"Gregory Kern - Cap Kennedy 01 - Galaxy of the Lost" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kern Gregory)

Chemile suggested, "An explosion in the engine room, perhaps? The
atomic engines running wild and threatening disruption?"

"Yes. That or something similar. Something both violent and sudden."

"We have a time-element," said Luden. "Thirty-four seconds.
Something triggered the automatic beacon and then, just over a
half-minute later, obliterated the mechanism. Would an engine explosion
have taken so long? The answer, assuming that the engines could explode
at all, is no. So we are faced with a situation in which a ship fell into
difficulties, sent out the alarm, and then, thirty-four seconds later, was
either so totally destroyed that no trace could be found, or was removed
utterly from that particular section of space. The former, we have decided,
is untenable. The latter, in the light of present knowledge, unthinkable.
What is left?"

"The alarm triggered, stopped, and the ship sent at top speed on a
totally different course," said Chemile immediately. "Piracy. The alarm
used to prevent a search."

"The signal was a bluff," said Saratov. "A pod containing a transmitter,
a delayed-action trigger and a self-destruct device. It could have been
dropped by any ship passing that way. Or it could have been set loose
while the supposedly destroyed vessel took off for parts unknown. A small
pod wouldn't leave much residueтАФcertainly not enough to be picked up by
those searching for a big ship."

Luden sighed. "You haven't been listening," he complained. "We are not
dealing with one ship, but with at least two and maybe four. And none of
the vessels contained anything of high value to tempt pirates or mutineers.
Cap?"

Kennedy stepped forward from where he had been standing, listening
to the interchange of ideas. Outside it was growing dark, emerald streaks
laced with yellow and blue streaming above the horizon as the sun sank to
rest. Lights glowed as he touched a switch, the brilliance winking from the
rough walls, the desk, the smooth finish of the mechanisms Luden had
assembled.

Things of steel and plastic, crystal and wire. Aids to the human mind,
they could never be more than that, useful but unable to provide the
solution to what seemed to be unanswerable. But, in the final essence, only
one thing had value. The human mind, the skill, initiative, and
imagination which created works of beauty coupled with engines of
destruction, the power which had lifted them above the beast.

He said, "We are worrying too much about the mechanical details. To
know how it was done is important, that I agree, but it is more important
to know why it was done at all. Piracy seems out, ransom the same.