"Murray Leinster - First Contact (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

upon a similttr errand had implications which overshadowed the original purpose of the expedition.
A tiny bulbous robot floated in the tenuous nebular gas. The normal operating crew of the
Lianvabon stood at their posts with a sharp alertness which was productive of tense nerves. The
observation staff divided itself, and a part went half-heartedly about the making of the
observations for which the Lianvabon had come. The other half applied itself to the problem the
spaceship offered.
It represented a culture which was up to space travel on an interstellar scale. The
explosion of a mere five thousand years since must have blasted every trace of life out of
existence in the area now filled by the nebula. So the aliens of the black spaceship came from
another solar system. Their trip must have been, like that of the Earth ship, for purely
scientific purposes. There was nothing to be extracted from the nebula.
They were, then, at least near the level of human civilization, which meant that they had
or could develop arts and articles of commerce which men would want to trade for, in friendship.
But they would necessarily realize that the existence and civilization of humanity was a potential
menace to their own race. The two races could be friends, but also they could be deadly enemies.
Each, even if unwillingly, was a monstrous menace to the other. And the only safe-thing to do with
a menace is to destroy it.
En the Crab Nebula the problem was acute and immediate. The future relationship of the two
races whuld be settled here and now. If a process for friendship could be established, one race,
otherwise doomed, would survive and both would benefit unmensely. But that process had to be
established, and confidence built up, without the most minute risk of danger from treachery.
Confidence would need to be established upon a foundation of necessarily complete distrust.
Neither dared return to its own base if the other could do harm to its race. Neither dared risk
any of the necessities to trust. The only safe thing for either to do was destroy the other or be
destroyed.
But even for war, more was needed than mere destruction of the other. With interstellar
traffic, the aliens must have atomic power and some form of overdriv├│ for travel above the speed
of light. With radio location and visiplates and short-wave communication they had, of course,
many other devices. What weapons,did they have? How widely extended was their culture? What were
their resources? Could there be a development of trade and friendship, or were the two races so
unlike that only war could exist between them? If peace was possible, how could it be begun?
The men on the Lianvabon needed factsтАФand so did the crew on the other ship. They must
take back every morsel of information they could. The most important information of all would be
of the location of the other civilization, just in case of war. That one bit of infcirmation might
be the decisive factor in an interstellar war. But other facts would be enormously valuable.
The tragic thing was that there could be no possible information which could lead to
peace. Neither ship could stake its own raceтАЩs existence upon any conviction of the good will or
the honor of the other.
So there was a strange truce between the two ships. The alien went about its work of
making observations, as did the Lianvabon. This tiny robot floated in bright emptiness. A scanner
from the Lianvabon was focussed upon a vision plate from the alien. A scanner from the alien
regarded a vision plate from the Lianvabon. Cornmunication began.
It progressed rapidly. Tommy Dort was one of those who made the first progress report. His


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special task on the expedition was over. He had now been assigned to work on the problem of
communication with the alien entities. He went with the shipтАЩs solitary psychologist to the