"Murray Leinster - Propagandist" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

torp will make sure that if we don't get back our fleet will know where to come and who to smash. Then

we'll make a landing in a lifeboat. Our enemy couldn't resist smashing that! And if it gets away, we'll
know something about their weapons, anyhow."

"I volunteer, sir, for the lifeboat," said Holden quickly.

"We'll see," said the skipper. "You get your data ready for the torp. You're sure this record is a scanning
beam? Like the old-fashioned radar? And it's being kept on us from this fourth planet?"

"Quite sure, sir," said Holden. "We can't know how detailed the information may be that it takes back.
Of course, it would be logical enough to scan a supposed cometтАФ"

"Let's hope," said the skipper, twinkling, "that the echo from our hull says, 'Nobody out here but us
comets, boss.' Get your stuff ready for half an hour from now, Holden."

Holden saluted and went out of the control room. Buck went sedately after him, a large brown dog who
did not bother his head over such trivia as interstellar travel or nonhuman races that massacred half a
million humans with an insensate ferocity.

Buck was a very contented dog. He was with his master.

The Planetary Council of Masa Four was in session. It was not a happy gathering. Scanning beams had
reported that a supposed new comet, driving in on a perfectly convincing orbit, was actually an artifact
тАФ a spaceship. It used no drive and seemed empty of life. But it had come in through the gravitation
field of the outermost planetsтАФand it showed no sign of rotation. Which was impossible unless
gyroscopes or some similar device were running within it.

"We have had one visitor from space, before," said the Moderator of the Planetary Council. He looked
very weary. "Our histories tell us of the consequences. If this is another ship of the same race, we must
destroy it. Since it is attempting secrecy, such action is

justified, I think. But that secrecy suggests suspicion of usтАФa suspicion that we may have destroyed the
last visitor. If we destroy this ship also, we may be sure that suspicion will become certainty and a third
visit will be made in overwhelming force. That means that we will have to convert our whole
civilization for war. We will have somehow to develop an interstellar drive, and we will have to spend
the rest of the time in battle for our very survival. We will have to change from a peaceful race to one
with a psychology adapted only to war."

The Spokesman for the First Continent said hopefully:

"Is it certain that this is a ship of the same race as the first? It is not of the same form. Is it certain that

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this race is of a not-possibly-friendly type, like the first?"

"It is not certain," said the Moderator tiredly. "The psychological factors implied by its outer design
suggest a different race. But can we risk an attempt at peaceful contact? The crew of one ship would be