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

In fact, the five views presented to him didn't even look much
like each other.

"These are not five separate structures? These are all views
of the same single object?"

"One object, same coordinates. You can see why I suspected
a defect. I checked for all known types of shielding and found
nothing in die registers. As far as I can determine, there was
nothing to filter or distort the shots you see. The material and
basic dimensions, at least, are consistent."

The first view showed a structure that resembled nothing so
much as a great amber-colored crystal of fine quartz perhaps
forty meters long, its various facets showing clearly, its far end
apparently rounded, its near end coming to a multifaceted taper
ending in a point. The second shot showed something the same
size and color, but now it seemed concave, as if the top were
turned inward. The third shot resembled the first, but the smooth
sides of each facet were different, as if the damned thing had
somehow turned. On the fourth there was no point, but rather a
yawning cavity that seemed to reach back half the length of the
thing. The fifth was the most disconcerting, with the object
seemingly segmented into quarters, with each turned slightly off
the other so that the facet walls were broken up and did not
match.

"Well, something is causing distortion," the Xymanth noted.
"Unless that thing is alive and kicking. Composition?"

"Every analysis comes up with indistinct data," the computer
told him. "AH I can tell you is that it is solid, appears to have
some of the properties of glass or glassine plastic, that it is
opaque, and that the substance does not appear to exist anywhere
else on the planet, either artificially or naturally. There are in-

THE DEMONS AT RAINBOW BRIDGE 5

dications of a low yield energy source there but little else. It is
effectively dead to all remote analytical tools. There are no sig-
nals emanating from it otherwise, so it is not a beacon, and if
it is some sort of downed vessel from an unknown civilization,
it is not broadcasting anything we can monitor even as a distress
signal, although in any event I would find it inconceivable that
such a structure could have flown or even been carried here by
any known means of transport or propulsion."

"Life scan?"

"I get no life-form readings that are not consistent with the