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

way and sent out an automatic emergency call. Even if everyone aboard
was dead the apparatus should have continued to emit the beacon. The
equipment is self-functioning and would have conturned to operate for far
longer than thirty-four seconds. UnlessтАФ"

Unless the engines had disintegrated into a blaze of uncontrolled energy
destroying everything for miles around in a gush of atomic flame. But
engines could not explode by accident They could fail, yes, but never turn
into a bomb. Not unless they had been deliberately made to act that way.
He said so and Chan nodded. "That is the conclusion higher authority has
already reached."

"So you suspect sabotage?"

"That and more." Chan leaned a little forward across the table. "Both
impossible to prove with the evidence at hand. Sabotage, obviously; the
engines could not have disintegrated under normal circumstances and it
is hard to see how the ship could have failed with normal functioning. But
there is more. The signal was picked up by a Mobile Aid Laboratory and
Construction Authority. Commander Breson, you may have heard of him?
No? Well, it is unimportant, but MALAGA 7 immediately sent out
investigating vessels to the coordinates given on the distress signal. They
found no trace of the vessel."

"Time?"

"They were apparently only two days away from the area. The route of
the Wankle was known. They extrapolated along the predicted path and
still found no trace. If the ship had been wrecked it would have been
discovered. If it had disintegrated there would have been discoverable
residue. Even an atomic explosion would have left traces of discernible
energy. They found nothing. No ship. No wreckage. No evidence of
destruction of any kind. As far as we can determine the Wankle simply
ceased to exist."

"Which could mean," said Kennedy shrewdly, "that it wasn't there in
the first place."

"That is the other thing we cannot prove." Chan leaned back and made
a helpless gesture. "Had it been a normal accident the beacon would have
continued to function. That it did not forces us to the assumption that the
engines must have exploded. As this normally is impossible we must think
of sabotage. But if it was normal sabotage the wreckage or traces would
have been found at the given coordinates. They were not and soтАФ"

"A plant." Kennedy reached out and touched the stud, listening again to
the recording. "This message was faked in order to throw you off the trail.
But why? Why send it at all? To close the book," he said, answering his
own question. "To provide proof that the ship had really died. Even so, if
you looked for it you should have found it. The route was known, you say?"