A Leap Across the Abyss. Макс Глебов

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      “We’ve been through all the drifts, but we haven’t found any valuable minerals,” Lit-ta’s voice sounded in my helmet headphones. “Perhaps by the time of the catastrophe, the deposit of what was mined here had probably been exhausted and the asteroid was being used for other purposes. Come on, you haven’t seen the best part yet.”

      Some of the tunnels in the surviving part of the asteroid were filled with equipment of unclear purpose, often embedded in walls. Only one thing was beyond doubt: the civilization that used these devices was developing along the path of technological progress.

      “We didn’t touch anything here,” Litta continued her story, “It was obvious to us that we wouldn’t figure out the purpose of all this iron stuff anyway – it was too alien to us.”

      “Why didn’t you tell us this before, Lit-ta? Our scientists could do a lot to understand what happened here 120 years ago.”

      “I wanted to do it, but there were so many more pressing matters. Do you remember when I invited you during my first visit to the Federation? I wanted to show you this place, but then you didn’t find the time, which was natural in that situation. Come on, the most interesting find still awaits us.”

      The tunnel we were walking through made another turn and suddenly led us into a rather spacious room cut down in the rock. I changed the pace at which I’ve been going, there were machines in front of me whose purpose was beyond doubt.

      I stood there silently and looked at dozens of combat robots, which remained stationary in neat rows along the walls of the cave. They looked sort of like insects. This impression was caused by joint limbs, which for every combat machine were between six and ten, and scaly segmented armor. The largest of them were equipped with cannons, the barrels of which jutted out of the front of their bodies in such a way that they started an involuntary association with mandibles of arthropods. Smaller machines were grouped around each big robot, apparently, they were supposed to act on the battlefield with it, doing reconnaissance and destroying minor targets, although I wouldn’t say that with full confidence.

      In my long service to the planetary commandos, I have encountered various robots, or as they were called in my first world, walking tanks. This was the first time I saw such a design, but I was paying attention to all the little things and details that were saying a lot to the man who had often seen such creatures in battle. Latticed emitters of protective fields were only visible on the bodies of large machines. Missile launchers were mostly hidden inside the hulls, but the launchers of small robots partially protruded outward, forming a characteristic hump on its «back». In general, I suspected that in combat these machines would be stronger than our Bisons and Goannas, but they could hardly compete with the walking tanks I controlled in my last battle in the body of General Dean.

      “And what is your impression of this?” Lit-ta interrupted a prolonged silence.

      “It’s a very dangerous adversary. I think you’re lucky those sub-brown dwarfs disappeared as quickly as they came. If they would have stayed here, and something like this would have got out of them,” I made a gesture around the cave, “you and I wouldn’t be talking right now.”

      “Our scientists came to the same conclusion,” Lit-ta agreed with me, “but despite their best efforts, there is still no explanation for what happened.”

      “Have these specimens been standing here since they were discovered without any activity?”

      “When we found this place, it was hopelessly dead. No energy, no living things, not even the corpses of the owners of these machines – nothing. There is a far-fetched hypothesis that our world was somehow not suited to those who had come here in such an unusual way, but that’s just a vague assumption, which, by the way, doesn’t explain the origin of that split-in-half asteroid.”

      “What do you think those who built these robots looked like, Lit-ta?”

      “We’ve been wondering the same thing. As you know, we’re pretty good at everything with natural and artificial evolution of living things, but the conclusions of our bioengineers have been mixed. They were definitely not lizards, toads, humans, or quargs. So we have the paradoxical view that these machines had evolved on their own for some time, without the help of their creators, as unbelievable as this may sound. By the way, we gave them a name, and I’m curious if our perception matches yours. What would you call the civilization that created these robots?”

      I thought for a few seconds, but I finally decided that the first association that came to my head was the best thing to designate what I saw.

      “This is Swarm, a swarm of insects who built war machines in their own image. I have no basis for this opinion – it’s just a first impression that I’m used to trust.”

      “Perhaps Igor, humans and lizards are not as different as they seem at first glance,” Lit-ta spoke thoughtfully, “We gave them the name «Hive».”

      Chapter 3

      Yoon Gao and Mbia arrived seven hours later. Earlier their journey would have taken several days, but mass production of transport rings revolutionized the Federation’s logistics. General of the Army Barrington jokingly complained that I had robbed him of his job with my invention, but it was clear that in fact the permanent head of the rear services was pleased with the changes that had taken place.

      “André, have you forgotten your last landing on Groombridge-2?” I asked the Colonel with a grin.

      We had tea in my office on board Dragon’s Tail and I was telling the scouts why I pulled them out of the Solar System.

      “Who could forget it with this,” Mbia absentmindedly moved his hand, hit by a shell fragment during the operation to rescue President Tobolsky from an underground shelter. The arm recovered long ago and did not cause the Colonel any discomfort, but the memory of the injury remained.

      “Would you like to do that again?”

      “Eh… Is that a question?”

      “Well, for now, yes.”

      “Then it depends on what needs to be repeated. If this is about covert landing on the planet and reconnaissance, you know I’m all for it. But if you need to attack an enemy company reinforced with combat robots with a bare ass again, pardon me, with small arms in your hands, do it without me if you can.”

      “Yes, I remember that. That time your raid didn’t go very well, even though you did a brilliant job,” I agreed with the Colonel, “but in this case, I hope it won’t be necessary to fight, and not even to save anyone, except for a few million quargs now on the planets of Groombridge.”

      “My ship won’t have so many quargs,” Yoon Gao raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.

      “Something else will save them, and that is what I want to deliver to the planets with your help, Yoon. You and André know that we’ve been shooting a little bit here, and as a result, the orbital defense of Groombridge-2 has lost its fighting power. The new non-lethal ammunition was used well, but it turned out it didn’t do us much good. Apparently, the toads have made changes in the mental block given to the quargs, and now they can’t surrender to us. In fact, they couldn’t surrender to the lizards before, because the quargs knew very well that the reptiles could remove the block, but now that, along with the СКАЧАТЬ