"Colin Kapp - The Subways of Tazoo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kapp Colin)

The Subways of Tazoo
by colin kapp




While archaeologists continue to unravel the mys- teries of former civilizations on Earth,
science-fiction writers have been speculating on the possibility that one day we may find
similar traces of alien intelligence on other worldsтАФMars, for instance. Author Colin Kapp,
however, takes us further away, to an alien planet with a lost civilization and the
incompre-hensible artifacts they left behind in their flight from ... . what?
 ONE

"Lieutenant Van Noon, report to Colonel Belling's office."
"Damn!" Fritz Van Noon glared at the loudspeaker. "Sounds as though Belling's back and on the
warpath again."
"Can you wonder?" Jacko Hine helped him out from under the miscellanea of half-assembled pieces.
"Let's face it, Fritz, some of our recent projects have come unstuck in a rather spectacular manner."
"True," said Fritz, "but never let it be said that the Un-orthodox Engineers have produced a damp
squib. Always our results have exceeded our wildest expectations."
"Or Belling's wildest fears," said Jacko morosely.
As Fritz entered the office Colonel Belling half raised him-self from his chair in greeting. "Ah, Van
Noon! Just the fellow I wanted to see."
"Sir?" asked Fritz suspiciously. Colonel Belling was not a man given to cordiality towards his
subordinates.
Belling smiled wolfishly. "I've just returned from the General Staff conference. Since you re-instated
the railways up on Cannis even the Old Man has been forced to admit that there may be occasions when
unorthodox engineering has its virtues. For my part I felt impelled to point out that I'm trying to run a
specialist engineering reserve, and that carrying the can for a complete squad of engineering illegiti-mates
was not strictly within my terms of reference. As I explained, always I get stuck with the one engineer in
a thousand who should never have left kindergarten, let alone graduated. The only repository I have for
these mechanical misfits is the U.E. squad, where the damage they can do, if not exactly nullified, is at
least anticipated."
"Isn't that a little unfair, sir? I mean . . ."
"I know just what you mean, Fritz, and I don't accept it. Engineering is a discipline, but the
brand you apply is strictly delinquent. The outcome of the conference was that Colonel Nash, whom I'm
beginning to suspect has masoch-istic tendencies, has volunteered to take the U.E. squad on the Tazoon
enterprise."

Fritz considered this for a moment. "Exactly what are they doing on Tazoo, sir?"
"Supporting an archaeological team. Life on Tazoo is now extinct, but evidence tends to show that it
once held a civi-lization as highly developed or more so than our own. In terms of knowledge to be
gained it is probably the greatest find that space has ever given to us. It is doubtful if the Tazoons were
human or even humanoid, and they became extinct at least two million years ago. Our problem is to pick
up the remains of a complex mechanical culture as alien and as old as that and attempt to understand it
for what it was."
"I shouldn't have thought that was too difficult, sir."
"No, Fritz, I never supposed you would. That's partly the reason you're going. Your inverted-sideways
approach is the nearest thing to an alien technology that we've got. That makes you a specialist."
"Thank you, sir," said Fritz warily. "And the other part of the reason we're going?"