"Colin Kapp - The Imagination Trap" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kapp Colin)

The Imagination Trap
ONE

Professor Carl Diepenstrom, Director of Tau Research Corporation, switched off the
intercom.
“Well, at least he’s come to see us, Paul.”
Paul Porter nodded. “I thought he would. Eric Brevis can’t resist the lure of curiosity any
more than we can. In fact, if we can score with him, it will be on that very point.”
“I see.” Diepenstrom raised his large and greying head and studied Porter seriously for a
moment or two. “And you still think it vitally necessary that we go through with this project,
Paul?”
“You know it is. It’s the only chance we have. We can’t continue with the present research
line. It isn’t humanitarian, and it isn’t giving us a glimpse of a coherent pattern. Besides which,
you know how the Government’s attitude is hardening.”
“Yes, I know it,” said Diepenstrom gravely. “And that’s the reason I’ve backed you as far as I
have. I can’t see any practical alternative. But I’d be happier if it didn’t have to be you who
went out there. Tau Research can’t afford to lose you, Paul.”
“There won’t be any Tau Research if this project folds. Anyway, I don’t think the risk will
be too great—not if we can persuade Eric Brevis to join the team.”
“You think a great deal of Dr Brevis, don’t you?”
“I do. He has an intuitive understanding of the irrational, and that can be a prime factor for
survival under extreme Tau conditions. With him on the team we have a very real chance of
making a breakthrough.”
“Very well,” said Diepenstrom. “If you want Dr Brevis, you shall have him. But you’d better
leave the interview to me. It may just be that he isn’t very willing to offer his life for
somebody else’s cause. In which case he will have to be . . . ah! . . . persuaded.”

As the psychologist entered the room, Diepenstrom rose in greeting.
“Dr Brevis, thank you for coming.”
Brevis seated himself carefully and took a cigar from the offered box. “Being in receipt of
such an intriguing communication, I could scarcely have refused.”
Diepenstrom repressed a mischievous smile. “That was, shall we say, contrived. Curiosity
is a force far more potent than most people allow.”
Brevis studied the Director’s face carefully for a moment. “True,” he said. “Though I don’t
think you asked me here just to discuss the psychology of curiosity.”
“Indeed not. I wanted to discuss the possibility of death.”
“Whose death—yours or mine?”
“Yours.”
Brevis exhaled sharply. “I suppose there’s some sense in this cryptic nonsense?”
“There is indeed, my dear Doctor, and shortly I’ll tell you what it is. But first let me
enquire how much you know about Tau?”
“Not very much. I know it’s a system in which solid bodies are resonated in such a way
that their atoms can pass through the spaces in the atomic structure of other solid bodies. I
know you use the method for transport, bringing the big Tau ships to resonance and then
driving them through the earth by the shortest mean path to their destination.”
“Go on,” said Diepenstrom.
“I know also that in its resonant state such a ship passes into an inter-atom domain called
Tau-space which is incongruent both physically and psychologically with conditions existing
in normal space.”
 “That will do for the moment,” said Diepenstrom. “I recall that you were concerned with