"Joseph Green - Wrong Attitude" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Joseph)

any size at all . . . and found the wrecked ship on the second day.
They would hear the acknowledgment to their jubilant message announcing proof of other life in the
galaxy during the fifth year of their homeward flight. But they could imagine the mingled joy and fear that
would sweep over the planet; they had experienced it in miniature themselves. Men had walked on
Earth's moon, on Mars, on Jupiter's Ganymede and Callisto, on Saturn's Titan, in a wasted search for
life. Unmanned probes had explored the hot surfaces of Mercury and Venus, the seas of frozen
hydrogen, helium and methane covering Jupiter and the other gas giants, the cold desolation of iron and
rock that formed Pluto, and nowhere in the solar system was there the slightest trace of life. The believers
in the space program, after years of periodic ups and downs, had persuaded the World Science Council
to finance the greatest trip of all, to the nearest star. And now the major question of the past century was
answered in the affirmative, and, if they could carry back knowledge worth billions in research money,
the space program would never again be in danger.
Both the joy and fear had faded when they landed their small shuttle and explored the alien vessel. It
had been a short, sturdy cylinder designed to land nose-up on six spidery legs; apparently they had not
developed the shuttle concept. On this landing two of the legs had come down on the roof of a large
hidden cavern. The thin rock had collapsed after the engines were off and the vessel had fallen on its
belly. The center had impacted on the farther wall of the cavern, breaking the body almost in two. The
front end was a twisted maze of titanium alloy which the humans had neither the time, or equipment, to
untangle. The back third was relatively intact, with most of its length suspended over the open cavern.
And the back contained six comparatively small nuclear rockets and a heavily shielded room with a
cylindrical vacuum chamber that had to be their source of power.
Steve Lord, their geologist, had found the imprint of the alien's companion ship only a few hundred
yards away. By the time-scale worked out on the Moon, the prints were leis than eighty years old. It
seemed clear that another intelligent species, one taller and thinner than Homo sapiens, but biologically
similar, had dispatched an exploration party to Alpha Centauri. When one ship suffered a disastrous
landing, the second came down and took off the survivors, a close parallel to their own planning if one
Interstellar failed.
The aliens were technologically ahead of Earth, but only slightly . . . which meant it should be possible
to learn from them. Man had explored beyond his solar system at the earliest possible moment, using
relatively crude fission-powered ships with supplementary ion drives. The aliens had fusion power plants
small enough to be practical in a spaceship. This seemed the one item that might give Earth a large gain in
technology, and, since it was far too heavy for the shuttle to lift, they had to learn its secret on the ground.
Ed Alderman wanted Buzz to produce, and was bearing down hard. Buzz had felt that he was
progressing nicely, until he discovered they apparently contained controlled hydrogen fusion with a
magnetic field that wouldn't hold a metal wrench off the field.
The air lock opened again and Steve Lord came in, carrying his sample case. He unsuited and joined
them. "Any closer to solving the problem, Buzz?"
"Afraid not," Buzz answered. "Learn anything new yourself? Find the missing bodies?"
"No, I'm convinced they preserved their dead and took them back home, wherever that is. Anyway I
can be of help to you and Elinor?"
"Yes, you can keep Ed off my neck," Buzz said with a grin. Like Elinor, Steve had collected all the
samples they really needed and was saving the analyses to occupy time on the tedious trip home. His wife
Marjorie, the crew doctor and psychologist, was orbiting in Interstellar B. The shuttle carried four, and
the commander, physicist, biologist, and geologist had been the natural choices for the landing party. The
doctor and Jan, the astronomer, were the two least needed on the ground.
The engine room was still airtight, and they had filled it with oxygen from the shuttle's reserve tank.
There was plenty of working room, but little Steve could do until Buzz decided on their next move. And
for that he needed to understand the theory behind the alien's plasma control, a concept still far beyond
his grasp.
Elinor finished her checks and Buzz made another run, with the same negative results. Long before