"Kate Wilhelm - Dark Door" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

Dark Door

Kate Wilhelm

Prolog

The pursuit of knowledge was the only endeavor worthy of intelligence, the
master had taught, and the student Kri believed without question. As time
passed, the student Kri achieved high status, not yet a master, but already an
associate, and together he and the master developed and launched the first
probe for life among the stars.

The tiny cylinder passed through interspace and back as programmed, but in the
messages it now sent were streaks of clashing colors, way cry mud-gray
splotches, even a black spray that swelled and shrank, appeared and vanished.
With regret the master shadowed the self-destruct panel. The fountain of
multihued lights that recorded the probe existence dimmed and faded. The
messages ceased.

The second probe, much altered, did not send any messages after its passage
through interspace, but now a column of blackness marred the fountain of
lights. This black column did not waver, nor did it grow; however, it shifted,
first here, then there. It persisted despite all their efforts to remove it.
Again the master shadowed the self-destruct panel; the column of darkness
continued to lash within the fountain of lights. No messages were forthcoming.

Reviewers were appointed to examine the work, test the equations, study the
methods; they could find no flaw, yet the fountain of many colors remained
disfigured and hideous, marred by darkness that had become the darkness of
ignorance, and then the shadow of fear.

"We cannot find the probe," the master said at the review hearing. "Once it
passed through interspace, it was lost to us. We know it still exists
somewhere. We know it is seriously flawed, perhaps fatally flawed. It will
pass out of the galaxy eventually, and until it does, it poses a problem,
perhaps even a threat to any life form it locates. It is beyond our ability to
stop it or to correct it. We have tried to no avail."

The reviewers gazed at the marred fountain of light, a pale, sad flicker here
and there the only visible reaction among them. After the adjournment, the
master own lights dimmed and faded; before the associate could follow his
example, the reviewers intervened.

"Associate Kri," the master of reviewers said, "the pursuit of knowledge is to
the academy the highest order of intelligence, second only to love and respect
for intelligence itself. You and your master have brought dishonor to the
academy, and a threat to life. However, in doing so, you have also alerted us
to the dangers of unknown hazards that lie in interspace. We thought ourselves
ready to travel among the stars, and we find instead that we must be resigned
to roam no further than the reaches of our own star system until we have