"01 - The Demons at Rainbow Bridge UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

find the basics thereЧcreatures that took the ecological position
of insects, some high-level herbivores and the inevitable carni-
vores preying on them and pruning their herds, and some rather
odd ocean life as well, but nothing to show that anything higher
than that had ever evolved here.

Of course, as Cymak knew well, you could never be a hun-
dred per cent sure, even if you stayed a month. Intelligence came
in the oddest packages and didn't always fit the conventional
molds. More than once he, and almost all the other scouts, had
certified a worid as "exploitable," only to have Exploiter Teams
later discover rather nasty surprises down there. That was what
Exploiters got paid for.

Cymak's job was to check the obvious. Structures, signs of
environmental alteration, patterns that would show species dom-
inance, that sort of thing. If there was any kind of real intelli-
gence on this worid, it wasn't the conventional sort.

"There is an anomaly," the ship's computer reported to him.
"I had a number of passes made when it showed up, just to
make certain, and sent in the highest resolution photographic
gear once it was isolated. It is on the east coast of the smaller
continent in the northern hemisphere. It is definitely an artificial
structure."

"Just one?" The Xymanth responded.

"Yes. One structure on the entire planet."

That was bad. Worse than a horde of screaming natives, in

4 jack L Chalker

fact, because one could often do something even with a primitive
populationЧbut a single structure probably indicated that some-
body else had found the place first.

"Identification?"

"Unknown. That is, the structure is of no known type either
in the Exchange or in the Mycohl or Mizlaplan groups. In fact,
I did not report it immediately because the readings it gave off
indicated malfunctions in my own equipment."

"Put up your best shots on the screens." the scout instructed.

The screens blinked and then showed various passes in full
three dimensions. Cymak immediately understood the ship's
problemЧthe artifact was unlike anything he'd ever seen before.