Читать книгу Mesozoic zigzag - - Страница 7

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– Attention! Attention! I ask the staff of the scientific part, participating in the expedition for the first time, to gather in the wardroom! – The loudspeaker speakers blared.

When the youth filled the wardroom, Thabit stood up from the table and raised his hand. There was silence.

– Dear colleagues, the expedition leadership decided to form working teams for further work on the surface of the planets. The list composition of the teams was selected taking into account the recommendations of the onboard computer in accordance with the psychological compatibility and the list of professions.

There was an exclamation of satisfaction.

– To rally the teams, the Kressum Games are announced starting tomorrow’s cycle.

The hall applauded.

In fact, the Kressum games had a very long history, one could even say going back in time. Judging by the fragmentary information, which has reached modern zwigg historians, originally, they were not games at all, but rather a rite of voluntary transition of some young men and women of one of the most numerous communities living on the planet Kressum to the category of “Protectors of the Home”, with their own, sometimes quite cruel, unwritten rules. As far as we could find out, the essence of the games was this.

Young people who decided to participate in the Kressum Games were independently assembled into small teams, where the skills of some were complemented by the skills of others. What skills? You’re about to find out…

All groups of young people were dropped one by one from an air transport ship into the wilderness, far from any civilization. Each team had only a topographical map (given by lot) and the minimum amount of survival equipment. The map indicated the starting point (each team had its own), where a small airtight container with the first task was waiting for them. It was necessary to pass the section of the route indicated in the task and take the next container. And so on, until the whole route was completed (each team had its own). The only thing that all teams had in common was the finish point. The difficulty lay in the location of the containers. They could be at the bottom of a lake, on a mountain peak, in the lair of a bloodthirsty predator. And the route to the next point was not easy. Only a united team, capable of joint actions and mutual support had a chance to pass the route to the end. Of course, in case of big problems on the route, the team could call evacuation transport with the help of bonfires.

But among young people it was so shameful not to pass the route that most of the teams did not even think of such a thing. As a result, the death of a part or even a whole team was not uncommon. The unwritten laws of honor and the high birth rate in those old days allowed society to look at it as an inevitability. The death on route of a young member of the community may have been a personal loss to their loved ones. But, to those around them, that death was a source of pride. So, he, the hero, was raised right and chose honor over dishonor, going to the goal “to the end”! The names of those who gave their lives for the right to be a “defender of home” were immortalized on the central alley of the capital, and those who survived and received the “sign of the defender” joined the elite ranks of the military and pioneers.

A long time has passed since then! Life had changed unrecognizably, and so had the goals of the Zwigg civilization. There was no need for such a brutal selection process. It was now an intellectual competition. Teams were formed not spontaneously, as before, but with the help of special algorithms that took into account the aptitudes and mutual compatibility of its potential members. The nuances, of course, changed from planet to planet, but, in general, the games evolved along with society.

Therefore, as it was customary, the leaders of scientific groups together with Tabit divided all the youth into teams consisting of specialists of different profiles, who had to not only search for containers with notes in different secluded places of the ship, but also to solve riddles from planetology, botany, zoology, astronomy and other things. The first team to reach the finish line was the winner.