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

a condition where you couldn't sell it for scrap value. By sorting bits and pieces we could
probably reconstruct another five cats, but we can only reckon on a maximum of six thousand
operating-cat-hours before we start walking."
Fritz stared disconsolately at a virgin notebook. "What about tractors and heavy equipment?"
"They're not too badтАФbut only by virtue of the fact that most of them are still in sealed crates. Once
they're broken-out there's no reason to suppose they'll last any longer than the cats do. This combination
of corrosion and abrasion is something to which I'd not cheerfully expose a clockwork mouse."
 "I take your point," said Fritz. "As I see the present requirements it doesn't give us much over
a sixty-day trans-port potential. What protection can we give to the cats to extend their
working life?"
"A lot of a vehicle we can plastic coat, as they do with the Knudsens. The engines are a
more difficult problem. Some genius thought of providing them with standard aluminium-alloy turbine
housings, and what the Tazoon at-mosphere does to the alloy makes my flesh creep. Even the vitreous
liners devitrify and release particles of silica into the bearings."
"Don't bother to describe," said Fritz, "what silica does to the bearings. I think we have to
face the fact that while we might save most of the cats themselves we aren't going to be able to save
many of the engines. We could devise a system of enclosing the engines in an inert atmosphereтАФ
but I doubt if we have the facilities here to do a permanent job. We then also need a supply of controlled
pH, moisture-free oxygen for the air intake. I think we could produce that by electrolysis,
but I doubt if we can handle it in sufficient quantities to be of much value."
"And so on ad-infinitum," said Jacko ruefully.
Fritz nodded. "Let's try it anyway. I want two cats modi-fied. Plastic spray them everywhere possible,
and seal the engine compartment and fill it with a nitrogen and hydrogen mixture of non-ignitable
composition. Get our micro-Linde column working for the nitrogen and make an electrolysis plant for the
hydrogen. You'll need both the Linde and the electrolytic plant to get enough oxygen for the air-supply
for the engine intakes, and you'd better dilute the oxygen with any nitrogen you can spare, then adjust the
turbines to run on that."
"And what do I keep the oxygen in?" asked Jacko.
"They've a fair supply of the plastic poly-polymer they use for spraying the huts. It shouldn't be beyond
our ca-pacity to blow a gasbag from that."
"It all sounds feasible," said Jacko, "but I doubt the ca-pacity of the micro-Linde to give us all the
nitrogen we need."
"So do I," said Fritz, "that's why I said to modify two cats only. There's plenty of other things to try,
but this is the most obvious, and we've neither time nor the resources to start nitrogen fixation in a big
way." He went to the window, opened the shutter and stared moodily out at the red and featureless
wasteland.
"Sand," he said. "Nothing but sand, fine-grained, abrasive and all-pervading. What we need, Jacko, is
something com-pletely new in the way of transport on Tazoo. I wonder what the Tazoons themselves
employed."

Three days later and the modification of the cats was in full swing when the telephone rang.
"Van Noon speaking."
 "Fritz, Nevill here. I've got some work for you."
"Bring it over," said Fritz. "A little more won't make much difference."

"Right. Be with you in about ten minutes. It's one of these Tazoon mechanisms we've been
looking for."
"Now you have me interested," said Fritz. "Exactly what is it?"
"That's what I want you to tell me."
Ten minutes later Nevill arrived and ceremonially knocked out his pipe on the threshold