, we have been listening to Cosmos and everything in vain.

A week later, the head of the navigation department again invited the commander.

– We can inform you that our requests have received clear signals and they are of great interest. The response signals were received at the same frequency. The first packet we received was the same as the one we sent. It was actually repeated. They are probably some kind of ship. Who is in them? Machines or sentient beings? That is the surprise. Is there going to be a meeting of sentient beings?

Is there going to happen to be a meeting of sentient beings on the edge of the solar system? It seems to be early to fantasize. It will be necessary to decide how to exchange information.

The whole department of cryptographers worked three shifts. The communication algorithm, which was developed on Earth, was improved. After two weeks of intensive work, the following

– 94 ships fly from another system, which, by the way, is in our Milky Way galaxy. According to the coordinates that we were given, we roughly identified this place. Almost all ships are living creatures, inhabitants of this system. Their system has become subject to the attraction of a local black hole, and after a while, this process will become inevitable.

They (like us) decided to build ships and look for a better place to live and colonize.

Now they are sent to our solar system, because according to their calculations it is suitable for habitation. Living creatures on ships of protein origin.

Here, in short, is such information. It is going to happen, we are leaving the solar system, and they are flying to it.

Captain Scan made this decision:

Let the aliens know what awaits them in our solar system.

Find out where they are coming from so we do not go there.

It was also decided to refrain from close contacts for the time being. It is not known what their intentions are. What we can expect: friendship or hatred, understanding or competition.

After a while, the following message was received: the exact coordinates of the place from which they fly, do not want to give.

The tone of the message alerted Scan. Turns out it is not that simple. Something is wrong. In connection with the current situation, it was decided to stop all contact with aliens and go on a given route. Contacting a stranger is not a predictable thing. Imagine you are walking alone in the desert for three days. You do not have any more power. Then on the horizon, you can see some settlement. You think that is salvation. Come to the settlement, and there live cannibals. In addition, they are very happy to see you. What are their intentions? Who are we for them? Friends, brothers of mind or competitors? At the dawn of our civilization, we were very naive. We thought that the brothers would come in mind, share their achievements, technologies. However, does it really have to be that way?