Rainbow Mars Read Online Free

schemes, all the ways of getting to orbit without rockets. They all have that much in common. They’re all dangerous! Huge potential energies involved. You could build them all cheaper, in miniature, because Mars has low mass and a high spin. Try them on Mars, where they can’t hurt anyone!
    â€œThe Industrial Age is over, the world isn’t rich anymore, and we can’t afford to experiment. But what have we forgotten? What miracles could we find by raiding old libraries? If you search through two thousand years of the past you’re bound to find something. ”
    â€œFinding it is the problem,” Ra Chen agreed. “I built the big X-cage to raid the Library of Alexandria before Julius Caesar torched it. It turns out that we can’t reach back that far. But we got to the Beverly Hills Library in plus-sixty-eight Atomic Era! We scooped it all up just before the quake and the wave. Why don’t you set some of your people searching through those old books?”
    â€œI will. What about the Pentagon or the Kremlin? They must have had interesting stuff—”
    â€œSecrets. Locked up, hidden and guarded. Willy, it’s a mistake to think of armed men as dead.”
    The albino whale in its huge tank turned sideways to focus one tiny eye on Svetz. Whale looked better than he had after the capture. The broken harpoons were gone, scars starting to heal.
    Gorky rubbed his eyes. “I’m just getting used to thinking in terms of time. We’re still just talking, right?”
    â€œR—”
    â€œAliens, I promised aliens to Waldemar Ten. Waldemar Eleven expects them too. Can your time machines find weirder animals than this?”
    â€œAmazing beast,” Ra Chen said. Whale’s eye turned to look at him.
    â€œWe could have billed it as alien. From Europa, maybe.”
    â€œWilly, is there a chance at real aliens?”
    â€œWe haven’t found life anywhere.”
    â€œMars?”
    â€œLong ago. There’s fossil bacteria in Martian rocks dating from half a billion years ago. It’s very primitive stuff, Ra Chen. Mars had seas and a reasonable atmosphere for less than a billion years, and maybe what we found evolved then. Or maybe it all evolved on Earth and got to Mars embedded in a meteor. Not an alien at all.”
    â€œMars had life later than that,” Miya said.
    They turned toward her. Svetz caught Gorky’s indulgent smile.
    Miya didn’t. “There was life on Mars. There was civilization! We have sketches made from telescope observations and descriptions from old astronomers, Schiaparelli and Lowell and Burroughs. Hundreds saw channels running across Mars, too straight to be anything but artificial!
    â€œAnd it all disappeared over the next sixty years, before the first probes reached Mars. The probes found river valleys, but they were dry. Craters everywhere. Almost no atmosphere, nothing left of the water system. Nothing left of the water. High cirrus, and frost at the poles.”
    Willy Gorky told her gently, “A lot of these discoveries were made through the Lowell telescope in Arizona. Have you ever looked through a telescope at Mars?”
    Miya shook her head. “I’ve never looked through a telescope.”
    â€œMost astronomers don’t. Miya, dear, Lowell’s telescope didn’t have camera attachments. Eyeballs! Everything was a blur. That was the period when they decided Mercury was like the Moon, one face always to the Sun. They were drawing one face of the planet onto the other and didn’t notice! Those canals—” He was talking to the back of her head now. “Tired eyes want to connect the dots. We’ve never found anything on Mars.”
    Watching her defeated expression, Svetz asked, “What if she’s right?”
    Willy Gorky laughed out loud. “Svetz, what do you know about other planets? Miya, you dug in those old river valleys! What did you find? Microscopic