"Michael McCollum - Maker 1 - Lifeprobe" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

compelling reason than mere curiosity to break free of their prison.

Their stellar system was beginning to run lowon the raw materials Maker civilization needed to sustain
itself.

The first signs were barely noticeable, even to the economists who kept careful watch over such things.
Eventually curves could be projected far enough into the future to foretell a time when civilization must
inevitably collapse of resource starvation. To avert catastrophe the Makers would have to obtain an
infusion of new resources, either by importing raw materials from nearby stars or else transplanting their
civilization to virgin territory.

Unfortunately, both options required a working faster-than-light drive.

The frustrated scientists redoubled their efforts. It was not until another hundred millennia had passed that
a Maker philosopher began to wonder if they were asking the right questions. The Great Thinker had
dedicated his life to the study of the years immediately following the slowboatsтАЩ return from the stars. He
noted that Maker science had taken great intuitive leaps in those years. The old records told of many
cases where the combined knowledge of two races had led to discoveries unsuspected by either.

His questions were as fundamental as they were simple: тАЬCould it be that our concepts of how FTL may
be achieved are wrong? Is the failure to break the light barrier simply a matter of having missed the
obvious? If so, might not some other civilization have avoided our error and found the true path to FTL?тАЭ

Once the questions were asked, they could not be ignored. A program was immediately begun to
provide an answer. At first, it was a minor adjunct to the FTL research project. But as answers kept
coming up negative, as each promising avenue of approach turned out to be a dead end, the program to
PROBE the knowledge of alien civilizations grew.

By the time humanity discovered agriculture, it was all the program there was.


PART I: MUTUAL DISCOVERY

CHAPTER 1


тАЬIt is unfortunate that events leading up to the truly important milestones in the History of Man
are often so veiled by the passage of time as to be forever lost. Happily, this is not the case with
thePathfinderMission. In retrospect, we are able to pinpoint the initiating event with considerable
exactitude. Therefore, let it be recorded that 15 January 2065 was possibly the most important
day the human race has ever known. Of course, it was quite some time before any human being
became aware of that fact.тАЭ



--Excerpt fromтАЬPrelude to Pathfinder: An Official History,тАЭ Pathfinder Memorial Edition, Aurelius
Publications, New York and Luna, September 2096. By permission of the Publishers.

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