Chapter 1. The birth of a new dawn. sub-chapter 2.
Summer is in the yard! Warm, pleasant south wind, butterflies sing, birds flutter from flower to flower ... or vice versa? There is no one at home, my mother, father and sisters have gone for a walk, leaving me alone. Great morning to... go to another city? That's what I need today. Our settlement has a funny name - a Seltso (verbatim- a "small village"), it is really small, several hundred quick-assembled modular personal houses that residents have painted to their taste in parrot colors, and the buildings of branches of Societies, this whole conglomerate of various buildings are interconnected by suspended pedestrian roads on shrouds and stilts. Houses, by the way, also stand on high stilts, a few meters down we have grass, bushes and other vegetation. From these cable-stayed roads there are descents and stairs down to the surface, but few people use them. Mostly kids playing brave travelers. We do not have paved surface roads or maglev highways and have never had them. This is not a whim- for us it is too time-consuming and resource-intensive, and we have few people. We have no cars, neither wheeled nor flying... more precisely, they are there, in small quantities and public property, anyone can borrow them for a while, but they are not intended for driving around cities - these are all-terrain vehicles and rotorcraft for long-distance expeditions. In short, we have the technology and the ability to build megacities with a powerful, solid infrastructure, but we do not consider it necessary. And the most important thing is that in winter we have the strongest downpours that can wash away any surface road, especially if such a downpour intersects with a strong cold snap and forms streams with ice chips. And so - it is not necessary to shift the ground roadbed every spring, because we do not have it, and welding a new pile or frame panel instead of a broken one is not a problem. For high-speed movement around the city, the central suspended streets and platforms are duplicated along the edges by movable string tracks with hanging seats- you need to go to the other end of the city - waited for the "swing", sat down, drove, got down. Convenient and simple. In terms of technology, this is our main motto - the simpler and more convenient, the better. The whole town is powered by electricity from wave generators - a huge antenna field has been built on a remote hill ten km away from us, its resonators generate energy directly from the magnetic field of the planet. This vast installation with an area almost the size of the town itself, gives the settlement gigawatts of energy- enough for everything. Externally, this antenna field looks like a bizarre forest of tall and thin artificial trees. But, just in case, there is the same backup mini-antenna above every house in the town. No fuss with fossil fuels, wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric power plants and nuclear reactors. At night, especially during a thunderstorm, the tops of the antennas shine beautifully with purple lights of corona discharges. However, in this case, the influx of power to the antennas increases thousands of times and the operators on duty have to redistribute the activity of the resonators so that the receiving network and distributors do not burn down to all the stars. Safety automation does not always cope and it is better to distribute the power grid manually in advance. Somehow, in my memory, they yawned once - for several days they had to replace the knocked-out and melted power units. Those who missed this breakdown, then, as a punishment, rode on a garbage can for a whole year…
There are three ways to get out of the town (or get into it). The first way is by a gliding boat on the Desna River. A huge fast river with steep, rocky, steep banks, incomparable with the quiet earthly prototype. There is no direct passage to the pier with boats, you can only go down by lift, or head over heels, if you forget about caution. You can drive away on an all-terrain vehicle, or a rotorcraft by air, well, or on a regular trailer along a string track to get to the Sovetskiy- the only major city on the planet where everything is available, and even a real orbital spaceport capable of receiving and servicing interstellar spaceships, it is the only one on the planet, and in the entire Lotus system, except for small orbital stations in the orbits of other planets of our star system. Why is the city called Sovetskiy? (verbatim - "City of the Council") It's better not to ask. I know only two types of modern councils - the Defense Council, which is located many parsecs away from us in the scattered nebula RT331, it directs strategic strike fleets, part of the special services, foreign policy and much more, the second type is the city Council, where the leaders of all Societies regularly gather and decide on issues of organization and interaction. There is one in every settlement and, if desired, you can give such a name to at least any of our towns. There is a third type of advice (the third verbatim meaning of the word "Sovet" in the Rosses language is "hint", "advice")- father's lectures and teachings, but this is a completely other story.
Why should I go to the Sovetskiy? But because it is necessary. It all started with a trifle. At least, that's what I thought...
A month ago I participated in an expedition from the Society of Archaeologists... Although, I'm not sure that I can call these excavations an expedition for myself. The excavations were going on not far from our settlement, and a little away from the string route to Sovetskiy, and the archaeologists, consisting of as many as two people, were looking for local volunteers. It was an expedition for them, but for me it was my home. The reason is clear - by themselves, they would not have been able to dig up much. But they arrived on a rotorcraft and brought with them all the equipment necessary for the excavation. It was not the first time I participated in such a case, and I agreed. Yes, archaeology is also interesting to me. Although not so much that I was ready to do it all my life. From the outside, it seems like a dull digging in the ground, but in fact - you never know what you will find. And you can find quite interesting things, both in terms of material culture and information. The Bryanskaya planet is unique (or maybe not) in that its own civilization did not originate on it - the planet is too young for this. But, for millions of years, outposts and sometimes entire colonies of many different intelligent beings have been trying to establish here, arriving from outside in different epochs. But, for some reason, none of them stayed here for a long time. All of them either died, leaving behind bizarre remains and things, or flew away, taking everything that is not welded and not screwed to solid horizontal surfaces... In order not to get infected with some alien infection (you never know), we installed wind barriers, air disinfection installations, radiation and toxin control devices, and dressed up in protective suits. This is a generally accepted safety norm when digging in the ruins of xenos. The day was coming to an end (it's short, only 6 hours, despite the Earth calendar), and I was working with a flashlight built into the mask of a protective suit. A special manual dredger with semi-rigid rotary filters carefully, layer by layer, removed the soil interspersed with pebbles, I found some fragments, shards and stones treated in various ways, conscientiously carried them along with the soil to the point of primary inspection. Archaeologists Vasily and Irina (I didn't ask their last names) examined them, including under a magnifying glass with illumination, carefully recorded everything, measured, filmed on media scanners, they were helped by several of my friends from my hometown and a couple of unfamiliar guys from the city of Sovetskiy. Several more people worked at other sites within the temporary camp. The catch turned out to be quite good - a temporary camp of a previously unknown ancient civilization. It seems that these were some creatures left without connection with the center - we found knives made of solid polymer worn to zero, remnants of synthetic fabric that once formed a single product similar to a tent, a broken semblance of firearms, and then even primitive ceramics and stone tools. And then... I dug up something suspiciously white. It was a skeleton, and not of some xenos, but quite human. (the skeletons of xenos, very vaguely similar to humanoids, were dark gray with green streaks). This skeleton is ancient - the bones are noticeably mineralized. And the layer of occurrence - our archaeologists have given this depth about a thousand years. That is, before the first colonists appeared here? Come on!? Forgetting that in such cases it is necessary to run to the specialists and call them to the place of detection, I continued to remove layer by layer, unscrewing the power of the dredger to the maximum. A faded space jumpsuit made of lithoplast fiber. As soon as he was in the air, he was immediately covered with a grid of small cracks. A small pistol of "pocket" format. It seems unclear what he can shoot with- bullet, beam, plasma discharge... an unfamiliar model. Waist bags with some small change. No identification marks. The suit looks more like a woman's, and its volume is very average. The belt strap valve, which had been holding on somehow, parted and a strange white thing flashed in the beam of the flashlight. Was she wearing it under her belt? In violation of all instructions, I carefully pulled this strange object out of the compressed mineral mass, it came out surprisingly easily. A flat rounded cylinder two fingers long, fits perfectly in my hand, very hard, heavy for its size. The color and texture are exactly like compressed snow, but most likely it is a kind of lithoplast. I checked the item with an analyzer integrated into the sleeve segment... nothing... No radiation, no toxic traces or vapors... although, no... not nothing. In the place where the flashlight beam fell on the device, its color was inverted- changed to yellow, brown, and even black. The closer to the bright center of the lantern glare. the more the surface darkened. I immediately realized that this was something very, very difficult. And at the same time, it is unlikely to be alien. I mean, the xenos have nothing to do with it. Well, of course, if they didn't kill this poor woman. Although it is unlikely. She was armed, and apart from this pistol, we have not found any other unbroken weapon yet. However, this is also not an indicator - they could sneak up on her and hit her from behind. She could have run out of ammunition, and without them, the gun is useless. The gun was made of the same lithoplast as the cylinder. Footsteps sounded from behind... Tempted by an interesting little thing, I quickly hid it in the spare battery compartment of the dredger. Alas, the protective suit was airtight, except for filters, and he had no pockets. Vasily came up, and almost jumped from what he saw:
- Volodya, thou crazy! What did thou dig up? Why didn't thou ask us?
- My fault,- I didn't even lie.- I was so surprised that I forgot about everything. Imagine that! It's a human!
- In this layer?! There are no words!- Vasily agreed, went down into the pit, and turned on two helmet flashlights at once. - Thou didn't change anything? Or did thou shift something?
- No, I just cleaned it with a dredger - but now I lied directly. "I hope you don't think I throwed this skeleton here?"
- No, of course... hmm... It looks like a burial. The gun was in what position?
- He was lying next to her, near the waist. On the right. The waist bags are unfastened, but the little things in them are in place.
Vasily carefully opened the half-rotted bags with two fingers, but instead of documents or at least a mobic, some rotten or petrified ash was found there.
- It looks like a burial,- he concluded again."She couldn't have died in such a position suddenly. But this burial was done hastily and without visible traces of complex rituals.
- And why is it so deep? And someone was not too lazy to dig such a deep hole! Well, I mean, before us. Earlier, when it happened.
- Turn on brains, wooden head. And remember the initial educational program. Over time, the soil increases, the speed depends on precipitation, plant productivity and climate. A thousand years ago, there was once the largest sea fjord here. Karst hole with access to the sea. Then the glacier covered this area and the sea left. When the glacier melted, cubic kilometers of moraine caught up here, which covered everything. The soil grew later, when the ancestors colonized the planet. This young lady... It's a woman, right? Looks like... About a thousand years. More precisely, the tests will show when the hands reach the lab. Take a closer look, she was enclosed in a thick cocoon of raw clay. Only for this reason it was preserved and glacial shifts did not grind it. And also because we are on the very edge of the glacier's action- it was only lightly sprinkled. Hmm... In the fragments around the skull, even traces of hair have been preserved. That's good, maybe we can even do a gene analysis. I'll find out who she is later.
Vasya is a pleasant person in everyday communication, but when someone starts asking stupid questions about his specialty, he begins to get angry and uncontrollably rude.
- She was not abandoned as animal food, that's already good, I replied, forgetting about the "wooden head".
- There were no animals here then,- Vasily reminded. - Before our colonization, the land was almost uninhabited. But otherwise I agree with thou. The dead don't care what they do with them, but the morality of those who are still alive depends on it.
Eh, he moved about morality at the wrong time. I myself was now gnawing at a dilemma - did I not act like the last scoundrel? Yes, it seems not. I wouldn't steal from a living person. But here is an unknown spacewoman who disappeared centuries ago. She won't be offended by me for sure. Will the archaeologists go crazy if I take this thing for myself? Hardly. And here's what I know for sure. Everything we found, I'll never see again. All finds of a xenonological nature (artifacts of "aliens" or something similar to them) are always sent for study to the research centers of the Order of the Renaissance. The nearest of these centers is... No one knows, somewhere in the RT-331 nebula, in which without an internal conductor you can only kill yourself - this place is extremely dangerous and difficult for space navigation. And from there, all these artifacts don't go anywhere. So- I'll take it for myself. Not out of profit or greed, but out of pure, unclouded curiosity. The gun didn't interest me-didn't I see them? Everyone has it, from the age of fifteen you can get it in the Society of Mechanics or do it yourself, if your hands are very straight. True, I'm no shooter, even after a course of training, but I carry a gun with me if I'm far from home. Just in case. We have few violent people, and many wild animals. But the strange cylinder is something... the unknown. Not obvious, something that can and should be solved by yourself. I love these things. I have several particularly trusted friends who are able to reveal the essence of this subject. Maybe. If it turns out to be uninteresting stuff, or on the contrary, something dangerous, I will give it back to the archaeologists. I hope they won't kill me for this...
- Where are you disappearing there? Irina's voice was heard from above. - It's getting late. We're having dinner. And we go to bed. The tea is getting cold!
Tea does not grow here, we brew local wild plants that spread here after colonization, some of them are similar in properties and taste, but no one has changed the name of the drink from decoction of leaves, which has been familiar since pre-space periods.
After her, all the participants of the excavation crowded over the pit. Crumbs of earth and gravel rained down on us from the edges.
- Everyone step away from the edge! Vasya commanded. - Volodya, go deal with the dredgers, Ira, come here. You're going to be stunned.
With dredgers, it's good. Just the night has come, it's quiet all around, everyone is busy with a new find, I can safely hide the trophy. I immediately got down to business. I took the units from the other assistants, and began sorting and cleaning the dredgers from the sticky clay and small stones with the help of another, spare dredger. I changed the filters to fresh ones, and sent the contaminated ones to a washing centrifuge in a technical trailer. After that, I hid the trophy in a crack under the bottom of the trailer. Irina meanwhile went down into the pit and screamed.
- Why are thou yelling?- it seems that Vasya was more afraid of her scream than Ira was afraid of the skeleton. - Thou see a mouse there?
- The skeleton...
- And what? He won't do anything to thou. You're weird. We've already unearthed a few xenos, scary as the Great Interstellar War, and you didn't scream, but you react so badly to a fellow member of your kind. If he is dead, it does not mean that he should be treated so disrespectfully... By the way, this is her. Woman.
- Poor girl... - said Ira, not arguing with Vasya, with whom it is of little use to argue - either he will crush her with arguments, or he will send her to hell.
- That's right, it's a human. We could have been in her place.
- Hardly. We weren't here then.
- Well, yes. The layer in which we found her is serious. This is definitely not a lost tourist. By the cut of the suit, she looks like an employee of a scientific expedition.
- Exactly. But it's much more interesting that she forgot here. Are these the pioneers from the very first wave, which was immediately after the Exodus? Our star sector and Bryanskaya were settled much later.
- We'll figure it out later, - Irina waved her hand. - Cover everything here with awnings, in case it rains - and let's go eat. However, I will not wish you a pleasant appetite after what I have seen.
- My appetite does not need help and wishes, - assured Vasya. - He will do fine on his own, without any outside support. He's a very active guy!
The rest of the guys and girls, not excluding Irina, could not resist and laughed without sparing their lungs. Is it really such a funny joke? Come on!..
I stayed in the technical trailer longer than the others. I took off the protective suit that had had time to get bored (we didn't find anything dangerous and we could have removed them), I went outside and fished the artifact out from under the bottom of the trailer... being in my hand without the thick porous gloves of the suit, he behaved strangely... No, it was strange enough that he even... somehow behaved. In this case, it vibrated. And not like an ordinary mobile phone or a wrist intercom, but silently, high-frequency, so that your hands itched unbearably at once. Out of surprise, I let him out of my hands, at that very moment an incredible thing happened - the ground shook under us. Not much, but it's sensitive. As if a very heavy tracked vehicle had passed quickly nearby. Miraculously, I caught the device with my other hand, thanks to the reaction developed during fencing training... and the shaking stopped immediately. There was a commotion in the camp - everyone started talking and running around the territory... but they quickly calmed down, realizing that the danger was over. I put the artifact in one of the pockets of the unloading vest from my casual suit, and pushed the vest under my folding camp bed... I went outside. Everyone was very puzzled, their surprised expressions, open mouths and square eyes strongly contrasted with my intense thoughtfulness, which from the outside looked like icy calm and steadfastness. Everyone stared at me in silence, as if I had arranged all this... And what if suddenly... Yes, not... or... Oh, my back hemisphere, you're in danger! We must somehow get out of this stupid situation...
- Shaking... - I spread my hands. - From one to two points. It seems these nuts from the network channel "Secrets of the Universe"... are right. The planet is waking up!
You should have seen their faces... That was a really funny joke...
In general, I managed to quietly pocket an unknown artifact, and we parted with the archaeologists as good friends. A week later, they completed the excavation program - nothing was dug further and even probing did not catch anything worthwhile. They called what they found, "Bryanoseltsovskaya xenoculture" (are they really going to pronounce it out loud?), They warmly said goodbye to us and flew back to the Sovietskiy. The artifacts they found, which they took with them, after the initial study, will certainly be handed over to a special courier from the Order of the Renaissance. Well, I have a new task - to unravel the secret of this strange device.
And it wasn't easy. I couldn't show the baton (let's call it that) to any specialist I know - he could easily repel a message to the representative office of the Defense Council, and then I would have problems. I also did not dare to remove it on the mediascanner built into the armband intercom and use it to analyze the image of the device in the Galanet - the Galanet is vigilantly monitored by the Vigil Society. Yeah, we have that, too. On the one hand, these are rare perverts (because who else can do this - sit for days and nights managing search network AI to find hidden contraband or malicious conspiracy), on the other hand, this is also important, otherwise any crooks from the outside will be able to walk around here as at home. I decided not to show this artifact to my loved ones until I figure out what's what, too. And how will they help me? My father, though he served in the Space Infantry, but not a technical specialist - if he were at least a flight mechanic, that's another question. He doesn't know any more about rare hardware than I do. Now he is a writer, pleases the residents of our town with famously twisted novels based on an artistically interpreted combat past. Mom is in the Society of Order- the one that monitors cleanliness and order on the street, restores communications damaged by the elements, removes kittens from trees, and so on, in a word, makes the lives of others safer. Again, she doesn't understand rare technology. I'd rather keep silent about the sisters- so far they are good specialists only in cunning tricks and whims. And by how to break the technique. Moreover, our equipment, which is not made for the sake of money (which we do not have) and for centuries. However, this difficult situation is not hopeless. The first thing I did was visit my friends at the young spacemen club. Although there are only four of them, but I am sure of them. more than once we did something that could have caused any of us to betray each other and put each other under punishment, but for all eight years of joint studies and friendship, we refrained from doing this. Back in the spring, I finished my "preliminary flight service" and handed over my informal post to the juniors. but, sometimes I visited them, and I was still welcome at the club. However, this time, in order not to attract attention, I did not go to the club, and just told my friends on the wrist intercom that in the evening they would arrive on the outskirts of the city, to the platform of the string track, alone, ready for a little hike. They did not take long to wait. Vladik Petrov, Leo Kolosov, Oleg Sibirtsev and Paul Buravin arrived for sure. Coveralls, raincoats, backpacks, with weapons. Always ready to go to the ends of the world... if they are interested. All four of them are a year younger than me, studied with me in the flight group. Of course, there were a lot more people in my flight group- twelve people, but the problem is that the rest of the group consisted of girls. I don't like them. They are, of course, cute and pleasant, sometimes even very, but when you need to take up a serious matter, some kind of game begins. Whims, reproaches, stupidity, show-off, attempts at manipulation ... a complete set, in a word. Although, they mastered the flight disciplines well, not worse than the guys. But I still didn't want to trust them with something personal. About their ability to keep their mouths shut... it is missing, probably because it is unnecessary. There are exceptions, and in both directions, but they do not change the general background. Maybe I'm too biased, or I just got such an unlucky case, however, out of the whole group, squad, school, club and even the city as a whole, I really became friends only with these four. In addition to the flight club, they had other serious hobbies, and I was hoping for their help. Vladik studies at the Mechanics' House, he is well versed in the construction, repair and construction of various equipment, especially all kinds of engines and mechanisms. He's just a fan of them - just let him disassemble and assemble some kind of engine or generator. In addition, he is an extreme- this is such a subspecies of a pervert who is constantly looking for a way to kill himself more effectively, but at the same time manages to survive. Climbing mountains, swimming on an inflatable bag on our not particularly calm river, flying a glider in the mountains and over the sea, shooting with two hands at flying targets - it's all his. Not afraid of anything. A valuable quality, but sometimes goes beyond the bounds of common sense. Sometimes I am surprised that he is still alive and even healthy. Because of his insecure hobbies, he constantly quarrels with his parents and therefore is rarely at home, preferring to spend the night there, in the Mechanics' House. And he also makes good music on his electronic guitar, which he assembled with his own hands. Leo (actually his name is Leonid, but he responds only to Leo)- he is fond of everything related to computer programming. In any case, thanks to him, the simulators of our flight group have never failed. And he's also a tall, slender, handsome guy, a big goer for girls. And they reciprocate it. Including those who are noticeably older. And this often fails him. Once a month or two, the grieved "gentlemen" call him to a fist duel, but this pathetic action usually ends with the fact that the lady of the heart herself comes to the "duel" and instructively slaps both "gentlemen", accompanied by obscene "sonnets" about what idiots and narcissistic goats they are. And a couple of times I had to be in a similar role of a "fairy conciliator with a big fist" - do not leave a friend in trouble? Then our handsome guy walks around with bruises for a week until he finds another dream girl… Finds it quickly, and everything repeats in the second round. I have repeatedly advised him to calm down, but... "don't teach me to live," "you are a year older than me, but more boring than my mom" are his favorite expressions when it comes to "this." And he also composes rap- a rather strange and stupid musical genre - poems to music. And not very successfully. I always ask him to shut up if he suddenly starts reading them. Leo definitely performs better chains of program code and even romantic brainwashing for girls than poems… Oleg Sibirtsev is the complete opposite of our handsome guy- he is quiet, calm, modest, including because he is the thinnest and smallest of us. And hellishly serious. Compared to him, even I am a funny clown. Says little, but always accurate. And he is also the best shooter in the entire flight squad - both on a corvette simulation and on a fighter-bolid. Virtual rockets and projectiles under his hand also do not miss. Phenomenal reaction, perfect eye. In fencing, he is second only to me - and that, mainly because of the height and length of his arms - although I am not much, but I am taller than him, and at the same time much stronger and heavier, and this is enough to overcome him at fencing training due to technique, distance and pressure. If he was as tall a "pillar" as Leo, then with his reaction I would have to dry the nozzles… Paul- (actually Pavel, but as a child someone came up with an offensive teaser in his name, and since then he prefers such a short version of his name). This gentle and kind guy is a fan of everything related to xenology - yes, "aliens", a comet in their gills ... Artifacts, the organization of their societies, the structures of their bizarre organisms, achievements in alien science and technology… It's a secret, but he's an avid viewer of the network channel "Secrets of the Universe". Xenos are one of the main topics there. Oh, if they had heard that they were being talked about on this channel, they would have declared war on us a long time ago… At home, he has a whole collection of xeno-gadgets secretly stolen from archaeologists and simply found in wild places. Paul believes that our human society is still imperfect, and there are species of intelligent beings in the galaxy that are millions of years older than us, and we should try to gain wisdom from them. Yeah, it's very self-critical for someone who doesn't miss an opportunity to steal an interesting sparkle at the excavations. Compared to him, I'm a poor amateur in this business. It is debatable, but such a point of view also has the right to life. Actually, he signed up for our flight squad mainly in order to someday become a space-scout, discovering new stars and planets to people. New worlds, new creatures. And he's also a good space navigator. He knows how the gravitational calculation map differs from the photon one, how to calculate a group of objects of attraction and repulsion so that the spaceship does not freeze in the middle of the interstellar abysses halfway, at what distance it is safe to avoid pulsars and collapsars, depending on their power, in order to use the force of their attraction, and so on. I will not say that he is the best, but he helped out our flight group more than once, especially when "His Majesty the Commander", (well, that is, I), again fell out of reality at the wrong time in a fit of deep thought. Sometimes it happens to me, and not always on time. In principle, I hoped for him the most. Still, I still had suspicions about the inhuman origin of the rod. What if he has the same in his precious collection?
Having gathered at the stringway-station, we shook hands, and got into the string-wagon that arrived in time. We drove ten kilometers in the direction of the Sovetskiy, and by pressing the stop button, we got out to the ground below along the unfolded ramp. The wagon pulled the ramp back and rolled away further. Everyone followed me- I was leading friends to the site of those excavations. However, they guessed that I wanted to show them something interesting and at the same time secret, and that at the same time I would not foolishly play them, pretending to be a mystery out of nothing, and they did not ask anything yet. We walked to the abandoned excavation site. The pits were covered with a simple awning, the equipment had long been taken away, and only a few traces and trails indicated that people had recently temporarily lived here.
It was getting dark. A couple more hours - it will be dark and it will get colder- the nights were moonless, and the dim infernal light from the comet tail of the Partizan will not compare with the brightness of the moon Peresvet. Without pulling the corvette by the durs, I took out of the pocket of my unloading vest a baton that dazzlingly sparkled on my glove in the diffused light of a camping lamp. Friends looked at "this thing" with curiosity.
- I'm anticipating thou question Paul raised his finger in a pointing gesture. - I have never found such a thing. But this thing is interesting. Did you find this here when you and Vasya and Ira were digging the Arkremer camp?
- Who?!- I didn't understand.
- These creatures were given a name. Quite recently. You know, I keep track of such cases. And they have never had such artifacts. Have thou checked for harmfulness?
- Of course,- I replied. - Not a fool. No radiation, no toxins, no magnetic anomalies. The spectrometer showed carbon, silicon, boron, gold, tungsten, and several other elements. Lithoplast is like lithoplast, now almost everything is being built from it by printed welding - from houses and ships to clothing fibers. Maybe some special kind. By the way, we found it on a skeleton a thousand years old, or even more. She was wearing a science jumpsuit, and she was carrying a weapon... made of the same material. Yes, it was a woman. A man like us. Not a xenos.
- Well, you know, there are xenos, very similar to humans- said Paul. - Some are even biologically compatible. The same laws of the organization of matter operate in the universe, and on planets with similar conditions, life forms are also sometimes strikingly similar. This is the principle of fractal-convergent interdependence…
- Clearly, clearly!- I cut him off. Otherwise we would have listened to his lecture for half an hour. Although he is an interesting storyteller, but now is not the time. - So you don't have any ideas?
- I'm afraid not - Paul spread his hands. - I would be glad to help, but I don't have any good thoughts yet… The xenos have their own analogues of our lithoplast, but this one is similar to ours, human-made. Well, that's... welcome to the artifact thieves club. Eh, such a topic for the channel disappears…
- Are you talking about your "Secrets of the Universe"? Garbage is your channel!- Leo blurted out. - They twist such nonsense there that the ears dry up.
- Calm down! I interrupted them. And now the main thing. This thing... it causes earthquakes!
They looked at me with a fair amount of doubt and surprise. It is quite clear why. We have hurricanes, floods, the strongest thunderstorms, impenetrably thick fog, and Paritizan and other comets in the neighborhood regularly sprinkle the planet with meteor showers, the most dangerous of which are intercepted for control by MSS spaceships. But we have never had natural earthquakes.
- Come on?! Well, demonstrate it!- Vladik didn't believe it. - Here and now! Reveal the formidable power of the earth! If there is no shaking, then thou will get a click on the forehead! No, three! And thou kiss Diana. Right in the flight club, in front of everyone! But if the ground really shakes under us- any one of your wishes is the law for me!
- No clicks!- yeah, dream on- And no desires. And kiss Diana yourself. - Here, see for yourself!
The bottom line is that I realized that the rod reacts only to the naked hand. Since then, I have carried it wrapped in a wrapping sheet, and took it only with gloves. We don't need an earthquake in the town at all. The town, of course, is earthquake-resistant - everything is built with the expectation of even the most improbable case, but still, I didn't want to cause unnecessary unrest in the town. And here, far from the city, we can experiment. Judging by the case at the excavations, this shake-up was purely local, it was not even felt in the city at that time.
I took off my gloves, tucked them into my belt, assumed the picturesque pose of an ancient Greek hero, and boldly took the wand with both hands...
...A minute of languid waiting yielded nothing. The views of friends became openly mocking. I began to take the wand in different ways, twirl it in my hands, toss it and catch it back in my hand. I put it on the ground and picked it up again... nothing.
- I probably look stupid, right?- I asked vexedly.
"Very much," Oleg confirmed without condescension. - However, no more stupid than Leo, when he was spanked by his next "dream girlfriend"...
- Calm down, little one! Leo blurted out. - At least I have someone to spank!
Vladik and Paul simultaneously slapped their palms on their foreheads and shook their heads sympathetically.
- Everyone calm down! I commanded, stamping my foot for suggestion. -Order in the compartment, asteroid pieces, comets with rainbow tails!.. Who are you? Heavenly lightning, dragons of space, or gently glamorous pilots with pink bows and flowers on cockpits!??
If anything, it's not mine. I picked up this during my years of training at the flight club from Diana Mirzoyan, our instructor-curator from MSS. The only mature member of the flight club. The one that Vladik offered to kiss. A nice and polite woman in everyday communication, but if someone started doing stupid things in group flight simulations, she can say something that makes the air ring and blush…
Well, now they're going to fight, again to separate them, I can't stand it... oh, no, they've calmed down. Iron Di's battle spells seem to have worked.
- I assure you, I can swear to anything,- I continued. - When I first took it with my bare hand on this very spot, it vibrated, and then the ground shook for a couple of seconds. Everything seemed to go out from under my feet, I almost fell! And, in theory, the same thing should happen again now. But... it doesn't repeat itself. I don't know why.
- Maybe it's discharged? Vladik asked. – are there ports, connectors? Have thou tried to connect wave charging? Even if this thing is a thousand years old, the bar of progress has since increased mainly quantitatively and economically, but not qualitatively, alas. It is unlikely that this thing works on the energy of time or the spiritual-immaterial energy of the mind. If there is one, of course. This is still being debated.
- I don't know about the mind, but if someone comes up with engines that work on stupidity, then we will punch a passage to another universe - Oleg gave out. – A joke...
- Hmm... - Vibrated, you say? Leo grinned mischievously. – And he also has a very... characteristic figure... and the owner was a woman…
- Boatswain, be silent! I blurted out. -No vulgar hints to me here. It was a spacewoman, she conquered the space a thousand years ago, in which none of the people had ever been, this is not a neighbor's fool from the alley. Don't say that. If you're talking about toys for lovemaking... don't... No!.. Come on! I shook my head categorically. -It can't be that stupid!
- Why?- insists on his "genius" version of Leo. - Life and people are sometimes much simpler than we think. Including those whom we consider great. Everyone has their own little weaknesses, including embarrassing and uncomfortable ones. There's nothing terrible about it...
- You know better - I spread my hands. - Well, what do you all think about this? I turned to the others.
- The idea may not be the stupidest… But we don't have such things in fashion- Vladik noticed. -We somehow... manage on their own. Without... um... unnecessary mechanisms. In any case, no one has ordered such a thing in our Mechanics' House yet. Even secretly.
-Maybe it was a foreign spacewoman,- Leo looked thoughtfully at the stars. Yes, it's already dark. -I mean, from the Old Area. We don't know everything that happened a thousand years ago. What if it was a secret expedition before the Great Interstellar? Just imagine - a pretty laboratory assistant, for months in autonomous, so far from home, in the same boring walls of a spaceship…
- Let's say thou right,- I tried to accept Leo's version. -But... thou still wrong. Do thour know the models of such... devices that affect tectonics?
- Well, only if on sexual tectonics…
Everyone amicably repeated the gesture of Vladik and Oleg, putting his palm to his forehead. I could hardly resist hitting Leo in the ears a couple of times, because he deserved it.
- Everyone, everyone, the boatswain is silent! Leo stopped, clearly feeling the heat of the atmosphere. - You don't understand jokes at all!.. And now seriously. Volodya, this is a damn curious thing, but we probably won't help you in any way. I'm a programmer, not an electronics engineer. If there were any connectors here... though, give it here.
I handed him the wand. Holding it with two fingers, Leo activated and tuned his trendy armband intercom, packed with the best chips and the latest software updates that can only be found in the star sector 3337-1234, better known as Ariadne's Ring. The armband device lit up with a modular-complex screen with volumetric-holographic laser illumination. He has a powerful piece of hardware, not like our standard, simple devices of mass production. A close connection with the Society of Technology gives him great benefits. However, he needs such a thing for business, and simple wrist intercoms are enough for us. For something more serious, there are stationary home terminals… Leo waved his wand over his intercom. I tweaked something and repeated the operation.
- Deaf. Zero effect. Leo concluded. –Either this device is completely autonomous, or its communication protocol is completely incompatible with our systems. There are no waves coming from him in response to my signals at all. Maybe he's using gravity? This would explain the strong vibration and maybe even the shaking of the earth. But I don't have gravity sensors here-they're too bulky for an intercom.
Vladik also twirled the white wand in his hands:
- At our Mechanics' House, I can scan it - try to find out the internal structure, the atomic structure, the principle of operation… We can even cut it, or spray it with a coronizer in a vacuum chamber. It's very hard. The case is clearly made of carbosil, and not from a simple, structural, but from a protective variety. And the weight is appropriate - there are a couple of kilos. But there's a problem. I take it thou don't want anyone else to find out about him?
- Yes, away from prying eyes. And there is no need to cut. But a scan would be helpful.
- And we have everything in plain sight. We have, in fact, a universal mini-factory and a laboratory in one room. A lot of people pass through us every day - everyone needs to fix, improve or adjust something. Our craftsmen are big-eyed and curious, like old grandmothers from the Vigilance Society. They'll start asking questions. They will immediately understand that this is something difficult - we are not fools in this area. If this wand had been painted with colors and flashing lights, perhaps it would have been mistaken for a toy. But it is absolutely smooth and monolithic, and at the same time it shines strongly in the light. It's already dark, and this thing is still perfectly visible even without a flashlight. And this despite the fact that it does not emit its own light. This only makes it more noticeable...
- That is, it will not be possible to secretly scan it?- I asked. - The whole town will know tomorrow that I've found some unknown thing.
Vladik shook his head in agreement.
- Well, as I said, this is not a xeno-artifact, - Paul did not even take the wand in his hands. – So, I will advise thou what I would do- return it to where I took it. Well, or send an anonymous mail to Vasya in the Sovetskiy. He will understand everything… Although no, well, he'll freak out. It's better for Ira, she's calmer. Well... or keep it and forget it. Decide as thou like.
- Is there really nothing can do?- I took the wand back into my hands and turned it in my hands again, tossed it from hand to hand. Nothing. Wrapped the wand again in a wrapping sheet of soft dielectric carsilite and put it in the unloading pocket.
- I didn't want to talk about it, but I see it bothers you a lot. There is one option- Leo reached into his wrist intercom again. - I don't know if it will help, but it's worth a try. I have a friend in the Sovetskiy city. We often work with him, I learned a lot from him. He's a genius! A real techno god. He was allocated a separate studio for work - the results of his labors are worth it. And what's important is that he's not talkative.
- Are thou sure?
- Absolutely. The guy is a fan of any rare piece of iron that cannot be found in our space. He doesn't need them for use - he loves to pick at them, recreate and modernize. A master-maniaster of his own business! And where does he get such things, what do you think?
- Smuggling? I suggested.- Really?
- Exactly. Now do thou understand why he's not talkative? This "pepper" somehow managed to escape the all-seeing eye of the Vigil. But in this case, accepting contraband electronics in exchange for, say, carboxyl substrates for power radiation-resistant chips or light guides for quantum modules is an easy task for him. They don't cost anything here- money is not our method, and in the Empires of the Old Area these are very expensive things. And also any of our devices are very much appreciated there. They are not as elegant and beautiful as the devices from the Old Area, and are more simply arranged, but ours are much more reliable and durable. A symbiosis of supply and demand, which always find each other and all that. We have abandoned the market economy, but in some matters it is more effective than our centralized-autonomous economy.
- Some of them,- I reminded him. - Do not forget what our ancestors made a fatal mistake on, back there, in the Old Area.
- We won't forget, we won't forgive,- Leo joked. -Some are a small part of all…
- Wait. But it's illegal! I remembered.- Thou just told me that there is a smuggling channel between our star sector and the Old Area, which no one knows about. Why the hell?
-It doesn't do any noticeable harm,- Leo objected. - But it gives at least some trickle of exchange of technical information across the abyss between our civilizations. Yes, and keep it to yourself. And don't talk about it. And all of thou don't talk about it. If thou want to sort out thou find, and you don't want to lose a friend.
- All right,- I agreed, not without difficulty. -I hope thou not mistaken.." We're going back. Until our absence was noticed at home.
Soon we returned back the same way as we came - on foot to the stringway track, called the trailer on the wrist intercom and drove home. No one noticed our short absence. Maybe.