"Aleksandr Abramov, Sergei Abramov. Horsemen from Nowhere ("ВСАДНИКИ НИОТКУДА", англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

"But for what purpose?"
"Oh, say, for excavation purposes and the hoisting of big loads. The
'Kharkovchanka' machine was an ideal item for experimentation. That's why
they hauled it up."
"But what sense is there in duplicating it?"
"It might be that these are some kind of ingenious devices for
reproduction of atomic structures, whether protein or crystalline."
"Yes, but the purpose. What's the idea? I don't get it."
"According to the findings of Bodwin, an underdeveloped cerebellum
reduces one's ability to comprehend by 14 to 23 per cent. Give that some
thought and I'll be waiting. There's another element of the hypothesis and a
significant one."
Tolya was so eager to figure this out that he swallowed Bodwin and the
percentage without a word.
"I give up," he said. "What element?"
"The counterparts or doubles," I pointed out. "You were on the right
track when you spoke of self-hypnosis. But only on the track. The truth lies
in a different direction and on another route. It's not self-hypnosis, but
intervention in the processing of information. Actually, there were no
duplicates at all, no second vehicle, no second Anokhin, no duplicate
clothing and things, like say my jacket or camera. The 'cloud' reorganized
my psychic state and created a dichotomous perception of the world. And as a
result, a splitting of the personality, a twilight state of the soul."
"Still and all, your hypothesis lacks the most important thing: it does
not account for the physico-chemical nature of these devices, nor does it
explain the technical workings or the purpose in making them and using
them."
To call my ravings a hypothesis was of course sheer nonsense, to say
the least. I concocted it on the spur of the moment and persisted in
developing it only out of stubbornness. It was perfectly clear to me myself
that it accounted for nothing, and, what is most important, it did not
answer the question of why it was necessary to eliminate the doubles that
had existed only in my imagination or why I was not allowed to approach the
mysterious laboratory. Of course everything depended on the developed film.
If the cine eye caught what I saw, then my hypothesis was hardly more than a
Joke.
"Boris Arkadievich, we need help," Tolya implored.
"In what?" Zernov said. He obviously hadn't been listening. "Anokhin
has a fine imagination, it's a wonderful quality for painters and
scientists."
"He's got a hypothesis."
"Every hypothesis requires verification."
"But every hypothesis has a limiting probability."
"The limit of Anokhin's," Zernov agreed, "is in the state of the ice of
this region. It cannot explain why and for whom all these tens and perhaps
hundreds of cubic kilometres of ice are."
We didn't grasp the meaning and so Zernov patiently and condescendingly
explained.
"Before the accident I called your attention to the flawless profile of
the wall of ice that starts god knows where and stretches for I don't know