"Zach Hughes - Mother Lode" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

Man had been twice in space. A very few had soared upward from Old
Earth on the fire of primitive chemical rockets. Centuries later man had
broken the bounds of planetary gravity once more, this time with the help
of old Billy Bob Blink's invention that made star travel less dangerous and
much less time-consuming. Man had been in space for the second time for
thousands of years and in all that time he had encountered intelligence
only in the mutated forms of life that had survived the Destruction of Old
Earth. He had found evidence of alien intelligence, but the aliens were all
dead—the residents of the Dead Worlds and the two races who clung
together in a clasp of death as galaxies collided in Cygnus.

The decades of work on Old Earth since the reunion had taught man
much about himself. From her classes at the Academy Erin knew that life
on Old Earth had begun millions of years in the past, but that man,
himself, was a relative newcomer. The humanoid skull staring up at her
with its blank, dark eyes was as old or older than the anthropoid remains
that had been discovered in fossil form on Old Earth since the reunion.
Here, then, was evidence of another manlike race. Whether or not the skull
represented intelligence she could not guess, but she knew that X&A
scientists would consider it to be of more importance than the gold and
gold ore she had stowed in Mother's bins.

She moved the extractor arm slightly. The skull was still attached to the
matrix rock. "Well, damn," she said.
 Mop looked up questioningly.

"I can't believe I'm going to do this," she said.

Mop followed her to the air lock and watched anxiously as she worked
her way into a suit.

"Sorry, fella, this trip isn't for you," she said.

She took the dog to the control room, closed the door behind her, felt
panic for one moment not because she was scared, but because if
anything happened to her out there, Mop would be left all alone to punch
out his food and water until it was all gone and then—

"Oh, damn," she moaned, as she closed the helmet and sucked air.

"Oh, shit," she said, as the inner hatch closed and a pump whined as it
evacuated air from the lock.

"Balls," she whispered, as the outer hatch opened and she stared out
into the big empty.




CHAPTER FOUR