"Charles L. Harness-The Araqnid Window" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harness Charles L)

warehouses, either. No, these were space-ships. How do we know this? Next to the area of the four
hundred mounds is a concrete apron, several hectares in extent. Like all of this area, it is covered with
fifteen centimeters of volcanic ash. Last year we borrowed a remote-control blastavator from the
Wolfram Company and scraped off the overburden on a two-meter path, right down to the concrete
pads. We took skin samples from the concrete and picked up some nice radioisotopes of alkaline earth
silicates. So we are even able to identify their nuclear fuel mix. And not only that, from the isotopic
residues we can date their last blast-off. The radiology lab at the University gives it as three thousand plus
or minus three hundred years B.P.-- before the present. This coincides nicely with data from the other
known landing sites on the four other planets, including two on Earth, which is to say, one in the North
Sahara and one in California. Students, just imagine those marvelous explorations of thirty centuries ago.
They blasted off from this very place, just a few kilometers away, and they landed on our own home
planet. You can almost see them. And then..." His voice dropped uncertainly. "And then, they
disappeared. No more flights to Earth, no more explorations anywhere. Overnight, they vanished. Why?
What terrible disaster struck them? Well, perhaps on this trip we shall find out.
"Now then, enough talk. Let's get to work!"
Nevertheless, within the hour the professor found himself making another speech.
"It has been said-- " (And here the professor deliberately quoted himself.) "-- that archaeology is a
process of destruction."
The circle of seminarists dropped spade and sieve and assembled around the savant.
"Destruction, yes," the professor continued grimly. "But we mean informed destruction. And don't
forget the modifier. Is this-- " (he pointed to John Thorin's trench) "-- informed destruction?"
The class looked at the young student in secret sympathy. It was going to be a bad day.
"The Llanoans," continued the professor, "built a wall here. A wall of sunbaked clay bricks. Then the
wall crumbled, as such walls do. The desert moved in and covered everything. And now Mr. Thorin
comes along with his spade, some four thousand years later, and digs a fine trench. And runs it right
through the wall. Mr. Thorin, this is destruction, but it is not informed destruction. May I ask, sir, why
your trench did not stop when it came to the wall?"
"I guess, sir, because the wall texture was the same as the soil. I just did not see the line where the soil
stopped and the wall began. The bricks were made from the desert soil in the first place, and I guess they
sort of weathered back into soil."
"So that you should have been specially careful, eh, Mr. Thorin? Well, then, can you now show the
class the wall which you have zoomed right through with such enthusiasm?"
Thorin flushed. Forced to rub his nose in it. Thank God the light was just right. He could barely pick
out a band of something about one decimeter thick. But he knew that if the professor had not told him it
was there, he would have missed it. He knelt and pointed at the boundary.
"Very good. And now let's trade." He took the spade gently from the student's hands and gave him a
digging knife. "You will now proceed to define the wall. Carry on, class."
Thorin sighed. He hoped this wasn't going to set the pattern for the field trip. He was glad his wife had
not been present to witness his humiliation. Fortunately, Coret was busy today typing reports in the
administration tent.
And that bit with the knife. As though to tell him he couldn't be trusted with anything so gross as a
shovel.
He set his jaw philosophically and began to hack away. Just how he was going to run a trench a meter
wide down the full length of the wall using only a handknife, he did not know. The shovel was the only
way to do it. But he wasn't going to risk the shovel again. The professor might send him home. Even
though he was majoring in instrumentation, he needed this 3-hour credit in ark. He had to finish this field
trip. No, he could not risk antagonizing the professor.
***