V. Firsov
Both life and death
Chapter 1.
Green balls and a nervous extraterrestrial dog.
When the stream began to sparkle below, Sergei
Lavrov checked the map again and led
float down, aiming for the clear
a clearing of bushes a little away from the stream.
The device rested its convex belly against the shaggy
elastic grass, vibrated, and then softly
donkey on one side. Sergey turned it off
stabilizing field. Rare branches
shrubs with three-rayed flowers were
here up to their waists, and Sergei decided that they
will prevent you from dragging the probe to the stream.
The day turned out to be surprisingly quiet,
the stagnant hot air, the drunken smell of grass
hit the head with hops, making you think
God knows what - about a walk in scuba gear
along the Great Barrier Reef, about the huge
in Mashenka's eyes, about how great it is to be
young people - just not about boring
last days of sounding.
Dark purple sky by noon suddenly
turned blue and became softly transparent, and,
if it weren’t for the heavy beam thrower that is needed
hang it around your neck again, and unexpected squeals
huge, palm-sized insects scurrying around
spicy herb, one would think that
this is not planet Alpha in the system at all
Bernard's stars, and his own, native steppe
somewhere near Bila Tserkva. Sergei
suddenly I imagined him throwing
Fed up, he throws a beam into the grass, pulls
throughhead wet from sweat shirt and
splashes into the stream... The water is cold,
burning skin after ten seconds
begins to burn, as if she had been scalded, and
teeth knock out small fractions. Now on
sand - yellow, hot - here it is, like
poured in a bend especially for me
old ladies...
Then Lavrov noticed that the intern Akhmed with
looks at him with undisguised interest and
It already seems to be starting to slowly
unbutton the buttons on your shirt. Sergey
cursed internally - this boy
as if he read his thoughts - and said businesslike
tone:
- Let's unload...
Ahmed shook his head sadly.
- That’s not what you said, dear comrade.
Sergey! You wanted to say: “let’s take a swim”...
The cheerful ones were jumping in his eyes
devils.
“You can swim at the base,” Lavrov muttered.
and opening container locks.
- Pour water into the inflatable bath and
you'll take a swim.
Ahmed sighed sadly and stepped over
through the transparent side of the disc.
- Where! What about the beam gun? - called out to him
Sergey.
Ahmed even groaned.
- I didn’t think you were such a literalist. I
I’ve been carrying this club around for two weeks now!
She gives me calluses on my neck, like
pack donkey. Why am I doing this? On
no one has ever shot at this planet before
from her.
- Follow the instructions, Ahmed.
“Instructions, instructions,” he grumbled.
Ahmed. - Give me the author of this instruction, II'll tell him...
- You won’t tell him anything, Ahmed.
- Who? I? Yes, I will tell him: take it, friend,
carry all our ray guns to your health,
until the neck dries up. And if that's not enough,
We'll ask you for another dozen from the Ariel -
for a good person it’s not a pity.
“You won’t tell him anything, Ahmed,”
Sergei repeated dryly. - Author of this
instructions died here ten years ago,
on Alpha.
- How did you die? - Ahmed asked confused.
k- Why?
Sergei shrugged his shoulders, took out the beam gun from
clamps and handed it to the trainee. He doesn't
knew why Bestuzhev died, but he didn’t know
this is no one.
- And like this. He died and that's it. Gone.
Disappeared. Evaporated. And while the mystery of his death
will not be explained, you will carry on yourself
beam gun, walkie-talkie, direction finder and everything else
they will order - even knightly armor. It's clear?
Ahmed nodded his head sadly and
hung the beam gun around his neck, then attached it to
spin a heavy cable reel and go
down to the stream. Sergei followed him,
holding a heavy self-propelled gun with his hands
electric probe He forgot to put something in
on the shoulder, and the sharp edge of the Archimedean screw
painfully cut into the skin. Coil quiet
creaked, the cable slowly lay down
onto the grass, from which huge
insects. One of them, the size of
frog jumped on a high shoe
Sergei, stuck to the plastic and froze,
slightly tossingnumerous
beady eyes. Sergei knew that
local insects are completely harmless, but
Since childhood he didn’t like spiders, centipedes
and other abominations, so with the toe of the shoe
pushed the uninvited guest into the grass.
About twenty paces from the shore they stuck
probe into the sand, Sergei turned on the current,
Archimedes screw with a slight hum
spun and the probe started slowly
will submerge. A few minutes later he
completely buried in the sand, and only crumbling
a hole and a cable crawling into it indicated
now where he is.
“Look at this,” he said in a low voice.
Ahmed, touching Sergei's hand.
Sergei looked around. Right on them
a large one rolled leisurely from the stream
green ball.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sergei noticed that his hands
Akhmed was laid on the butt
beam thrower, and smiled. Ahmed intercepted
his gaze turned red and frowned, but his hands
did not remove it from the butt - pretended that
It’s just more convenient for him to stand that way. Them
Over time the ball came closer. He was slightly
flattened, so it resembled rather not
a very hard-boiled egg without a shell,
which decided for some reason
take a walk. The ball moved silently - only
Bent branches crackled slightly
bush. It was impossible to understand that
this is a plant, animal, outlandish
all-terrain vehicle or something else. The ball is slow,
majestically, without slowing down or speeding up
movement, rollednot very cool
slope, like the law of universal gravitation
suddenly lost his strength.
When the ball was very close,
the puzzled Ahmed backed away, instructing
emitter for an unknown guest.
- What is this? - he muttered,
pushing back the safety catch. - After all, that’s how it is
rushing at us. And he doesn’t understand the roads.
Sergei put his hand on the barrel of the beam thrower and
slowly bent it down.
The ball moved majestically past them,
rolled through the cable, slightly denting it
grass, climbed up a hillock, why did he
I had to completely flatten myself out.
- Oh yes, tumbleweeds, - admiringly
Ahmed said.
“And here’s one more thing,” Sergei showed.
A second ball rolled along the stream, much
larger than the first.
- Is today their visiting day? - asked
Ahmed.
Sergei looked at his watch. Minutes later
five the probe will reach the specified depth. He
reached into his shorts pocket and pulled out a sandwich
shiny sealed packaging. Here
a strange sound came from behind him, and
something cold and wet poked him softly
under the knee. He spun around, throwing
beams forward and internally grows cold from
instant horror. But it wasn't
disgusting wet-footed octopus, no
brontosaurus, not a vampire tiger or something
a still unknown beast, and an ordinary dog -
shaggy, cheerful, unknown
breeds that came from nowhere
Alpha. The dog waved cheerfullytail, in which
some local thistles got stuck, and
smiled very eloquently, looking at
sandwich. The dog was clearly not a representative
stray dog tribe - on his neck
a metal collar was visible, and with
There was a piece of strap hanging from the collar.
- Phenomenon sixth: the same and extraterrestrial
“dog,” Sergei muttered, puzzled.
There were no animals on their ship, and it became
maybe this dog is local, what can it be
it couldn’t be done at all, because on Alpha,
as far as he knew, no one lived.
But the dog stood in front of him, sycophantically stabbing
tail and eloquently looking at
sandwich, and on his collar was visible
flat direction finder box, obviously
taken from the space suit of one of
latest releases.
- Bobik, Sharik! - Ahmed called,
squatting down. The dog trustingly
came up and licked his hand with his rough tongue.
But apparently, nothing tasty comes from the intern
it smelled, and the dog stared at Sergei again.
-Whose are you anyway? - asked Sergei.
Then it occurred to him that
information service simply
I forgot to report those that appeared on the planet
settlers. Such mistakes are rare, but
happened. Ships are now scurrying through space,
like suburban monocars, and not everyone is behind them
keep track, and lovers of exotic and
there has always been a hermit's life
plenty, and they don't always wantregister - mandatory in such
cases are long and not very pleasant
examinations, vaccinations against hundreds
existing, proposed and not
existing diseases, tedious
instructions for all possible occasions,
right down to the rules of behavior when meeting with
representatives of the antiworld, long
tedious workouts - ranging from
repair of emergency equipment and ending
providing assistance with an open fracture
hips - all this together, anyone you want
will make you think whether it is really necessary
registration...
- Our guest is definitely not averse to
have a snack,” Ahmed said. - Treat him
Sergey!
The dog understood these words correctly and
beat his tail even harder, and his smile
he became simply charming. Sergey is not
resisted and laughed.
- I give up, they persuaded me! - he said and
pulled the tongue of the package. Hermetic
the sandwich shell burst with a short
with a bang. At the same time, for a moment the dog
with a short yelp and a huge leap
flew into the air. Sergei protecting his face
and neck, but the dog did not even think of attacking. He
pressed himself to the grass and, backing away, crawled away from
Sergei. The fur on it stood on end,
quivering pink and black corners of the mouth
sharp fangs revealed.
- What's wrong with him? - perplexed
Sergei said and stepped forward. But the dog
burst out with a menacing growl, givingunderstand
that their relationship is seriously damaged and
for a long time.
“You’re kind of nervous, Sharik,” he shook
head Ahmed. - You growl at the good ones
people... You need to go to a sanatorium, and you
you walk around the planets...
The dog crawled a few meters away,
turned his back to the people and trotted along
stream, looking around and showing fangs.
Sergei looked after him thoughtfully and
suddenly noticed that the ball was rolling somewhere
disappeared. The valley of the stream was visible
good, and he has nowhere to go - all this
the episode with the dog continued
a minute and a half, and during this time the ball did not
would have time to reach the ridge. But
there was no time to think about it, because
that the cable has already stopped crawling into the sand -
the probe reached the specified depth and turned off.
“Let’s go, Akhmed,” Sergei waved his hand at
side of the disc. - We have five more points
for today.
They fiddled with measuring the minutes
fifteen, then waited for the probe
will get back out, - Ahmed slowly
pulled the cable up so it wouldn't get crushed
Archimedean screw, Sergei sat next to him,
smoked and reflected on strange events
day. Then the ini laid out their household
on the disc plane, looking for a new point on the map,
They flew towards her, and everything was repeated again. C
air they noticed three or four times
leisurely green balls. All of them
rolled in one direction - just
where it ledthere is a rare dotted line on the map
circles marking measurement points.
Instead of six measurements, they managed to make
eight - the soil has become softer, and time for
probing took less time. On the map,
though not very detailed, right on them
along the way lay a vast lowland, where
Several streams flowed down. Sergey decided
that there was a swamp there, but that didn’t bother him -
the discus could hang over any quagmire.
It will be worse, he thought, if the probe cannot
then go up - the swamps, it
after all, a swamp... He estimated by eye
the width of the swamp is five points, no less - and
decided that the loss of two or three probes was not
such a disaster. We'll get it done in a day, I thought
he, not yet knowing what events would unfold
here tomorrow.
Chapter 2.
Housewarming. Why does Don Quixote need a beam?
In the evening the expedition celebrated
completion of the house construction. By seven o'clock
when the local sun, red-yellow star
Barnard, began to turn purple, everyone gathered
in front of the newly hardened steps of
plastic concrete, above which hung a narrow
red ribbon. Pushed forward
the artist Mashenka, and the head of the expedition
Barton solemnly handed it to her
manicure scissors. Mashenka is charming
I was embarrassed and cut it to applause
ribbon. A volley was immediately heard
rocket launchers burst high above the roof
colorful lights and in the windowsswollen
light. Everyone moved into the house in a crowd.
- Wait! - Barton shouted. - One
a minute!
He grabbed a harpoon gun from somewhere,
loaded with a blunt arrow.
- Shooting competitions are announced for
The title of Alpha Champion! The winner will be
rewarded with a long hiss!
There was a friendly laugh. Since
disembarking from the bot while the house was being built,
expedition members lived in a large
inflatable dwelling. Despite the air conditioners,
air heaters and other everyday automation,
For some reason no one liked life there.
Ahmed immediately called this a miracle of engineering
thoughts of “go away, go away” and, despite everything
prohibitions, managed from time to time
sleep in a sleeping bag outdoors
air, for which he received severe punishment from
Barton. Now the inflatable giant is only
blocked the view from the windows of the new house, and everyone
I liked the idea of dealing with her.
- Girls first! - Ahmed shouted. -
Mashenka, shoot!
Mashenka, turning pink with embarrassment, took
the gun and began to take aim. ,The gun was released
tight, and when she's with him, finally with him
I did it, the trunk was looking in the wrong direction,
where it was needed. Eva Stadnyuk, doctor
expedition, shot better - her arrow
half a meter above the valve. Third shooter
Shavrov took into account that the gun was hitting in the air
stronger than in the water, and aimed lower.
His arrow hit very close to the white
valve circle.After him, Ahmed took the puzhie. He
bowed ceremoniously before the girl and
said:
- I dedicate my wonderful victory
to the beautiful girls of Alpha, - but looked
at the same time only to Mashenka.
The gun clicked, and after the blow of the arrow
there was a loud hissing sound - the arrow had hit
right into the valve.
- Hooray! - Barton shouted. Everyone clapped.
TsEva approached Akhmed and to applause
the rest, bending slightly,
kissed the winner on the forehead. Blushed
Mashenka stood on tiptoes and quickly
kissed Ahmed on the chin.
- Please come to the table! - Barton declared.
- Girls, accompany the winner!
Everyone sat down laughing and joking.
The champagne cork popped.
- Happy housewarming! Hooray! - Barton shouted.
Outside the window, shuddering and waddling, with
the shapeless rubber settled with a hiss
carcass
Very soon the general conversation broke up into
thin strings.
- Today we saw living balls, -
Akhmed told Mashenka. - They
traveled in search of experiences.
Then a dog came up to us and asked
Comrade Sergei's sandwich.
- What is this! - Kuleshov said across the table,
rubbing his bald head. - Somehow he came up to me
brontosaurus and asked for a smoke...
Sergey has already heard the story three times about
smoking brontosaurus, so I didn't
listen to this story. He was more interested
balls seen today. When he returned, heimmediately reported to Barton about the strange meeting.
Even his eyes lit up when he
I heard about green balls. He carefully
listened to Lavrov, carefully wrote down everything and
said: that tomorrow immediately
will do. He could be understood. Works at
there are more than enough biologists, but it was
ordinary work - systematization, descriptions,
herbariums, collections. This form of life
They have never seen anything like these balls before.
- What do you think these balls are? -
Sergei asked Barton.
He shrugged.
- Local flora. Or maybe fauna. We
We don’t know anything about them yet. Bestuzhev,
True, I saw such a ball and even took it on
film.
- And you didn't try anything about them
find out? I can't believe it.
Barton just spread his hands.
- Yes, we were ready to immediately rush for
ball, catch it, measure it,
dissect... But Bestuzhev forbade it. He
said: "This is their planet, and we are here
uninvited guests. Just watch! Where from
we know that the ball I met is not
is the rarest, even the only one
representative of a new form of life for us?
But there was nothing to see. We are several
spent days spinning over the place where
Bestuzhev directed the film. Ball as if through the earth
failed. And then Bestuzhev died.
- Tell me, please! - said
Ahmed. - I don’t know anything at all.
- It happened shortly before departure. We
just nowreceived a photo map from a satellite
planets and selectively examined the most
interesting areas. Bestuzhev did not return
on time and we got worried. Radio communication
as you know, it’s unreliable here during the day,
because the sun makes a lot of noise.
But we still managed to contact. Bestuzhev
said that he would stay until the morning and asked
don't worry. According to him, we understood
that he had encountered something interesting. After
this connection was interrupted. At night we are several
They called him once, but he did not answer. On
At dawn, Petrov and I went to see him.
We saw the disc plane right away, but Bestuzhev
was nowhere to be found. The car hood was closed,
the devices worked, the radio station was in
full serviceability. We searched all around
and found nothing - no traces of a struggle, no
scraps of clothing. They decided that he drowned in
swamp. It was the only thing at least a little
plausible explanation. There was a swamp
quite ordinary, we don’t have any dangerous places in it
noticed, and it’s hard to imagine that
such an experienced researcher decided to walk
at night through the swamp. Just in case we
passed through the swamp with a metal detector - after all,
Bestuzhev had a knife, a watch and a lantern with him,
and the device would detect them. But everything was
no use...
- You said that death in the swamp -
the only plausible explanation is
Sergei said after silence. - And there were
any implausible explanations?
- How manywhatever. For example, they said
that Bestuzhev was carried away by a giant bird or
swallowed by a swamp snake. But large forms
there is no life on Alpha. We might as well
could assume that he was kidnapped
aliens from the Andromeda Nebula.
“Or from Beta...” said Ahmed. - This is
closer.
- There is no life on Beta, you are wonderful
you know,” Barton objected. - Here's why
such an experienced researcher as Bestuzhev,
- he was just about to celebrate
sixtieth anniversary of his first flight -
why did he bathe in violation of everyone
no one knows the instructions.
- How did you swim? - asked several
votes immediately.
Everyone knew that neither in the water nor on
Alpha land is not dangerous or harmful
plants, animals, but this is now, and
ten years ago, when flora and fauna
recently discovered planets were completely
unknown, swimming bordered on madness -
everyone knew this absolutely firmly.
- How did you swim? - Ahmed repeated,
leaving the expressive gaze unattended
Sergei.
- A river flowed not far from the diskette.
And we found traces of bare feet in the sand.
- So he drowned! Or he was grabbed
“shark,” whispered Mashenka, widely
opening my eyes.
- And then the shark crawled ashore and ate
clothes, boots, weapons... - to match her
Kuleshoov finished. - I swear by my bald head,
it was a very hungry shark.
- Yes, because it isevent
unlikely, we can assume that
The swim ended well. However, so
and it remained a mystery why Bestuzhev decided
such a dangerous step.
- Maybe he wanted to get something from
water?
- He wouldn’t take off his shoes anyway. We
everyone was wearing overalls back then
biological protection. And they are waterproof.
This is your freedom now - shorts,
swimwear...
“It’s all strange,” said Sergei.
- Very strange. Ten years have passed and
nothing became clearer.
- I think, comrades, that he is mean
kidnapped by interplanetary gangsters, - said
Ahmed, looking at Mashenka. - They say
that such things exist. Mostly stolen
great scientists over eighty years of age and
beautiful girls under twenty. But we
We won’t give up our girls! Let only
they'll stick their noses in!
He grabbed a harpoon that was standing nearby
gun and menacingly aimed at the door.
Mashenka laughed. Encouraged Ahmed
furiously rolled his eyes, pretending that
repels the attack of mysterious raiders.
At this time there was a loud knock on the
door.
It was so unexpected that laughter and
the jokes immediately stopped. Sergei looked around the table
glance - all members of the expedition were
is obvious. Ahmed lowered his gun in confusion and
looked back at the pestering Barton.
The knocking was repeated - loud, insistent.
- Come in! - Barton shouted. door
opened.
Whenin the evening you sit at a table in a circle
comrades on a poorly explored planet,
separated from their native land by billions
kilometers and months of flight, and you know that
your small cozy home is the only one
outpost of earthly life in this sector
universe, and suddenly you hear a knock on the door,
you can expect anything - the appearance
green-skinned three-armed alien,
ant-man with squishy legs,
spider-like robot or intelligent
octopus with a laser in one of the tentacles. But
no one expected someone to come through the door with
naked sword in hand very tall
a bearded old man who somewhat resembles
Don Quixote, dressed in his costume
squire Sancho Panza. The old man was wearing
short, greasy shorts that leave
open thin muscular legs,
excessively colorful jacket with wide
sleeves, on the head - wide-brimmed and not
less colorful hat, at the waist -
a wide belt half-covered by a jacket, in
which Barton's experienced eye immediately recognized
space kit accessory
number seven - bilogical overalls
protection for the study of terrestrials
planets, on feet - strong boots,
covered with dried mud. But most
The old man’s face was amazing - thin,
like an ascetic, but almost without wrinkles, and on
this face under thick, fused eyebrows
were burning huge, restless,lively eyes.
The guest looked years old
seventy to eighty.
- Hello! - said the old man to
bad unified language. - And lower it,
please this thing,” he pointed his sword at
Ahmed's side. - I don't want her to
shot me in the stomach...
Ahmed looked at his hands and saw
that the gun, which he still held in
hands, directed directly at the guest. He
blushed and hid the gun behind his back.
But no one noticed his embarrassment - glances
all were directed at the stranger.
- Hello... - they answered discordantly
puzzled owners - some in Russian, some
on one.
“Please come in,” he said.
Barton. - We will be glad if you
have dinner with us.
For some reason the old man poked the tip of his sword at
the floor, but the blade bounced off the soft
warm plastic. Then the guest put
sword against the wall and slowly sank onto
the chair offered to him.
- I am the head of the second complex
Barton expedition. These are our employees -
Barton introduced everyone who was sitting to the stranger
at the table. - Our ship is in orbit, here
We only have a regular bot.
The old man nodded silently and moved him aside
cutlery placed in front of him and
took a quick glance at the numerous
Mashenka's sketches hung on the walls.
“I have a favor to ask of you, Barton,” said
he finally. - The thing is that I...
uh... gone missingfriend... my dog. After
death of my wife I am alone, and Caesar replaces
everything to me - friends, society, family... I
I will be very grateful to you if you
give it back to me.
“We don’t have the dog,” said Sergei. - We
Today we saw her about forty kilometers away
from here. - Then he remembered the collar and
added: “What’s wrong with you?”
direction finder?
The old man did not deign to answer him.
- If there are any difficulties for you
give me back my friend... my
Caesar, would you please
give in... sell me yours
expedition dog? You can assign
any price.
“We would be glad to help you,” replied
Barton. - But on our expedition we don’t have
dogs.
- No dog? - the old man was surprised. - And on
no ship either?
- And on the ship.
The old man was silent. Taking advantage
pause, everyone began vying with each other to treat the guest,
but with a careless movement of his head he rejected
everything offered.
- Maybe your dog again
meet us,” Barton turned to
to a strange guest. - Where can we then
find you?
“I don’t dare make it difficult,” he avoided
response guest. - In this case, I will visit myself
you...
He knows perfectly well where he runs
dog, thought Sergei. And a direction finder
the old bastard is fine. But for some reason this
the cosmic Don Quixote wishes that he
we caught the dog... Or is he having trouble withtransport? By the way, did he really come?
walk here? Look how dirty the shoes are...
“Last request,” said the old man,
looking at Barton point blank. - Couldn't
you... uh... lend me some money for a while
beam thrower? You obviously can't sell it
can you?
At this question, Sergei slowly
looked sideways at Ahmed and saw how
his hand, gripping the harpoon, tensed
gun. He chuckled. The most common thing.
You are sitting on the deserted planet Alpha in the system
Barnard's stars, and suddenly it comes to you
Don Quixote with a sword in his hand and asks for
him a beam gun - a formidable weapon invented
quite recently. And what's special here?
Just think it's unprecedented... I just needed it
beams at a person. Why not give it?
Man is man's friend, comrade and brother...
- Ahmed, please bring the beam gun,
- said Barton. - Maybe we can
Anything else to help?
“Thank you,” said the old man,
lips and stood up. - Much obliged.
He took the beam gun, hung it around his neck and
again armed himself with a sword.
- You can use it as long as you want
"As you please," said Barton. - We
We'll be here for a long time. And if necessary,
leave him alone completely.
“I wish you good health,” said
the old man left.
Everyone poured out onto the porch. stranger,
straight as a pole, he walked along the twilight
a path that has already been trodden on
Alpha membersexpeditions, poking ahead of themselves
with a sword, like a blind cane -
right-left, right-left...
Maybe he has night blindness, I thought
Sergey. Like twilight, he sees nothing.
- Hey, comrade! - he shouted. - Maybe
Maybe I should take you there?
The old man passed by without answering
whistling shapeless mound, which
until recently was their home, and melted into
darkness.
“An old man,” said Ahmed. -
Why do you think he needs a beam?
Sergei shrugged.
- He probably also decided to carry out
instructions...
But Ahmed did not let up.
- Why does he wear a camouflage suit?
“It will be for you,” Sergei muttered.
Indeed, the stranger's motley outfit
could serve as an excellent camouflage. Here we go
now - he walked away ten steps and immediately
disappeared. It was as if he wasn't there.
Excited by a strange visit
the girls showered Barton with their
sentences about the stranger - who he is and
where, what is he doing on Alpha...
- Quiet! - Ahmed suddenly said. -
Look!
A few hundred meters from the house
a bright flash cut through the darkness,
accompanied by a familiar sharp hiss.
Half a minute later it flared up again -
away, then again...
“It’s firing from a ray gun...” guessed Sergei.
- Is he out of his mind? - indignantly
exclaimed Ahmed. - Why does this guy?
did they give you a weapon?
- Dinner is waiting for us,friends, said
Barton. - True, he has cooled down a little...
Shavrov held Barton by the elbow.
- You didn’t pay attention in which hand
was our distinguished guest holding a sword? -
he asked quietly.
“In my opinion, on the right,” hesitantly
he answered. - Yes, of course, on the right. And in
what's the matter?
- I think I heard something about our
guest,” said Shavrov. - But they told me
that he does not have a right hand.
Barton looked at Shavrov in surprise.
- Strange story... - thoughtfully
he said. - But maybe he has
prosthesis?
- It doesn’t look like... He’s very confident
wielded a sword. By the way, what does he need it for?
And why is he firing there now?
- Ask something easier.
They looked into the darkness again. Hissing
the beam thrower was no longer heard, but
receding flashes were clearly visible -
in half a minute each.
- You will talk to the ship, Yuri
Petrovich, ask the crew. Maybe
they know something. In the meantime, let's go
have dinner...
Chapter 3.
Hurricane
The next morning all the talk was only about
yesterday's guest. Ahmed, who immediately
disliked him, was more excited than anyone else.
- Who can tell me why he’s wearing a belt?
Bestuzhev? - either as a joke or seriously
he asked. - We noticed how he
covered?
- There are at least a dozen such belts in space
a dime a dozen,” Mashenka laughed. - And why?stuck to a person? Are you afraid that
will they steal me?
- Why didn’t he give his name? good people
don't hide your name, darling
Mashenka. And the address is told when they are
they ask. And what is he doing here anyway?
- He likes it here - so he lives. to you
You can live if you like it too. Nobody
will not object. There's room for everyone in space
that's enough.
- He said that his wife is here.
died,” Eva supported Mashenka. - Here it is
stayed here.
- Her grave will be carefully guarded,
yes? - Ahmed was indignant.
- You walk around with a beam gun...
- I've never shot from it yet. A
I just picked this one up, let’s go straight away
shoot. He's probably touched. Isn't it
a normal person would shoot at
frogs?
Ahmed has already walked in the footsteps
stranger and saw long stripes
grass scorched by a beam thrower.
- And what? They are so nasty here...
Brrr... - Mashenka shrugged her shoulders.
After breakfast, Sergei and Akhmed loaded
probes were sealed into the dikolet and rose to
air.
“I know where this guy lives,” he said.
Ahmed as they gained altitude. - There
woods under the rocks - nowhere else. If he
of course, lives in a house like a person, and not
hiding in a hole.
“You can take a look,” said Sergei,
turning towards the rocks.
Indeed, under the trees one could see
the roof of the house and some kind of fence - not thata vegetable garden, or a cattle pen. But the most
the owner was not visible.
“He’s hiding well,” Ahmed muttered. -
I just wonder from whom?
“What do we care,” Sergei objected. -
Let's fly further...
They processed two points without incident
and flew to a new place. Sergey
landed the discus among the huge
weathered boulders, behind which began
quite a steep decline to a vast swampy area
plain. From here, from above, the plain
was visible all over - slightly undone,
overgrown with low dwarf thickets and
bunches of bushes, between which
The water glistened with a haze of warm vapors.
The plain was located in a round basin,
kilometers across
fifteen.
- Yes, the swamp is what you need, - cheerfully
proclaimed Ahmed, surveying the surroundings in
binoculars - Frog paradise...
- Looks like a volcano crater. Interesting
It would be possible to carry out deep drilling here.
“And here are the tumbleweeds,” Ahmed showed
down, where through the bushes leisurely
a green ball was rolling. - Interesting, this
yesterday or another? What do you think
why are these cute travelers all
walking in the same direction?
“Let’s get down to business, Ahmed,” said
Sergey. - I don’t give you anything anyway
I will answer. Let them deal with the balls
biologists.
They chose a flat area, enough
away from the boulders, and turned on the probe. Hesank slowly, with difficulty overcoming
resistance to soil clogged with stones.
However, the colored eyes of the indicators on
control panel showed that everything was in
ok. All that was left was to wait. Ahmed
again launched into lengthy discussions about
yesterday's stranger.
- No, just think! As he said: "U
I, uh, have a missing friend, and I, uh, wish
buy a new one..." Where has this been seen -
buy friends? Have you ever bought
friends?
- He just put it poorly. Him
bored alone, so he decided to buy from us
dog. Once upon a time it was fashionable to have
a dog on every ship. You're in vain
at the old man, Ahmed.
- This Robinson Crusoe is not so simple. He
I didn’t come because of the dog at all. He needs
was a beamer...
- But at least that’s it. What do you need - a ray gun
sorry?
- I don’t feel sorry for you! I just would like
know: what type is this? Where did it come from? What
doing here? And in general - why should he
beam thrower? Until now I managed without it, but
now he can’t... Yes, but...
“Wait,” he interrupted him alarmedly.
Sergei, jumping up. - Do you see?
A huge cloud quickly covered
horizon. Her swirling wings captured
already half the sky - like two monstrous hands
an unknown giant who came from the abyss
space to suffocate the radiance of the day. For
a few seconds of writhing clouds of darkness
shot up to the elephant, and it went out.
It immediately becamedark. And in terrible
motionless silence until people become numb
came the distant dull roar of the approaching
hurricane
- Let's run! - Sergei shouted, rushing towards
discus. He already realized that delay
like death. Ahmed hesitated for a second,
but, apparently, he also remembered the strictest
instructions instructions. He rushed for
Sergei, then I remembered about beam throwers and
rushed back. Sergei jumped into
discus (the black wall of the hurricane is already
stood above my head), turned on the control
- the green eyes of the instruments glowed brightly
in the dark (the first gusts of wind swirled
dust, bent bush branches), turned on
stabilization (lying slightly obliquely
the device immediately floated up and hung strictly
horizontally half a meter above the ground),
I remembered the probe power cable,
cursing, pulled it out of the nest and
thrown overboard (roar of a hurricane, half a minute
very far back, now headlong
collapsed from above directly onto the diskette) and screamed
Ahmed, who ran up in the swirls of dust with
ray guns in his hands so that he throws them towards
to all the devils, but I didn’t hear myself
voices (the device almost shook at the first
blow of the wind) and began to wave his arms furiously
- Yes, hurry up, hurry up! Ahmed, already
realizing that things were bad, he ran away
beam throwers into the cockpit - one fell on
pilot's seat, the other one hit the butt
on the antenna pin and fellback. Ahmed,
having already managed to jump onto the stairs, alone
he picked it up with his hand. And then there's a hurricane
fell upon them.
A monstrous blow from an enraged atmosphere
almost threw Sergei out of the cabin.
Despite the titanic power
stabilizing field, the wild plane was thrown away
ten meters and almost set on
rib, then threw up, down, again
up... The darkness that became impenetrable for a moment
torn apart by a blinding flash - Sergey
saw the tops of the rocks dangerously close and
empty staircase, I realized that Akhmed could
fell apart, maybe died, what through
in a moment he himself may die,
plopped down in a chair (beamthrower in it
thrown out when pushed) and moved the device
Kuto up. Automation is completely battened down
protective transparent dome, lightning struck
from above, from below, from all sides, streams
showers enveloped the discus, as if it was rushing into
depths of the ocean, the numbers on the instruments are clear
got mad, the discus was thrown, and
rocked and carried into the unknown
direction with some unthinkable
speed. All this continued terribly
long - an hour, two, three, maybe more.
Then the blows became quieter, black darkness
turned gray, and Sergei realized that the hurricane
ends. It wasn't like that - ferocious
the black typhoon was still rushing over
planet, but the diskette had already emerged into
side from the main channelhurricane, and
soon Sergei again saw through
open black curtain purple
the sky and the sun and the green plain below.
The black wall drew in its swirling
shoots, melted, disappeared over the horizon.
Sergey landed the device on a slope
sandy hill, opened the cap, with difficulty
fell over the side and lay down on the hot
sand He was shaking with fatigue and fear.
He looked at his watch and decided that it was
standing - the clock showed that all this
the horror lasted less than five minutes. Sergey
lay down for a while, then climbed into the device,
put it in the nest that was lying on the floor
beam thrower, swallowed two antein tablets -
it immediately became easier, turned it on to clean it
conscience of the walkie-talkie - as always, during the day there is no connection
it was,” then raised the discus into the air. He
had no idea where the hurricane had taken him and
where to look for Ahmed now, so on
drove the device back at full speed,
hoping to get on the bearing of the base
radio stations.
Chapter 4.
First day of searching. Footprints in the sand
The hurricane passed away from the base, slightly
touching her with his wing. But even this
enough to cause significant
damage. The new house, however, survived - it was
not designed for such alterations, but
the weather station looks like a cow licked it with its tongue,
huge three ton inflatable house roll
rolled about five hundred meters until he got stuckin a ravine, antennas were torn off, vegetable garden
looked like a herd was dancing on it
mad elephants
Shavrov, caught in the house by a hurricane,
was very worried about the space bot - their
a means of communication with the ship remaining on
orbit. He knew the hurricane couldn't handle it
flip the bot - four strong legs
firmly grasped the ground, and when
necessary would automatically work
powerful stabilization engines, and yet for
those five minutes while over the expedition
a black haze flew through the house with howling and thunder,
he managed to scold himself many times for
carelessness - for leaving the hatch open and
for not cleaning up after filling drinking water
the hose, of which what is now left,
probably just one memory. As soon as
the hurricane died down, he immediately threw himself into the discus,
to fly to the bot.
Barton looked at the picture from the porch
the destruction caused by the hurricane and sadly
sighed. It's good that we made it
move into the house, he thought. Who knows
would withstand the onslaught of our “go away, go away”... He
looked absentmindedly at the distressed Mashenka
- she managed to walk around the destroyed garden,
which I planted with such diligence, and now
walked back, looking at the thin ponytail
carrots.
- Is this the whole harvest? - sad
Barton joked, took the carrot, mechanically
He wiped it and put it in his mouth. - Nothing,
sweet...
Then a serious man appeared on the porchSherman.
“It’s bad,” he said. - Disappeared
Akhmed... Lavrov is returning.
An hour later, when those who interrupted their flights
the scouts returned back, the rescue
the expedition was ready to take off. Discs
immediately took to the air. Details
Sergei reported the incident to Barton already
on the road, on other discos
listened to it on the radio.
The slightly hilly plain below
looked as if there was no one above her
A monstrous hurricane was sweeping through. The sky is like
always violet-blue, began to breathe
in the heat, a silver zigzag flashed below
The river was clean and green. Floated from the side
a group of rocks, among which he was hiding in a grove
Don Quixote's house. Sergei thought it was necessary
it would be nice to look at the old man: suddenly he too
need help? Then it occurred to him that
the old man very cleverly chose a place to live -
not by chance only there, undercover
rocks, tall trees grew - on the plain
in such winds, of course, they cannot survive
could.
“Oh, we unfortunate researchers,” he said.
out loud. - We are hats, not pioneers. This
such an obvious thing...
- What are you talking about, Seryozha? - asked the woman sitting
Eva is nearby.
- Yes, we have forgotten how to think.
We were glad that we had found a cozy planet -
no dense forests, no deserts, climate
excellent, fly, rejoice! Why not
forests? They are everywhere, but not here? Why
Are there only creeping and dwarf trees everywhere?
HereNo one had thought of this question before.
Convenient planet - oh well. And what
big trees can't survive here, mind you
we didn't get it. So we lost a person...
Kuleshov’s voice came from the speaker - he
was driving a nearby discus, and his bald head
was displayed above the side of the apparatus.
- The hurricane is quite unusual. Weather pickets
reported about him only when he
has almost started. Atmospheric pressure
It was normal until the last seconds. But
the bugs had quieted down an hour before the hurricane. I
I kept thinking: why did they stop yelling?
“So we felt it,” said Eva.
- We must feel too. Only
how?
The place where Ahmed disappeared has been found
quite quickly - clearly visible helped
cable on top. It was clear what to look for
on the slope and further on the plain - precisely in
a hurricane was blowing that way. Rocks, boulders,
piles of stones scattered along the slope could
provide shelter from the wind. Therefore people
turned around in a chain and moved down the
slope carefully checking each bush, and
Kuleshov raised the discus meters by
fifty and surveyed the area from above.
Two hours later the slope was combed along
and across - to the very edge of the swamp.
- Maybe we're looking in the wrong place? -
Sherman doubted when everyone sat down near
stream - take a break and discuss further
searches. - What if he hid in the rocks?
upstairs?
- He definitely should havereset
on the slope, - Sergei objected, okay
remembering the monstrous blow of the hurricane,
throwing a discus onto the rocks. - And there, behind
crest of the slope, there could be a dead zone.
I'm sure the wind was quieter below.
- Then where did he go?
- He could have been thrown into the swamp... -
Barton said after a pause. - We need to watch
there.
It was not very easy to move through the swamp
easy. Therefore, Barton ordered
searches from diskettes. Three more hours of apparatus
zigzag glided over the swamp, clinging
behind the bushes with their polished
bottoms. And then Kuleshov noticed the tracks.
A shallow, waist-deep, transparent river,
almost a stream, flowing leisurely here between
several groups of weathered boulders.
Above and below, where the river was hidden in
motley bush, its banks were furnaces,
and here, in a smooth bend, it was golden
tiny, five steps long, sandy
beach. And on this sand you can see quite clearly
traces of bare human feet.
People looked at each other anxiously. All
remembered yesterday's story very well
Barton about the mysterious disappearance
Bestuzhev.
Barton knelt down and carefully
touched the trail.
- Fresh...
“Of course, fresh,” she answered.
pale Eva. - Old hurricane tracks
erased
The tracks crossed a narrow strip of sand and
went into the water. Kuleshov followed with his gaze
direction and suddenly stepped into the stream.
- WhatYou? - someone asked. Kuleshov
silently rummaged along the bottom with his hands. Finally he
stood up straight, holding a beam gun in his hand.
Sergei looked at the number of the beam thrower, and
hope that the traces were not left by Ahmed,
disappeared because it was the same number.
- What is this? - he asked quietly,
imagining with horror how his comrade
slowly undresses, collects clothes,
weapon and goes to perish forever, goes
like a rabbit into the mouth of a boa constrictor, like
forced by someone's evil will -
monstrous, irresistible...
- But he shot at someone... - suddenly
Kuleshov said, pointing to the strip
scorched grass on the other side. - Shot and
I still went there...
Sergei crossed the river and
traced the direction of the shot. Somewhere
the charred branches of the bush were still smoldering. But
he couldn't find anything suspicious
succeeded.
- He fired, entered the water and threw
beam shooter... Why? And where did he go afterwards?
Why did he undress? Did you want to swim? But
It’s very small here... I don’t understand anything, -
Barton said.
- Someone grabbed him in the water. Or something
grabbed it.
- But why did he undress? And where is it
other things - boots, for example? Not
they could have floated away...
“But this is...” she suddenly screamed.
Mashenka, and in her voice there was a
genuine fear that everything will happen at once
turned around. Mashenka was sitting on the sand near
traces, and herthe eyes were frozen
huge and dark. - How come you don’t see?
After all, these are not his traces at all. After all, here
six toes on each foot!
Chapter 5.
Evening conversations. Guess and hypotheses
They searched for Ahmed until sunset. Everything was
in vain. When the deepening twilight
made the search useless, Barton gave
order to return.
The disc planes were already approaching the camp when
Sherman noticed the blinking signal
direction finder lamps. Discolets on
They rushed along the bearing at maximum speed.
The point where the signals came from, they
found quickly. Long black shadows
allowed to see nothing on
surface of the planet, and pilots are careful
They lowered their devices a little to the side.
After a few minutes of searching, Sergei
I heard a faint rustling sound. Rejoicing, he
rushed there screaming. There's something in the flashlight beam
moved. But, alas, it was not Ahmed.
It was their friend from yesterday
Don Quixote's runaway dog. Hurricane
treated the poor animal unkindly.
The dog was dirty, scratched, fur
it was stuck together from dried mud and caked
blood, and the hind legs were obviously
interrupted. When Sergei sat down next to her,
she tried to wag her tail and weakly
whined.
“Be patient a little, my dear,” he said.
Sergey. - Now we'll take you home,
we'll feed you, give you something to drink,let's bandage it...
He turned off the direction finder on his collar,
carefully picked the dog up and carried him to
discus. The dog licked him confidentially
cheek.
Sergey fed the dog over the side of the discus
and climbed there myself.
Tired people silently sat down
places. Until the very base, no one said anything
words.
Contrary to usual, we dined separately -
Shavrov immediately flew to the expeditionary
bot to finish interrupted by alarm
examination, Eva began to assist the dog,
Kuleshov volunteered to assist her, Sherman
started restoring broken antennas.
Others also had things to do, put it aside
which was impossible until the morning. Everyone knew
that tomorrow the search will begin from the very
dawn.
Gloomy Basil Far, biologist and chef
expedition, silently placed the plates in front of
Barton, Sergei and Mashenka. All
got busy eating. However, after a minute the girl
pushed the plate away from me and in silence
a suppressed sob was heard.
“Well, Mashenka,” said Barton,
hugging the girl by the shoulders. - Tomorrow we will
we'll find it.
Mashenka pressed her palms to her face, her shoulders
shook.
“They looked for me once for three days,”
Barton continued. - Then he chased me
Diplodocus is slightly smaller than ours
bot. He drove me into the rocks, and I already
thought I was finished because his armor
I didn’t take the beam gun. To the very last
the second when he's alreadyI opened my mouth
shot him in the throat and hit him right in the
brain. He fell on me and almost
crushed. Fortunately, it was under me
hole in the rock. I settled into it
quite convenient, but I couldn’t get out. Our
flew over me five times, but damn
The lizard shielded my bearings. On the third
I had to have oxygen for a day
end, and I began to mentally compose
will...
Barton paused, hoping that
Mashenka will ask at least some question,
but she was silent. Sergei decided to play along
Barton. Who invented this story more than once
Kuleshov told it more than once, and Sergei
I knew I had to ask.
- But you won’t burn a tunnel in a lizard
have you tried it? - he asked.
- I thought about it. But from me to him
it was about twenty centimeters, so I
I would rather burn a hole in my space suit.
That's what didn't threaten me at all - this
death from hunger. This lizard alone for me
it would be enough for six months...
- How did you get out? - asked Sergei.
- Did they find you?
- Fortunately, the animals there have very
good appetite. They attacked me so much
prey that got to me before
ran out of oxygen. All I could do was
disperse your benefactors with a beam gun yes
radio for help...
Shavrov entered the dining room in a wet
overalls
“The expedition boat is fine,” said
he sits down at the table. -True, into the gateway
it was full of all sorts of rubbish. I had to arrange
cleaning...
Barton looked at his watch.
- Just in case, prepare the bot for
start. I'll be talking to you in an hour
"Ariel." How many people can they give us?
highlight?
- I'm afraid that all seven of them will show up,
putting the ship on automatic, barely
mention that they are needed here
help.
“Just let them try,” muttered
Barton. - I'll let at most three people in here.
- I would like to see how it is for you
succeed,” Shavrov looked ironically at
head of the expedition. - They will tie you up and
me, the bot will capture me and land on Alpha
illegal...
Sergei introduced how the Ariel crew
attacks Barton like hefty
cosmonauts trained at ten g,
tie the hands of the head of the expedition and
feet, gagged and tied
to the chair, and then, pulling it over his eyes
hats, covering their faces with scarves, among
nights land on Alpha, looking around and not
removing your fingers from the beam thrower buttons, and
first of all they lift the bot on the antennas
pirate flag with skull and crosses
bones...
This ridiculous picture puts me in a mood
it got even worse. He got up and went to
coffee machine, which just
signaled with his emerald eyes,
indicating that the coffee is ready. Barton rose
too, collected the plates and threw them into the hatchrecycler.
At this time Eva and Kuleshov entered.
- How is our patient? - asked Barton.
- She's fine. She has one paw
It was broken, I had to put a splint on it. Via
for a week she will run around like nothing
it happened.
- I swear by my hair, - seriously
Kuleshov said, “Eva performed the operation.”
flawless. The dog thanked her so much...
- Probably five or six years. Teeth
it has not yet been erased. What's the matter?
Shavrov thought for a minute.
- You see, I once heard a story about
one dog and its strange owner. He
wherever he flew, he took it with him
swords - they hung on his wall
cabins. And he himself was without his right hand and
very similar to ours yesterday
guest... But they told me this very
a long time ago - that dog probably already died from
old age. Dogs are older than fifteen
don't live for years.
Barton, who was already at the door,
returned and sat astride the chair opposite
Shavrova.
- Do you still think it was him?
- It’s just that nothing else comes to me
to the head. Of course, the most possible
incredible coincidences. Let's say
twin brothers, both cosmic
anchorites, lovers of dogs and cold
weapons settled on different planets...
Sherman appeared in the dining room and
just using repair machines
Finished installing new antennas. He sat down to
table, tooka steaming cup that
Sergei put it in front of him and swallowed it
coffee, burning yourself in more than one sip.
- thank you very much, - sincerely
said Sergei, looking into the empty
cup. - Would you be so kind as to order more? Or
please your eyes with dancing?
“Fuck you,” Sherman muttered. - I
chilled on the mast like a dog.
It was already completely dark outside the windows. Climate
Alpha meteorologists are either joking or not
seriously called “disgustingly continental.”
There were no seas on Alpha, she imagined
itself one continent, on which vast
dry areas alternated with
swampy, which had, as expected,
hydrologists, communication with the underground ocean.
The reason for such temperature changes
it was not possible to establish yet, but the fact was
is evident - even in the warmest time of the year,
when during the day everyone was languishing from the heat, at night
the temperature could drop almost to
zero.
Disturbing events of the past day
made Barton think seriously.
Twenty billion people lived on earth, and
each terrestrial planet was valued at
weight in gold, and Alpha was one of the few
planets where everything was favorable to man
- gravity, atmospheric composition, spectrum
stars, microflora and microfauna,
length of day, annual and daily allowance
temperature fluctuations. Moreover, due to
absence of oceans, Alpha's area is six
times exceededthe one that man has mastered
on his home planet. On Alpha it was
everything to settle a hundred billion people,
- magnificent soils that promised unprecedented
harvests, huge reserves of useful
fossils finally water - discovered
expedition instruments, subsurface ocean,
lying at a depth of only two kilometers.
This ocean had yet to be reached,
when "Tsiolkovsky", which had already started from
Earth, will deliver the drilling rig to Alpha
equipment. Only one obstacle
could have arisen before the colonialists
planet - the presence of intelligent life on it...
Until now, the planet was considered deserted,
but Barton understood what it could be
mistake. Every now and then he turned his thoughts to
those vague prints that I noticed on
river sand Kuleshov.
The trail was left by a two-legged creature -
there was no doubt about it.
In all honesty, Barton did not take
have the courage to assert that you are on your toes
the unknown had exactly six fingers.
The footprint was measured with all precision and
photographed from all sides. Size
feet coincided with Akhmedova, but this is still
didn't mean anything. As for
photographs, they turned out flat and
unclear because the blinding sun
killed all the shadows, and Barton realized that
serve as an argument indicating
the existence of different life on Alpha, they
unlikelythey can. That Ahmed didn't walk around
barefoot after the hurricane, Barton knew
absolutely sure, unless, of course, he
took off my shoes for, say,
drying, and someone - just who and why? -
I stole these shoes. Barton probably doesn't
I would wonder where the trail came from,
if not for the mysterious death
Bestuzhev occurred at the same
circumstances. On the other hand,
expeditions that visited Alpha never
did not encounter signs of intelligence
life. Barton was convinced that the mind, in
no matter what primitive form it may be
manifested itself, will definitely leave marks on
millennium. Remains of fires, processed
stones, shards of dishes on Earth waited
its researchers through many
centuries, and discover fires or buildings
living tribes were not difficult.
Barton knew that satellite cameras
which each expedition launched around
Alphas were able to detect not only
a fire, and even a light from a cigarette.
Of course, Barton understood that it was naive
spread your proud anthropocentrism
throughout the entire infinite universe, but nevertheless
less laws of reason are the same for everyone
galaxy, and a prerequisite
the emergence of the mind is a reworking
nature, that is, labor, otherwise this is not according to
to the forces of a separate individual. Therefore Barton
didn't believe in the possibilityexistence
intelligent ocean or intelligent shellfish.
He also knew that it was possible to remake the world
not only with the help of mechanisms that can
there may be other ways.
Busy with his thoughts, Barton
noticed how all the members had gathered in the room
expeditions. It seemed late and
even more tired after the day's worries
brought people together. Overhead light someone
turned off, and the room was illuminated only
flickering tongues of fire that Basil
He lit a fire in the fireplace. Eva Stadnyuk was sitting
on the floor near the fireplace and moved thoughtfully
branches engulfed in flames with tongs, which is why
Sheaves of sparks burst out from the fireplace, and the smell
wood smoke suddenly made me remember
about an incredibly distant homeland, about the night
rustle of leaves, about lunar silver on
slow water, about prickly fragrant
pillow of fallen pine needles, about the tinkling
insects in the dew-wet grass...
Noticing Barton's gaze, Sergei moved
I had a cup of coffee with him and sat closer.
- And if our guest, yesterday’s Don Cohote,
still the same one? - he asked.
- One-armed? I don't know anything about him
I know.
“If it’s him,” said Kuleshov, “
This means we are on the verge of a great discovery.
Unless, of course, he has a bioprosthesis
some newer design.
“We need to talk to him,” he said.
Barton. - But where can I find him?
- I know where he lives. - Sergey
I remembered the houseamong the rocks and figured
distance to it. - I'll take it to him tomorrow
I'll invite the dog to visit.
“Very good,” Barton was delighted. -
Fly to him tomorrow evening and bring him
him here.
- And ask to take your sword with you, -
the one who had been silent all along suddenly raised her voice
Mashenka.
- Why do you need a sword? - asked Sergei.
- I want to take a closer look at it. I
After all, I’m writing a dissertation on edged weapons.
In my opinion, this is an ancient sword made
famous Toledan masters of the early 15th century
century.
- Our guest has a good cane! -
Basil Far sighed. - I love it myself
antique things, but walking around like that with
museum exhibit...
- I don’t know which museum has something like this
thing,” said Mashenka. - In the Louvre, in
In any case, I haven't seen any of these.
“I have a proposal,” said Kuleshov.
- Since no one goes to bed anyway, I
I’ll tell you the story of the space Ahasfer.
Do you want it? Then sit closer. So...
Chapter 6.
Biography of the cosmic Agasphere,
revealing many secrets of a fascinating
history
I obviously don't need
remind you who Agasfer is. What? Not all
do they know? Strange... When I was a boy,
the whole class avidly read Engen's novel
Syu "Ahasfer", written back in
nineteenth century. So, Agasfer, he
The Eternal Jew is the person who,
ifbelieve the legends, drove Jesus away
Christ, when he marched to Golgotha to
place of his execution and dragged the cross on himself, and
stopped to rest near the house
Agasphere. Angry Jesus cursed
Agasphere and doomed him to wander forever
earth. This is, so to speak, religious
version. Since there is no God, curse
There was no one to take Agasphere. However, Agasfer
exists, and that’s what I’m talking about now
I'll tell you.
First official information about this
people belong to the era of the collapse
Roman Empire. It was then that he
got involved in some kind of misunderstanding
ugly story, was captured and
imprisoned by order of the Roman governor
life in prison. This happened in
early second century AD. Approximately
one hundred and fifty years later, when in Rome
Emperor Valens reigned, he was informed about
an amazing prisoner who in no way
wants to die and, apparently, is mannered and
continue to devour the imperial treasury,
thus bringing it to complete impoverishment.
The emperor decided to check the veracity of this
history and ordered the prisoner to be transferred to one
from Roman prisons, but was soon killed in battle,
without having time to leave any orders
regarding the prisoner. Our hero could
stay in prison to this day if
if not for the invasion of the Goths. In 410 Alaric
besieged Rome and demanded that everything be given to him
gold and silverRome, every single one
values, free all slaves. "Well
do you intend to leave it to us?" - terrified
asked the ambassadors. "Your life!" - with a laugh
answered the unscrupulous invader. What happened
do the Romans? Frightened Emperor
Honorius sat in Ravenna, quieter than water, below
grass and did not even think about helping Rome. Reluctantly
the heart of the senate repented. Alaric received
5000 pounds of gold, six times that amount
silver, thousands of pieces of scarlet cloth,
silk clothes, many bags with
precious pepper. At his request there were
Forty thousand slaves were freed, but among
they were not the hero of our story -
after all, Alaric demanded the release only
"of barbarian origin", and our prisoner
was not a barbarian. He was released after two
the year when the same Alaric took Rome by storm
and gave it to his troops for the stream and
plunder.
Two hundred years spent in prison
served as a harsh lesson for Agasfer. Him
it became clear that being in passive
waiting is not possible. Agasfer's homeland was
incredibly far away, no help from there
had to, therefore, remained
rely only on yourself.
Agasfer was from a distant galaxy in
constellation Canes Venatici, which in the ancient
Messier's catalog was listed as number 51.
His ship leaving zero
space found itself dangerously close
from the Earth, tore the Moon from orbit and threw
herto a closer modern orbit,
caused monstrous cataclysms, changing
ocean level and destroying Atlanrida, and
caused many other troubles. Pilot
jumped out of the damaged ship into
lifeboat, and the lost
control of a giant starship exploded,
colliding with the planet Phaeton. Planet
tore into small pieces that we
Now we call them asteroids.
Finding ourselves on an unfamiliar planet,
Agasfer did not lose heart. He knew that he wouldn't
It will be thousands of years before he is found.
However, for some reason, help
was delayed. Ten thousand years have passed, but
ships from M-51 still did not appear in
surroundings of the Earth. And here's another annoying one
prison story...
Waiting for help from home
the inquisitive cosmonaut indulged in his
favorite pastime - travel. He walked around
Europe, Asia and Africa, left in caves
Tassili his not very successful "Self-Portrait"
in a spacesuit" discovered by Henri Lot
after several thousand years, crossed the
Bering Strait ice, several centuries
spent in America, where, by the way, he left
Aztec calendar of their home planet -
the same one that was later accepted as
Venusian.
Agasphere's extraordinary longevity
could go unnoticed. B
numerous written documents
different eras there is mention ofa wonderful long-liver. Demosthenes described it
under the name Litorius, Al Biruni - as
Elias, Roger Bacon called him Papalitsa,
in India he was known as Munisadh. In
during his visits to Russia he took
the name is either Count Cagliostro or Saint-Germain. In
in many countries he was called Agasfer, and
it brought him a lot of inconvenience,
because the legend is the reason for it
immortality has already walked around the world. To be in
the skin of a man cursed by Christ himself,
It turned out to be quite uneasy. Didn't help either
awareness that they are interested in you
mighty kings and great writers -
our hero was not ambitious.
Observing the life of the planet, Agasfer
I was surprised at how quickly it progressed
humanity. In M-51, whose inhabitants
live immeasurably longer than us, change
social formations occurred through
millions of years, on Earth for this
it took thousands, or even hundreds of years.
Ahasfer realized that soon humanity
will reach the level of development when
which contact with earthlings could be considered
expedient. And he decided to send
news to home. But the transmitter
had to be taken out of the atmosphere.
Raise your rescue vehicle into orbit
Agasfer did not dare to take the boat. It remained
manufacture and launch to near-Earth
orbit satellite with transmitter. Immediately
a number of difficulties arose- with
materials, tools, devices.
Only in the middle of the 19th century did the day come
when the satellite rose into the sky and sent
call for help to the M-51 galaxy.
Agasphere's communications satellite was complex
self-programming device,
capable of functioning in a variety of
conditions. He could go far beyond
atmosphere and return back to Earth
for inspection, repair and program change.
The satellite's sensitive sensors always determined
where is Agasfer, and they brought the satellite
straight to him. During such flights
the satellite was spotted more than once and received
the name of the "flying saucer" to which he
really looked like it.
One should think that a cry for help is all
but I got where I needed to, because at the beginning of the 20th
century, the satellite's instruments recorded a transmission from
approaching ship. However, Agasfer
I couldn’t wait for my people to arrive
fellow tribesmen. In June 1908, their ship
lost when exiting null space
orientation in the powerful ionosphere of the planet,
crashed into the Earth's atmosphere and exploded above
Siberian taiga.
This disaster was a heavy blow to
Agasphere. The death of the ship lay with him
conscience.
The laws of the distant homeland of Agasfer are not
were distinguished by their severity, and several thousand
years of exile that threatened him at home, he
would have perceived it as a very moderate punishment. But
Agasfer was a creature with a highly developed
feelingresponsibility and feeling
his own guilt was stronger for him
any punishment. He brought it to himself
sentence, condemning himself to life
loneliness.
The place of his voluntary exile he
chose Alpha, which I opened before
how he crashed in the solar system.
The lifeboat Agasfera could not
go into null space, but what
a hundred meant for Ahasferus
years of flight! For the first and last time he
lifted the lifeboat into space and on the remains
fuel directed it towards Alpha,
hoping to live out life here alone.
According to his calculations, people should
appear on Alpha only after hundreds of thousands
years But he again made a mistake in the timing, and we
disturbed his peace much more quickly.
I want to remind you that Agasfer,
despite some minor shortcomings -
love of adventure, posturing,
originality, quite understandable
such a cosmopolitan, has always been a person
words. Having condemned himself, he did not look for mitigating
circumstances, did not allow myself any
relaxation. When appeared on Alpha
people, he had only one thing left -
leave the planet. But his boat is
landing on Alpha spent the last
grams of antimatter and was no longer suitable
for interstellar flights. All he had to do was
one thing - get a beam gun, penetrate with it
with help in our flight bot andgo
on it wherever your eyes look, through the stars
open spaces. And if you're paying attention now
look in the direction where ours stands
bot, then you will see flashes of a beam thrower, which
our recent guest is trying to navigate
the way to the bot's airlock... Please! -
And the narrator with a spectacular gesture pointed to
a window behind which reigned impenetrable
darkness.
Some of the people who listened to him
involuntarily looked out the window, and Mashenka even
pressed her face against the glass, trying
consider something. Satisfied Kuleshov
laughed.
- Come on! - her eyes sparkled
Mashenka. - I almost didn’t believe it.
“My job is to warn you,” Kuleshov nodded.
to the bot commander Shavrov, who
thoughtfully turning an empty cup on a saucer
from under the coffee. - When you get up in the morning, our bot
bye bye...
Barton looked at his watch.
- Tomorrow I get up at five. With the dawn
We're flying out. I advise everyone to relax
follows.
Chapter 7.
Visit to Don Quixote. Death of Caesar
The second day of searching yielded nothing
new. No trace of Ahmed to be found
failed.
Looking at the swamp from above, on the border
which they were caught by a hurricane, Sergei all
I was more convinced that it was here
curious researchers await
openings. Too weird for this
smooth, clean, as if well-groomed
good gardener, planetwas huge
a basin dotted with patches of bushes,
cut by zigzags of slow rivers.
It was here, to this frog paradise, that they rolled
green balls, of which there are much more
yesterday. Only on approach to the place
searches, Sergei noticed about a dozen of them,
and they caught a few more during
combing the area. Biologists have eyes
they lit up at the sight of something new to them
a life form they couldn't even imagine
say what they are - animals,
plants or some kind of symbiosis. But it is necessary
it was possible to look for Ahmed, but with the balls it was possible
and wait - since they have already appeared, then
there's no escape. However, in the evening the balls
like they fell through the ground - on the reverse
there was not a single path. In vain
Basil Far searched around with binoculars
- every single one of the mysterious balls is somewhere
hid.
People were depressed by the failure of the search.
It was unclear where Ahmed had gone. Hurricane
could not carry the unconscious body through
swamps and bushes, and yet find
Ahmed failed. Unwittingly to people
all sorts of incredible things came to mind -
giant birds of prey carrying off prey
for many kilometers; mysterious swamp
a snake that can swallow a man
entirely; bloodthirsty piranhas or
extraordinary ants that eat even
the bones of his victim; karst caves where
Ahmed failed - although nothingsimilar
could not be in the local swampy
soil... People were at a loss. Nothing
did not explain the beam gun found in the water, from
which Ahmed - or not Ahmed? - shot
somewhere, and a mysterious six-fingered trail,
which, perhaps, was not six-fingered.
In short, the strange disappearance of Ahmed (or
death, everyone thought to themselves) was not found
no explanation and it was worse
everything, because behind one disappearance
a second, a third could follow... And
Previously, the instructions prescribed any
work, any walk, no less
than two. Now Barton
strictly forbade him to leave
anywhere without his permission. When
Mashenka decided to take care of the destroyed
garden, a few steps behind it
Sherman followed with a beam gun on his chest.
The base turned into an armed camp.
The menacing bells of the beam throwers stuck out almost
not from every window. Barton understood
how stupid it is to walk around in a quiet place
Alpha like this, with his fingers on the triggers
buttons, because against the Unknown
it was not weapons that were required, but knowledge, but
They didn’t even have the knowledge. All he could
to do is to order them to walk in pairs,
trail after trail, as climbers walk on
avalanche slopes.
Barton's active mind sought
compared, groped for solutions
secrets. Barton didn't know if Ahmed was aliveor not,
and tried to do everything not to
allow a new loss in your
small squad. If it disappears again
one person, the expedition will have to be urgent
evacuate by signing your own
powerlessness. And yet the thought every now and then
returned to the events of ten years
prescription It seemed like they were being groped
something in common with current events
link Balls. Strange inhabitants of Alpha,
whose appearance coincided with the death
Bestuzhev. Now they have appeared again...
Is their appearance related to their disappearance?
Ahmed? Or the reason is ferocious black
hurricane? With a sinking heart Barton
looked from a low-flying discus at
leisurely rolling balls, cursing
fate for impossibility immediately
undertake a comprehensive study of them. But
all the people were sent to search for Ahmed, and
no one should even do anything else
came to mind.
Shortly before sunset, Sergei entered the
insulator, where he lay on a warm mat
bandaged dog. Seeing Sergei, he
rattled his tail and smiled, however
got up with difficulty. Eve said that
the dog can be returned to the owner.
- That's good. Let's fly to him and
“We’ll invite him here,” Sergei was delighted.
Fifteen minutes later they were already flying up
to the rocks in which the dwelling was hidden
Don Quixote. Sergey pawned several
coolturns over the house, trying to attract
owner's attention. However, everything was
motionless below - there was no light in the windows,
The direction finder antenna on the roof is not
moved. After thinking a little, Sergey
I landed the discus near the rocks and went to the house
along the path, carrying the dog in his arms. Walked behind
Eva, also with a beam gun on her chest and
medical bag - she wanted to leave
the old man some medicine for the dog.
Sergey drew attention to the fact that
The path is thoroughly trampled. It's been a while
he lives here, this Don Quixote, I thought
he. He really doesn't have one arm.
or is this idle fiction?
The path led to a fence,
blocking the approaches to the house.
Sergei stopped.
- Hey-hey, master! - he shouted. -
Welcome guests!
Nobody answered him. Sergei shouted
again, then looked at Eve.
- He’s not there, or something... Or is he hiding? What
shall we do?
- Hey, comrade! We found your dog! -
Eve screamed, but also did not receive an answer.
- We need to bring the dog into the house.
- Why do you think he did it?
hedge? - Sergei suddenly asked.
Eve looked around, puzzled.
The fence was strange. Made from
thick, hand-thick stakes,
intertwined with a cable, it was in height
one and a half meters. At the very top of the fence there were
thorny bush branches tied - needles
palm length bristled all overthe perimeter of the fence.
“Like barbed wire,” she whispered
Eva, with increasing surprise
looking at the extraordinary structure. -
Who is this against?
- This is not against someone, but for someone,
- Sergei said thoughtfully.
Eva raised her head in surprise.
- What do you want to say?
- Look carefully - all the thorns
they look not outward, but inward. This is some
corral for cattle. By the way, I think here
a note for us.
He approached the gate, the door of which
was supported from the outside by a heavy block, and
He took the leaf pinned onto it from the thorn.
- “Please do not open the gate and go inside
“Don’t come in,” Eva read aloud through
Sergei's shoulder.
“It’s been said very clearly,” he said.
Sergey. - The owner doesn’t like guests...
- What should we do? - asked Eva. -
Don't leave the dog here.
- And yet, who is this pen for? Not
“He’s going to breed cows,” he said
Sergei, looking around.
Barnard's purple star was already slipping
beyond the horizon there, behind the rocks, and purple
twilight was rapidly deepening. It was time
return.
Sergei looked behind the fence for a place where
the grass was taller and thicker, I gave the dog away
Eve and stuck the toe of his shoe between the stakes
half a meter from the ground.
- We will not violate sovereignty
"neutral power," he said cheerfully. -
Do you think the dog won't hurt himself?
He took the dog from Eva's hands and hung down
throughfence, trying to hold on
away from scary thorns, and
carefully lowered the dog lower. Obviously he
caused pain to the animal - he suddenly
struggled and screamed, but Sergei had already released
it from his hands over a soft mound of grass.
All further events occurred most
more in a second. Like black wings
shot up from the grass, aiming for the face
Sergei, he recoiled and lost
balance, wild, in mortal unspeakable
the dog squealed in anguish and choked,
short crackling terrible wings
closed into something round, Sergei's hand
a sharp pain pierced him - he still injected himself
a hefty thorn. The toe of the boot is tight
got stuck in the fence, and Sergei fell on
back, throwing up his weapon in the fall. But even before
after Sergei's back touched the grass, he
understood what was in front of him and knew that he would not
will shoot. Seconds later, when he
jumped to his feet, not moving at all
case of a beam thrower from a swaying creature
behind the fence, he heard Eve scream -
short, cut off so quickly that he
then him, and saw that she was ready
shoot. But Sergei was already lowering the beam gun,
and after him Eve lowered her beam gun. For
a living ball slowly rolled along the fence,
seemed black in the rapidly
the descending darkness of sunset.
“What horror...” she barely audibly squeezed out.
the girl herself, pressing her palms to her cheeks. Her
eyesThey looked pleadingly at Sergei. -
Maybe it is still possible to save her?
Sergei took the knife and immediately took it away
hand. It was clear that the dog was dead. Knife
it won't help here, just like a beam gun - however,
Sergei would not have let them into the matter. This is bula
alien planet, with its own life, its own
laws, with his death. It's ridiculous to take revenge
to an animal for what it has to eat. Here
Sergei shuddered with horror - he
remembered the missing Akhmed and
Bestuzhev. His thoughts were racing quickly
and chaotic. He now understood why the old man
shot at his feet - before him
the dog came to the rescue, she, of course, recognized
balls by smell... But Bestuzhev didn’t shoot
under your feet, and so... And the dog is wonderful
I knew that balls are not to be trifled with - not without reason
she jumped back when she heard the crash
sandwich wrappers. Yes, it's bad now
old man without a dog...
- Let's go! - he ordered briefly and walked
through the still brightening violet haze
path. The path was highlighted in yellow
sand, and the discus stood right on it, so
that I didn’t have to take a single step to the side,
and yet only in the pilot’s seat Sergei
took a breath. He wanted immediately
jerk upward, and he hardly forced himself
calm down. He turned on the radio - Sherman
responded instantly - and said to
was immediately and categorically prohibited
everyone to leave the house - no matter what
which ones are the bestgood reasons. "What
business?" - Sherman was alarmed. "I'll fly -
“I’ll explain,” Sergei muttered and passed out.
He took out a cigarette and lit it. Eva was sitting
nearby, straight and motionless, and along this
immobility, Sergei immediately realized that she
scary. He drove the apparatus steeply upward and
suddenly I saw that on the dashboard
the direction finder light pulsed, reporting
that an unknown person has started working somewhere
radio station
Chapter 8.
Duck baked in clay. Escape by
swamp
Around the time when Sergei and Eva
carried the dog to the discus, Akhmed came to
myself after a long period of oblivion. First time
he lay motionless, as if waking up from
bad dream and trying to understand where he is and
what's wrong with him? Like scraps of nightmares
he remembered Sergei’s desperate cry,
black hurricane wall, crunching bones and pain
in his hand, when the discus reared up from the blow,
and then the horror of a long endless fall
from the cliff. He didn’t remember what happened next,
but from somewhere, scraps of memories surfaced
piercing pain when someone's body
pulled, twisted, pressed, as if letting
through a monstrous meat grinder, some
dazzling lights, falling rains, it was
very sad and very painful, and I heard
the squeak of the unlubricated wheels of the cart on which
he, dying, was carried along a broken mountain
road, and then on a narrow trembling bridge
the wheel came offfrom the edge... "Hold on,
hold it!" - he shouted, trying to jump off
ominously tilting cart, but everything is already
rushed in all directions, but couldn’t jump off
succeeded because it was screwed to
cart with heavy chains, and here is the cart
turned over, the earth and sky changed
in places, and the river bed along which
frenzied streams rolled wet with a roar
boulders, rushed headlong at him from above,
and he tried to grab hold of his free hand
edge of the bridge, and it almost succeeded, but the hand
couldn't withstand the jerk... and shouted something
Sergey, my mother said “take care of yourself” and
kept adjusting his dress uniform
an intern at the Space School, but it was not
mother, and Mashenka, but I can’t see her
succeeded because it was a monstrous meat grinder
started spinning again, and someone again took a long time and
persistently twisted Ahmed's body, but then
a cool rain fell and he woke up
finally.
Now my head worked completely clear,
and he knew that he had fallen off the discus and
crashed on the rocks. There was no pain at all
but he knew that it was temporary, that
at the slightest movement she will fall upon him.
He was surprised by a strange feeling of constraint,
constriction - he seemed to be immersed in
the depth of the mud bath all over, with the head, and
This made it difficult to breathe. Some
a while later he risked moving his left
hand - the right one, he knew it, was broken.
His surprise is everythingincreased because
the muscles obediently followed the orders of the brain.
Then he realized that he was safe, near the rocks
spared him, punishing him only with fainting and
nightmares, and wanted to get up, but
I still couldn't move, because
that he was connected.
Obviously, those who tied him up
they did not do it very skillfully, and through
for some time he managed to free
hands. He wasn't even tied up, but rather
swaddled like a mummy. His body was
wrapped in something resembling a large
layer of turf, and already twisted on top
with ropes, like a silk cocoon. About the mummy
and Kokon Ahmed, however, did not think - him
my stomach suddenly reminded me of its
existence, and therefore, breaking out of
cocoon, Ahmed remembered baked in
clay duck. The duck analogy shocked him.
Only at that moment did he think about those
which for some unknown purposes -
maybe even gastronomic,
swaddled him and who may have
are somewhere nearby and don’t want to
the prey escaped them.
This thought instantly turned him into
collected, strong-willed, courageous fighter.
His body, just a minute ago, was sluggish,
tense and trained muscles
became steel. With two jerks he
broke the remains of the ropes and slipped out
wet cocoon. There was no one on his body
no clothes, but he didn’t even noticethis is attention because I saw the picture,
which I have never seen before
earthling.
Very close, behind the bushes, lay
a small basin with a flat bottom and
sloping walls. In the very center, on
lay motionless in a yellow circle of sand
several balls - much more powerful,
than those that he and Sergei met
three days ago. And around them in some
people dressed in clothes moved in a slow dance
in unfamiliar, unearthly clothes.
The fact that these were people, Ahmed did not
doubted for a moment, as well as whether
that these were unearthly people. On the top
the edge of the earthen bowl in which it happened
unprecedented action, slightly smoked
some kind of flameless fires. This one is not that
smoke, or fog, thickened, crawled down,
into the hollow, and silently moving in it
the creatures seemed incorporeal and as if
transparent. It was clearly felt
concentric movement of this group
ghosts that suddenly froze,
then they began to slide somewhere, as if
will-o'-the-wisps blown away by the quiet wind.
All this happened in complete silence, and
only after some time Ahmed
felt like in time with the movements
dancers experience unsettling pressure
eardrums, but where does it work?
unknown infrasonic metronome, guess
I couldn't.
Ahmed understood that care should be taken
about my ownsecurity. Through the gray
he had already noticed some smoke in the distance
oblong objects, very
reminiscent of that cocoon from which only
that he got out, and this alarmed him. But
Ahmed was a researcher, he chose as his
world the universe in order to open it
people, and he had incredible luck -
the first in hundreds of centuries of existence
humanity to meet creatures from another world
- not hushed up, but brothers in mind, not
people, but similar to them. He didn't know, friends
these are either enemies, but I wanted them to become
friends - younger brothers, or something. But
what happened in front of him came to a head
he has less and less.
Down there, the order of the dancers was broken. C
bunches of luminous herbs in their hands descended
down several dark figures. Having formed
narrow circle, they threw away what they brought
light on something lying on the ground - what is it
was, Ahmed could not see. Then circle
opened, and like a sigh swept through
silence. From behind the bushes came a slow
procession, carrying tightly over their heads
swaddled cocoon.
Ahmed's fingers grabbed the ground with such
with such force that he almost tore off his nails. But he doesn't
noticed this. Without looking up, he looked
to where nimble hands pulled out
cocoon of a naked man and placed
in front of the phosphorescent crog, which
suddenly began to move and bend. Pain in
ears become frequent, in a flickeringfog
slender, elastic bodies suddenly moved
to the center. People's backs were blocked from Ahmed
a motionless figure, and to see
what was happening, he stood up to his full height, forgetting
about danger. And he saw how
under the pressure of the crowd the naked man trembled
and suddenly stepped into the luminous circle, and immediately
black people seemed to flutter around him
wings, enveloping him. There was a short
abrupt crackling sound. The crowd recoiled
opening a large ball to Ahmed’s eyes,
appeared in place of the luminous circle.
The metronome, which had paused for a moment, began again.
inaudible countdown, interrupted dance
resumed, and now we were sailing again
beams of cold light from above, forming more
one glowing circle...
If Ahmed had a beam, none of them
participants in this ritual would not leave here
alive, and the history of the planet could have gone differently
way. Defense weapons would become
punishing fire sword, first contact - in
exterminating battle, brothers in mind - in
mortal enemies. Ahmed was young
a passionate guy who was taught to love
good and hate evil, but no one
prepared for a meeting with another mind. Ahmed
was only twenty years old and was in
a completely unfamiliar world, to learn
the laws of which are prohibited with a beam gun in
hands. Now he didn't have a beam thrower, and
Ahmed could only watch. Then
he realized that it was time to leave ifhe wants
tell your friends about everything you saw. K
besides, he had been shaking from the cold for a long time -
Night was approaching and the temperature was dropping.
He ran for a long time along the bed of some small river,
hoping that the water is unlikely to
lie in wait for deadly balls. Almost running
did not warm him - the cold wind carried him away
remnants of heat from a naked wet body.
But then the water became warmer - somewhere
hot key, he found it and stood there for a long time
up to your neck in water, gradually warming up. He
I understood that I had to go, because
night was approaching, but I felt full
loss of strength - he did not suspect that he had lost
a lot of blood. He was very hungry.
The weakness increased and he began to fall asleep
and almost choked. Then he went out to
shallow, but he was immediately seized by a piercing
cold. He wanted to go back to
hot key, but didn’t find it and suddenly
I thought that I probably wouldn’t survive this
nights. This thought gave
gave him strength, and he ran again, holding on
shallow waters. He lost sight of
time and distance and did not know that long ago
moves in a circle, approaching again
to the place I was trying to get away from. C
with the onset of darkness his strength dried up. He
could no longer walk and fell on all fours, but
then continued to crawl, although from the chills
his arms were broken and he hit his face on
sand Then he felt warm and
calm andhe stretched out on the coastal
sand at full height. The sun rose and
Mashenka walked towards him through the cornflower meadow with
bouquet in hands, and everything became very good,
and under the blanket it was so warm, and nowhere else
I didn’t want to go, even halfway
Mashenka... A cold river flowed above him
Alpha's inky night, and he lay chest-deep
in the water, not realizing anything and not hearing how
someone is sneaking up cautiously from behind
bushes, holding him at gunpoint with a beam gun
Chapter 9
Ahmed was found
A very restless night
The alarm signal caught Mashenka at that
the moment when she, exhausted
the worries of futile searches,
was going to rest. The girl hesitated
getting dressed, and jumped out onto the porch when
people were already boarding the discos.
“Did you get the electric blanket?” - was heard over
right in her ear. Then Barton appeared and
shouted to the girl:
- Sit down, Ahmed has been found!
Powerful searchlights of disc planes were torn apart
black sheet of the night. Strong arms pulled in
girl in the apparatus, a transparent dome with
closed with a soft sigh, and immediately
the overload crushed people. On
The diskette reached its maximum speed
height.
The night was black as ink and the light
spotlights only intensified the feeling
pitchless darkness. Barton gave the order
turn them off. And then they noticed distant
flashes, at the sight of whichpeople's hearts
cowered in alarm because these flashes
were familiar to them - there in front, someone was beating
and fired a beam thrower.
From all aircraft the pilots called
radio Lavrov and Eva. The blinking of the paw on
the remote control showed that a powerful direction finder
their discus is working properly, but
no one answered the calls. There have already been outbreaks
close. Turning into an arc, discos
quickly rushed down, bristling
deadly emitters, rays
spotlights cut through the night and merged into
dazzling circle. And then to the eyes of people
An amazing picture presented itself. On
on a high hillock, near the river bank, stood
Sergei Lavrov shot into the river from
beam thrower. Atomic lightning ripped through the darkness,
exploded the water, turning it into steam, fog,
boiling water, exposing the bottom, then the water closed
with a whistle and hiss until the next blow
lightning, and a little further downstream, almost
invisible in waist-deep clouds of hot steam
two stood holding a nude in their hands
lifeless body.
Later, Eva said that
Don Quixote stumbled upon Ahmed
for him everything he could - he wrapped it in
his jacket and began to rub it. Save
Ahmed couldn't do it, but fortunately the old man
I guessed to turn on the direction finder on my
belt Of course, Ahmed sat in his shirt -
accidents that love to interfere
during the events, destroying perfectly
thoughtfulplans this time
favored him. Don Quixote, who
no one knows why he turned up so late
an hour in the swamp, I could have missed Akhmed,
and Sergei could return to base in half an hour
earlier and not notice weak signals
direction finder. But, be that as it may, Ahmed
found, and he was alive. However, after examining
Akhmed, Eva immediately realized that before his base
don't deliver. She immediately made Aheda
injection of antein, although I understood everything
the futility of it. "Only he can be saved
hot bath," she said. "What about the fire?"
- asked Don Quixote. "It's useless, but it's necessary
try." "Then there will be a hot bath"
- Sergei said, taking off his beam gun.
When help arrived and carefully
the wrapped-up Akhmed was placed in a diskette,
Sergei remembered the old man. But he disappeared
not even wanting to say goodbye. Since it's
The direction finder no longer worked, it became clear that
the old man wishes not to be disturbed.
In the discus, Mashenka crumpled on the floor
near the motionless Ahmed and held him
lifeless hand sticking out from under
blankets Eve conjured next to her,
manipulating the body with incomprehensible
devices. Mashenka knew what was in front of her
a medical robot is not suitable for diagnostics,
not for treatment - and immediately forgot about it
and just stroked the tanned hand, on
with a fresh scar turning purple.
The disc planes had not yet reached the base, but
Barton has alreadygive everything you need
orders. On the Ariel I prepared for
Expedition doctor Lagutin is leaving, and behind him
the voyage bot departed. Ahmed was transferred
to the isolation ward, from where Eva mercilessly kicked out
Mashenka and everyone else, leaving only
his permanent assistant Kuleshov.
Sergei at this time told Barton about
death of the unfortunate dog.
“So, after all, the balls...” said
Barton, after listening to Sergei. - That's how it is...
They understood each other without words. TEN
for years the planet was considered safe and
suitable for colonization. Now everything was going
ashes. The work of the expedition should
stop, at least until
until people are guaranteed full
security. Don't shoot with ray guns
at your feet, like Don Quixote...
Then one came to Barton's head
strange thought. Why doesn't Don Quixote
warned them?
“But the old man knew about the danger,”
he whispered. - Knew, but didn’t say. A
asked us for a beam gun... - Barton
remembered the receding flashes of gunfire,
with which Don Quixote cleared the same road to
darkness.
- He also has a corral at home for balls.
But why does he catch them? And how? What is he
did you do it in the swamp at night?
- Look, Sergei Igorevich, what a
a picture emerges. The old man knows
that the balls are deadly. Bye dog
served as a guide for him, he could walk
according to Alpha without anyfears. When she
ran away, the old man didn't even try
catch, although he probably found her.
He was afraid of balls. And he came to the
with a ray gun because it's poking into the grass
using a sword is a very tedious task. And so,
aware of the danger that threatens everyone
of us, he didn’t say a single word
about her. According to all human laws,
written and unwritten, he committed
crime. What, did he want our death?
But he couldn’t help but understand that they would die
one, two, well three, and the rest
be wary, they will take action...
- Maybe that's what he wanted - so that
Are we scared? Suddenly we give him something
getting in the way...
- This also cannot be ruled out. After all, for
for some reason he lives here - he lives, apparently,
for a long time now. Maybe he's studying green
balls - for this he ended up on the night
swamp, in the desire for our destruction, makes
everything to save Ahmed. And
calls us to the swamp where he climbed
in the middle of the night not at all for pleasure
go us. For the life of me, I don’t see it in everything
this logic. There's something we don't know...
- We need to ask the Earth about the old man. Time about
Shavrov heard it, which means he also knows
“someone,” said Sergei. - After all, on
He really is Ahasfer.
“Only one thing is clear,” Barton concluded.
- We need to work on the balls immediately. While we
we won’t know everything about them, nor about any others
research cannotout of the question. I
I will ask you, Sergei Igorevich, to take from
pretend to be someone and do a little
intelligence - right now. Try it
track where the balls are rolling from and where - in
swamp, from the swamp? Do they move?
at night? Are there many of them? Take the whole night
equipment - binoculars, movie cameras,
cameras. Sit down and even more so
get out of the discos categorically
I forbid it. All observations are only from above,
even if... - here Barton faltered, and
Sergei understood what he was thinking. - However
you won't meet. Communication - every thirty
minutes. Do not turn off the direction finder. And if
If you see an old man, try not to
interfere. But don't hide either.
After Sergei left, Barton composed the text
telegrams to be sent to Earth.
An unknown old man who had a slight
everyone began to call the inventor Kuleshov
Agasfer, interested him more and more and
more. The old man clearly avoided people, and
show up to him uninvited to ask
questions that he may not be able to answer
wishes to answer, it would be at least
impolite. And Barton wanted to know everything -
the old man's name, his story... His
Barton outlined the images in a telegram and
handed it over to Sherman for urgent dispatch to
Earth. At this time Eve came to him and
said that Ahmed is delirious and delirious
talks about some natives, balls and
humansacrifices and what she
I placed a tape recorder near Ahmed. Except
In addition, she talked about strange scars on
Ahmed's body - as if he had just
sutured wounds, and that the x-ray showed
presence of a healed ulnar fracture
bones. I understand that scars are nonsense,
she said they could just be
traces of burns from some local
nettles, and Ahmed could have broken his arm within
Earth and hide it from doctors, but nevertheless
less all this is very strange. Of course she is
will conduct a thorough examination, and he himself
Ahmed will tell you something if he can
tell me something, because now
his temperature is forty and she can’t vouch for it,
that it won't get any worse.
Eva went to see the patient, and Barton collected
biologists and consulted with them for a long time. They are still
Before they had time to disperse, they burst through the door
Sergey and Basil Far, very excited,
and asked everyone to watch the film made
them twenty minutes ago. Everyone went to
living room, Sergei inserted a cassette with
videotape into a telecombine.
A familiar basin appeared on the screen,
taken from a height of fifteen to twenty
meters. Through the optics of an infrared camera
the dismal swamp was
a fantastic sight. Not cooled down
evening water flowed like a stream alive
luminous streams among the black and gray
cold shores. Foggy, flickering
clouds lay at the bottom of the lake,in which
here and there bright moving spots burned
hot springs - like molten
silver erupted from the bottom and melted, went out,
spread across the phosphorescent lake
fog. The blackness of the land was speckled
some thin fiery arrows
reed-like plants, and in almost
invisible tangles of bushes invitingly
night flowers glowed, luring with their
the warmth of nocturnal insects.
The picture of the night swamp was
see almost everyone, she doesn't see anyone
surprised, and some people had already opened their mouths to
ask a perplexed question, but Sergey
just raised his hand, calling for attention, and
then something appeared on the screen that made
everyone instantly fell silent.
Infrared image on videotape
was, of course, far from perfect, and
although the outlines of objects were visible
very clearly, many details
were missing or only guessed at, and
The sense of depth was completely lost. All
the picture was very reminiscent of an old one
Chinese shadow theater in negative
image.
What people saw on the screen was,
obviously by hunting - a short episode
hunting, where the game was green balls, and
hunters... There were several balls, they
rolled in one direction, and around them
white graceful ones moved
human figures with spears in their hands.
Sergey gave full increase - silhouettesgrew to full screen, and everyone could
be convinced of the great similarity of the unknown
aborigines with the inhabitants of the Earth. Chain
drove away the hunters with short spear thrusts
one ball away from the rest.
Chapter 10.
House on the swamp.
Alcohol solution of the philosopher's stone
For several days, Akhmed's life hung on
a hair's breadth Eva Stadnyuk and Lagutin did everything
possible, but there was no improvement.
I could only hope that it was strong
Ahmed's body, which endured the most dangerous
hypothermia, will also cope with inflammation
lungs. Everyone helped the doctors - from those who wanted
there was no lights out. But the main and permanent
Mashenka was the doctors' assistant. She's almost
did not leave the room in which he was lying
Ahmed, I ate here and slept here.
in fits and starts.
All these days the biologists disappeared in the swamp.
They flew there at first light and returned
after midnight, barely dragging his feet from fatigue,
They ate in silence and went to bed to have some more
before dawn go to the swamp.
On the third noah, who showed up almost
dawn, Barton woke Sherman and
demanded to immediately connect him with
commander of the Ariel. "I need a direct
connection with the ship's brain," he said,
when not quite yet appeared on the screen
Yuzhin woke up. "How many hours in
day?" - he asked. "Twenty four"
- Barton answered coolly. After these
words are the remains of a dreaminstantly flew off
Yuzhin, who had already heard something about the events
on Alpha. "To do this I need to translate
ship into a stationary orbit," said
he. "Consider that you have already received mine
written order." - "Photography
planets will have to be reduced." -
"Stop it." - "When you need
brain?" - “Can you do it in three hours? We want
get some sleep." - "In three hours, contact
will be" - "Happy plasma..."
For those few hours that Barton
took it for himself to rest, Sergei transported it to
swamp inflatable house - not that big
"go away, go away", which was still lying in
ravine, but a small one, without any amenities, in
where you could only sleep. Remembering
black hurricane, Sergei puzzled for a long time,
how to protect biologists’ homes from it, and
finally found a solution. He attached
there are six guy ropes around the perimeter of the house,
attached them to self-propelled probes, fortunately
lay inactive, and drove and so
deep into the ground that you can pull them out
“Ariel” probably couldn’t either. Bye
Lavrov was fiddling with the installation of the house, machine guns
Sherman was erected next to a highly targeted
antenna aimed at that point in the sky,
where, judging by the time, it should have already
"Ariel" appears.
All this time Sergey no, no and
remembered the balls and looked warily
at your feet. Yesterday still cozy
a safe planet has becomein likeness
minefield where everyone
a careless step could be the last.
Green balls appeared from time to time
nearby - Sergei counted more than
ten, then got lost. They all rolled with
south, and the higher the sun rose, the
there were more of them. Once or twice Sergei
noticed how a calmly rolling ball suddenly
opened and immediately disappeared, merging with
grass.
Barton arrived minute by minute and brought
with biologists and programmers. They
many were taken out of containers
devices, in one of which Sergei with
I was surprised to recognize a universal machine gun
programming. With this ingenious device
everyone was supplied without fail
expedition, and there has not yet been a case where he
someone needed it.
After looking at the house and masts, Barton remained
satisfied.
“I’m tired of running back and forth,” he said.
he is to Sergei. - Every hour is expensive here... But no
Will it take us away with a hurricane?
Sergey proudly demonstrated
Barton his invention.
- And if necessary, the house will be cleaned
in half an hour...
- Is everything ready for evacuation? -
Barton asked.
Sergei sighed sadly.
- Done... - and added: - So we
after all... So these are intelligent beings?
He remembered how excited he was
him, when there, in the swamp, Basil Far
suddenly pulled him by the sleeve and pointed to
the screen of your device, according to whichsilently
white graceful silhouettes moved.
“Wait a little,” Barton grinned.
- I still know as much as you do.
He asked Sergei to unfold his card
and said:
- There is a task for you and Kuleshov. Here
This is where the hurricane came from. And from here they roll
balls to us. Maybe it's random
coincidence. But for some reason it seems to me that
there is a connection here. Try to get close
as close to the equator as possible - how much
you will have time in a day, and every five hundred
set up weather pickets for kilometers. Kuleshov them
already prepared. Obviously you will meet
balls. Try to estimate how much
them, where they are moving, at what speed,
in groups or alone. Everything interesting
shoot. Observe the maximum
caution... well, you're filming. From
devices, try not to go out, sleep
one by one right in the discus. In two
I've been waiting for you for a day with your report.
Barton paused, but Sergei saw
that he wanted to say something else.
- And the last thing. Do you understand, Sergey
Igorevich, that our further stay
there is a big question mark here. If
the planet is inhabited by intelligent inhabitants -
we'll have to leave. If Alpha has
owners, there can be no talk of any development
and speeches. And honestly, I make contact
I mean, I'm not ready. We were all prepared and
That's not why they were sent. But I keep thinking: oh
hasn't this already happened?long-awaited
contact?
-Are you talking about the old man?
- Yes, about him. And about Ahmed too. Think
yourself. Where was he for almost two days? Who is it
section? The old man is a shame, but on the contrary,
tried to warm Ahmedaa. Why Ahmed
found so far from the place where you were
hurricane? Where are the traces of healing on his body?
wounds and fractures? Or maybe someone
took care of him? Somehow unknown to us
supported his life with means, healed him
wounds and returned it to us? The man could not
lie unconscious for so long in
ice water and stay alive... And one more thing.
What you filmed that night - we will
call hunting - allows us
assume that between the aborigines and
Charmi there is some connection. Which? Maybe
maybe the balls are used for food, or
are the subject of cult, or highlight
some kind of drug that attracts the natives,
- you never know what can be assumed? Yes
or otherwise, but both of them are
elements of a single ecological system. And
I have reason to believe that
this system has gone wrong. The balls die. We
circled around the area a bit and
noticed... They all strive for water. And her
on Alpha, not so much. Of course, the planet
can’t be called arid, but that’s our
look. And for the indigenous inhabitants of Alpha
the current hot summer may turn out to be
destructive. Today's temperature is
rises to25-30 degrees. When I was
It’s our first time here, we haven’t seen such heat before,
although they worked closer to the equator.
Climatologists also confirm that the climate in
this part of the planet was then much
softer. We don't yet know what caused it
the reason for this. Perhaps this is to blame
the approach that has continued in recent years
planets to their sun - you know
that Alpha's orbit is elongated. Changes
climate is a well-established fact. And I
I’ve been asking myself this question for a long time: this is persistent
the movement of balls to the north is normal migration
or... escape? And if this is so, then we have
do we have the right to leave here without providing this
the planet, its nature, its inhabitants
maximum help?
About two hours after this conversation
Sergey and Kuleshov stacked containers
float for a week's supply of food, and
Kuleshov went to Eva for a first aid kit. I went and
disappeared. Sergei fiddled around for about fifteen minutes,
checking video cameras and cameras,
wondering where his comrade had disappeared to, and
was about to go searching when he
returned accompanied by Eva Stadnyuk.
- What's happened? - asked Sergei, barely
seeing their excited faces.
“Show me your palm,” said Eva. -
Yeah, it still hurts... I can bet on you
medical experiment?
Seregy shrugged.
- Do me a favor...
Eva smeared the unhealed wound from the thorn
liquid from some kind of bubble.
- Sat down toin the evening everything will light up for you,
notify me immediately...
- What is this? - asked
Sergey.
“You’re going to laugh out loud now,”
said Kuleshov. - This is an alcohol solution
philosopher's stone, aka elixir
immortality, just given
Don Quixote.
- So my palm has become immortal,
- Sergei noted with satisfaction. - What if
seriously? Eva, what is he talking about?
Don Quixote?
- He was just here.
And Eva talked about a new visit
old man.
Who came half an hour ago is unknown
where Don Quixote put his sword on the porch
and beamed, knocked on the door, asked
call a doctor, inquire about Ahmed’s health
(his health was worse than ever, Eva did it for him
said) and expressed a desire to inspect
patient without witnesses. "I am a doctor, just like
you,” he said, “but what I know about Alpha is
what you don't know. I think I... uh...
I can be of use to your young man..."
Surprised, Eva reluctantly agreed. She
I wasn’t afraid of the old man at all - after all, he was the one
found Ahmed and called for help, but she
feared not his evil will, but his good
intentions. Besides, she, like anyone
doctor, the desire to keep from
others some secrets of their profession.
Reluctantly, she took the old man to Ahmed,
driving Mashenka out of there.
The old man came out about five minutes later. "I think
“He’ll get better,” he muttered and drawled
Evehalf empty bottle. - It would be
it is advisable to rub it tomorrow - in total,
face and head too." - "What is this?" -
asked Eva. "It's local... Excellent
tonic," he took a sip.
from the bottle, which finally calmed me down
Eve. However, he does not answer her questions.
became. "Please accept my apologies. I
I’m in a hurry,” he said. Eva
I remembered about the dog and started talking
about her to the old man, but he interrupted her
half a word. "Thank you. Sad
Caesar's fate is known to me." Here because
Mashanka jumped out from behind Eva and attacked
on the old man. "Shame on you! - shouted
she. - You knew everything about these balls and
they didn't tell us! You came to us for
help, and they gave you a beam gun, and you... you
They didn't even hint at the danger. But
Each of us could have died! Don't go
more here! And we will not smear Ahmed
this dirty trick of yours..." Here she is
burst into tears. The old man silently listened to everything
accusations, muttered through his teeth: “I’m very
I’m sorry,” and left, not forgetting
grab your sword and beam thrower.
Sergei calmly listened to Eva’s story -
Over the past few days he has become accustomed to being surprised.
- Do you think the old man rubbed Ahmed with this?
He took the bottle, looked at the light,
sniffed.
- What kind of alcohol solution is this...
Some kind of rubbish. - Here he is interested
looked at Kuleshov’s bald head. -Listen,
Eva, why should only I be experienced?
a rabbit? If this is the elixir of immortality, then
he will revive his hair too... - and Sergei,
wet the tip of his finger and ran it over
the shiny skull of Kuleshov.
- Tell me, will you ever stop
fool around? - Eve attacked them. -
Sergey, give me the bottle! Barton is waiting for you
messages, and you're chilling...
When Sergei and Kuleshov flew away, Eva
decided to sleep - she spent almost the whole night
I was on duty near Ahmed. But it didn’t go away
hours after she was woken up. Eva is scared
jumped up - she decided that Ahmed was feeling bad.
But it turned out that she was being called to
radio room.
- Eva, is that you? - was heard in the speaker
Sergei's voice. - Listen, there’s trouble with Kuleshov.
He always grabs his head and assures
that his hair is growing. Tell me if it's possible
urgently send us an electric razor?
Chapter 11.
Tours on wheels.
"Barton went there..."
The next morning Ahmed felt much better
better. He hasn't regained consciousness yet, but
it was clear that things were getting better.
Casting aside all doubts, Eva rubbed Ahmed
elixir of Don Quixote, although she really
I wanted to give it to biochemists for analysis.
After that she mercilessly kicked out
Mashenka along with her mattress from the room
patient and stated that if she herself did not
takes care of her own health, then she
will command the power given to herlay down
Mashenka will be sent to isolation ward
forced feeding. Sorry
Mashenka was forced to obey,
however, at the slightest opportunity again
made her way to Ahmed, sat down next to
bed and sat without taking his eyes off him
huge eyes, until Eva or Lagutin
drove her away.
Meanwhile, Barton developed a violent
activity. Lagutin, who took over
do your own kitchen duties
Basil Far, sitting in the swamp,
told amazing things that
I saw it when I took it to the “Bolotny branch”
hot dishes - breakfast and dinner
scientists don't know when, but have lunch
Eve made them human,
threatened Barton that if
disobedience will declare a blockade on them and doom them
disobedient to death by starvation. Yes,
Lagutin said that the communication line with
"Arielem" works continuously, which
programmers walk around with crazy eyes and
mutter unknown words that Barton
caught a few green balls and
will illuminate them with X-rays, radio waves and
ultrasound that the balls were almost eaten
a gaping programmer, and had to
urgently get the hunters to catch
representatives of the local fauna, because from
Canned balls were categorically refused.
All these stories were just flowers.
Lagutina envied the following messagesit would probably be Kuleshov himself, fantasy
which was inexhaustible for all sorts of
tales, many of them for years
wandered through space and sometimes returned to
to the author, enriched with new details. A
the messages were truly incredible.
According to Lagutin, biologists caught
a huge ball with inside
transillumination revealed something similar to
human skeleton... This find caused
scientists are in a quiet panic because now
Ahmed's delirium, in which he is always
repeated about human sacrifices,
could no longer be considered nonsense. Probably
Ahmed saw something, maybe even was in
captivity among the natives - they probably took him
stripped, - and if this is so, then Alpha
will have to leave immediately. Next
Lagutin said that a remedy had been found
against trap balls - they are forced
roll up and unfold using
ultrasound. True, Barton is not very
happy because most of all
the ball they are interested in, the one with the skeleton
inside, does not want to unfold.
Numerous offers
Barton stubbornly refuses to dissect the ball.
And then they went completely tours on wheels
- allegedly in the middle of the night "swamp branch"
attacked by a large crowd
armed natives, who were primarily
pierced the inflatable house with spears, and so far
scientists floundered inits heavy folds,
they started breaking everything. Lagutin reported that
Barton first of all shouted to no one
did not dare to shoot, and turned on the external
lighting, after which the attackers
ran away. Through the night instruments it was visible
that they did not leave, but surrounded the camp from everyone
sides - organized a proper siege.
Then Barton ordered right there, in the middle of the night,
release all the balls and all those caught
animals. After listening to the story, everyone raised their
he was laughed at, but he brought the order
the head of the expedition urgently produce two
a dozen miniature generators
ultrasound for wearing on the belt. In the evening,
when stable radio communication was established,
Eve called Barton to report
Ahmed's well-being, and asked in passing,
Is it true that Alpha natives have been discovered?
“True,” said Barton, “but I really
no time." And he passed out, leaving Eve
burn with curiosity. Soon arrived
message from Lavrov as well. He said that
the task is completed and they return, that
Kuleshov is in despair and begs to find
Don Quixote and beg on any terms from
a tiny bottle of magic
elixir. “Stop fooling me,”
said Eva, who is now
I had no time for practical jokes, and then I heard
Kuleshov’s indignant voice: “Nobody to you
doesn't fool his head. This is my head now
looks like a hybrid of Dutch cheese andmops." Ege Lavrov said that
equatorial regions of the planet are covered
drought, that thousands of balls are moving towards
north and many die along the way. He asked
tell Barton what they think
an artificial sea should be created
not at all where it was intended, but
much closer to the equator. - they already
We spotted a great place for it, and we must
just have time before the arrival of "Tsiolkovsky"
carry out exploratory drilling here.
Eve began to call Barton, but "swamp
branch" was silent, as if extinct. She began
worried and called the spaceship. "Ariel"
responded immediately. appeared on the screen
Yuzhin's worried face, and behind him in
control room Eva saw the others
crew members. "You have something very
urgent?" Yuzhin asked, looking somewhere
sideways Eva said she couldn't contact
with "branch". "They don't have much time. Barton
went there..." - "To these?" she whispered
girl, but then someone shouted loudly behind
Yuzhin’s back: “Eighteenth register!
Quicker! And the delta series!" - "Sorry, we
“I don’t have much time,” said Yuzhin, still
looking sideways and passed out.
Eva came out of the radio room and found
Shavrova and asked him to sit with her on
porch. Shavrov put on his jacket and hung it on
the neck was shot, and they went outside. It was night
even if they gouged out an eye - it’s an ordinary night for Alpha,
but Eve did not feel that piercingcold, which was common here at night.
On the contrary, the wind blowing from the south seemed to her
warm.
“The drought is coming, Yuri Petrovich,” she said
she sits down on the steps. - Lavrov
reports that things are bad in the south...
Shavrov stood two steps from the girl,
putting his hands on the beam gun and looking up.
There, among the fragments of clouds, there shone a faint
a little star that I didn’t know until recently
Alpha sky. It sparkled under the rays of a star
Barnard's giant metal case
"Ariel" hanging motionless on high
almost forty thousand kilometers above
equator of the planet.
The rustling of bushes was heard not far away.
Eva looked there and didn’t even see, but
rather guessed how it was approaching them
something black. The girl jumped up in fear
closer to the doors, under the protection of the beam thrower.
Shavrov turned on the flashlight, and in its beam they
we saw a green ball that was leisurely
rolled past the porch. Soon another appeared
one, and another, and another, and another... Mysterious
inhabitants in the darkness past a lonely dwelling
people fleeing the drought that is hitting them.
Chapter 12.
Both life and death.
The last riddle
On the fifth day, Ahmed opened for the first time
eyes. He remains motionless for a while
lay looking at the white square of the ceiling and
rejoicing in the light and warmth. He was alive, he was
healthy or almost healthy - Ahmed for some reason
I immediately realized that this was so. He didn't know
how muchspent time unconscious, and
I didn't want to think about it. He was
easy and joyful, and only somewhere in the depths
fragments of memories of
pain, fear, despair.
The room was flooded with sunlight.
Outside the window the midday blue was earthly blue.
sky, somewhere behind the wall a voice quietly purred
singer Ahmed turned his head. Next to him
Eva Stadnyuk looked at him with a smile.
- Hello, dear comrade Eva, -
Ahmed tried to say, but his voice was not yet
listened to him and he muttered something
indistinct. But the girl understood him and
she touched his lips with a smile.
- Patient, you can’t talk! -
she said in a deep voice and laughed - already
in a normal voice. - Hello, Ahmed!
Congratulations on your recovery. Only
don't say anything yet...
With a slight movement she straightened the blanket,
then she ruffled Ahmed's hair.
- You'll have to lie down for a day. And tomorrow
I'll let you out for a walk - if you want
listen to the doctor and eat semolina... -
She laughed again. - I’ll go and make you happy
Barton and I’ll call Mashenka - he’s collecting
a bouquet for you.
Ahmed looked at the girl with a smile.
How good it is to know that you are alive, what the
the window is hot sun and under this sun
Mashenka picks flowers for you. He
felt his body awakening from
long dream that he is young, strong, dexterous.
Damn, there was no throatquite okay, but
throat is nonsense! He winked at Eve, promising
behave approximately, but when she came out,
I immediately threw back the blanket and sat down. In my head
a little noisy, but a little dizzy
passed quickly, and he tried to stand on
legs. His first steps were difficult for him,
however, he made it safely to the window,
bare feet slapping on the warm plastic.
Outside the window it was Alpha's hot summer, stretching
three-rayed purple flowers towards the sun, and
not far away Mashenka was walking between the bushes with
an armful of wildflowers and, apparently, something
sang. Ahmed knocked on the glass, but the girl
I didn't hear. Something moved on the side
Ahmed looked there and froze. From behind the bushes
a big green ball rolled out and
opened up and disappeared, as if he had never existed,
instantly merging with the grass.
And then Ahmed remembered everything. He screamed and
pounded on the glass with his fists, but the glass,
withstood the blow of a black hurricane, not even
shuddered. Then he's on the bending
rushed to the door on his feet. The corridor was empty and
no one responded to his hoarse, barely
an audible scream, only somewhere there was a quiet sound
melody and the baritone purred gently. Stand with
the whole place was filled with beam throwers, but Akhmed
there was no time to think what this meant. He
grabbed the weapon and jumped out onto the porch. B
his face smelled of the midday heat, from
He was momentarily blinded by the bright light. But
Mashenka was walking somewhere nearby with a bouquet, not
knowing about the terribletrapped, and he rushed to her
towards, feeling that with everyone
in an instant his strength returns to him.
He remembered the place where the ball was hidden
approximately - the area looked
somewhat different than from the window, and around the corner
At home he stopped in confusion. Under
every bush seemed to him to be in danger, and
Apparently this was the case, because
one ball rolled about a hundred paces, and
a new one appeared from behind the house to the side, and
Mashenka kept singing, not noticing the hidden
Ahmed's bushes. There was thick under the bushes
grass, the shadows of the clouds moved silently in
her, and it was no longer possible to wait, because
every second threatened the girl with death.
Ahmed raised his beam gun and fired. Flame
atomic lightning seemed to extinguish the sun, from
Black smoke rose from the burning bushes. Ahmed
I didn’t understand whether he hit the ball or not, but he managed
notice how Mashenka recoiled,
scattering flowers. Suddenly a little away from
a smoky trail laid by a beam, with
the ball curled up with a crack and rolled away.
Ahmed immediately caught him in his sights, but
a moment before he fired, the barrel
the beam thrower jerked upward from the impact, and
atomic lightning went into the sky. Some kind of
a stranger snatched it from Ahmed
beam thrower Ahmed tried to hold the weapon,
but suddenly he recognized the stranger and out of surprise
unclenched his fingers. It was Kuleshov, only
strangely changed. His headalways
resembling a billiard ball, now
was decorated with thick hair, and this immediately
it became clear that he was much younger than
seemed before. Mashenka was already running towards them,
pale with fright, and Kuleshov something
talked about balls, hugging Ahmed by the shoulders,
Mashenka, crying, rushed to him
chest, and the alarmed Eve ran, and that’s all
calmed down Ahmed, interrupting each other,
and no one paid attention to the rolling
past the balls as if it were real
ordinary tumbleweeds. Ahmed suddenly
felt like he had no legs
became, and hung in the arms of friends, barely
who managed to catch him. Obviously
the momentary rush of energy has already passed, and
Ahmed became who he was meant to be -
an exhausted man who only
began to recover from a serious illness. He
I kept trying to tell something, about something
to warn, but my thoughts are already confused,
because Eva managed to unnoticed
to his hand is something similar to a fountain pen, and
now the sleeping pills were circulating in his
arteries, enveloping the brain. The last thing
he managed to notice, he took it for
repeated delirium, and he closed his eyes. But
this was not nonsense at all, because
porch accompanied by Barton
really came out one of those whom
Ahmed saw that night in the swamp...
Later, when Ahmed became completely stronger,
they told him everything. WITHhe listened with excitement
about the events of the night when Barton walked
among the pitch darkness across the swamp in
searching for the inhabitants of Alpha, and friends watched
behind him from a disc plane through infrared
devices indicating where to go. Behind the huge
a ball that stubbornly refused to
open up, have been closely watched for 24 hours already
heights through powerful telephoto lenses, and
Barton knew where to look for him. On
videotape, which throughout the day
diskettes were delivered to him regularly through
every hour both the ball and
the natives accompanying him, who drove the ball into
certain direction, tingling
spears. Barton saw how carefully they
cleared the way for him, helped
overcome potholes. He also noticed
that the natives are not at all afraid of the balls,
of whom gathered in the great swamp
multitude. He was almost sure that they were alone
of the natives ran even in a hurry through
the unfolding ball, and this brought Barton
to new thoughts that he has with no one
I haven’t started sharing yet - too much
They seemed fantastic even to him.
However, the two seem to be mutually exclusive
each other fact - that the natives kill
balls and that they carefully protect them,
stopped seeming mutual to him
excluded. Towards evening, when
a contact plan had matured for him, he sent
Basil Farah to Don Quixote. Soon hereturned and brought what Barton asked for, -
magnificent Damascus steel blade,
capable of cutting iron. The night has come
interference in communications introduced by Barnard's star,
stopped. Barton put on his night glasses,
armed himself with Don Quixote's blade and went. On
transducers were attached to his belt
ultrasound and infrasound, to the collar
jackets pinned microphones from the walkie-talkie and
lying in the pocket of the tape recorder. Carefully
well-functioning communication line Barton - discolet -
"swamp branch" - "Ariel" worked
impeccably, programmers have already
tested your machine gun, forcing it
find an algorithm for solving a known problem about
donkey Buridan and translate "Hiawatha" into
language of the Mayan people. Sherman loaded everything
tape recorders and video cameras, the Ariel had
tested and manufactured to work great
the ship's brain is an amazing device,
storing all achievements in its memory
human genius for tens of centuries and
capable of not only solving the most
incredible tasks, but also to set them.
Ahmed's heart was pounding with excitement, he
listened to the story, like an amazing fairy tale,
trying to imagine how Barton
catches up with a slowly rolling ball, passes
past the spears aimed at him,
turns his back to them and begins
coolly chop down bushes that interfere
the movement of the ball, as then, for some time
later, hands over the bladeone of
aborigines, and he at first clumsily, but with
adapting every minute, clears
way for the ball - and all this from the disc plane
is filmed and microphones pick up
every sound to transfer it to
"Ariel", where in a split second electronic
the ship's brain is sorting through millions
options, offers himself hundreds of thousands
solutions, groping for the key to the language of non-earthlings.
It was as if he saw it all - slow,
a majestic ball, guarded on all sides,
and people of two worlds, side by side
paving the way for him - for him, carrying
in himself the future resident of Alpha, to him,
who has accepted into his bosom the one who has already
lived his cycle and ended it with his death
the beginning of another being's life...
Ahmed was told how Barton came to
head an amazing guess about what the
the skeleton was discovered by X-raying the ball.
Everyone was convinced that the unwilling
unfold the ball is busy with digestion. A
Barton noticed that those accompanying the balloon
the natives take very good care of him. He
I perfectly remembered the scene filmed by Lavrov
night hunt and kept wondering why
the behavior of the natives is so unlike
former. There were slender night hunters
just gentle with the stolen ball. So tender
how can a mother be with her offspring.
The longer he watched the harvest
ball, the more I believed in the incredible
guessturned out to be the only true one.
The ball did not open because it
a new life has matured and this life has not yet
the time has come to be born...
Ahmed could not help but believe his friends, but
his mind did not want to come to terms with the crash
familiar ideas. He argued
proved, refuted, crushed tricky
questions. There was a lot his friends didn't know yet
but what was already known was enough
convincing.
Ahmed was told how the balls hunt
small animals like to feed on the balls themselves
natives, preferring them to any other
food due to the amazing properties of tissues and
lymph balls, how they treat the most severe
wounds, wrap the victim in pieces
dead ball, how they pour strength into those whom
Pririda called to end her life
cycle. Kuleshov with pride
showed him his curly head
and said that now you can even grow
leg or arm, as it obviously did
Don Quixote.
Don Quixote was often mentioned at the base.
Ultrasonic Guardians in action
flawlessly, causing the balls to coagulate,
but it has already become known that they are not needed,
because neither for people nor for aborigines
the balls are not dangerous. According to them
one could calmly walk away - it was as if they
they knew that man was sacred to them. Maybe
maybe biological played a role
the proximity of Homo Sapiens and "Homo Ahmedus" -
that's the namesuggested the mocker
Kuleshov. And only during a strange
"marriage ceremony", in the intricacies of which
biologists have not yet been able to figure it out, balls
rolled up not only for production...
Obviously the old man knew all this - and yet
parted with his beam thrower and sword.
He was spotted several times from the air. Himself
he is after a scandal caused by his lover
Mashenka, didn’t show up at the base.
Barton decided to visit the old man to
return the weapon taken from him. Not very
he willingly invited the guest into the house, and Barton
I finally got the chance to meet you
with the dwelling of a strange hermit. It was
amazing house. Swords, rapiers, machetes,
halberds hung on the walls interspersed with
hunting trophies - the head of a tiger,
shark jaw, deer antlers. One
the wall was completely occupied by books - Barton
I immediately recognized many of the reference books,
which I used myself. On the table, on
the shelves were lined with retorts, flasks,
robot analyzer, known and unknown
Barton instruments. Light reigned everywhere
a mess, like a caring hand long ago
didn't touch things. Only instruments and flasks
were arranged as if
used daily.
The old man invited Barton to sit down and
sank into a chair. Barton with curiosity
looked at the owner - at his fresh skin
face, the secret of which he already knew, onto the brush
right hand. Old manwaited silently, no
expressing a desire to engage in conversation.
Barton returned the blade to him and thanked him,
reported that Ahmed was already healthy, and briefly
told about everything that we managed to find out
scientists about balls. He saw how dark it was getting
old man's face. He was gradually becoming
clear is this lonely unfortunate old man, God
knows by what fate he ended up on Alpha.
Barton felt sorry for the old man. Of course he is
made a great discovery - so
great thing it must produce
revolution in medicine. But the old man lived on
Alpha has long been and, apparently, did not intend to
part with this planet. Barton
guessed that the old man had not finished his
research, but it could take longer
for many years, and there was no guarantee that
the old scientist will get his act together someday
make your discovery public
humanity. That the participants of the second
expeditions penetrated into his secret, exactly
didn't mean anything. It happened by accident
- they choose another area for landing, and
they would not know anything about the wonderful
properties of green balls. Only Don Quixote
and no one else had the right to bring it
to the people of the Earth an amazing elixir of life -
this was his discovery. But will he want
give it to people? Barton didn't know this.
All he could do now was
tell the old man what they succeeded
find out in order to warn him againstin vain work in the direction where
scientists of the second complex expedition left
further than the old man.
Barton once again thanked the owner for
saving Ahmed and offering a farewell
him an ultrasonic Guardian. Surprisingly
guest, the old man took the device.
- And you, Barton, don’t need him yet... -
he suddenly said. These were his first
words, except for the phrase "please
sit down."
- Why? - Barton asked quickly. He and
I myself knew that the Guardian was of no use, but
ordered people not to part with them,
because the mystery of Bestuzhev’s disappearance
has not yet been decided.
“You, Barton, are young,” he said sadly.
old man. - And here only those who leave
ready for this... Like me, for example. you balls
will not be accepted. You are still young for them...
And then Barton understood.
Chapter 13.
in which it is finally revealed that
Agasfer is completely like Agasfer
TO THE HEAD OF THE SECOND COMPLEX EXPEDITION
"ALPHA BARNARD" TO BARTON
NS request via VP communication number 12-A87
At your request, we provide information about
the person you are interested in. How do we
we assume settled on Alpha
Barnard's man is John Williams Ridge,
84 years old, star pilot 1st class (with license
solo flights), Master of Medicine,
Doctor of Biology.
John Williams Ridge was born in Cape Town in
family of famous multi-billionaires Ridge,
at the end of the last centuryformer
uncrowned rulers of Africa
uranium, diamonds and oil. After graduation
Ridge College entered State
medical school, from which he graduated with a diploma
Master of Medicine. This event coincided with
time with the first stellar expeditions,
and the young doctor, like many others of his
peers, carried away by the prospect
exploration of other worlds. He entered
Michigan Space School, which
graduated brilliantly, receiving (the only
from the entire issue) Diploma of Planetary Pilot II
class.
For several years Ridge flew
UN international lines Mars - Venus -
Pluto, having shown himself to be literate,
a disciplined and determined pilot.
He was assigned class I, which opened
Riju is on his way to the UN Star School.
At the same time, he conducted scientific work on
Department of Biology, Moscow
State University. Soon he
defended his dissertation "Bone regeneration
tissues in higher vertebrates." Opinions
specialists about this work sharply
separated. Some argued that
Ridge's theory of a single mechanism
regeneration is unreasonable, adventurous and
just nonsense. He was accused of profiteering
on the interest of the scientific community in
recently discovered extraterrestrial life forms and
other mortal sins. However, most
scientists saw in Ridge's workpromising ideas. Ridge was assigned
PhD degree in biological sciences.
Ridge carried out further scientific work
at the Royal London Centre, where
defended his doctorate for several years
dissertation. At the same time he passed
training at the UN Star School. By
At the end of the course he was awarded the title
third class pilot. Soon he accepted
participation in several stellar expeditions
and received II grade.
During breaks between flights, as well as during
flight times Ridge continued his
experiments in the field of tissue regeneration.
He has an intense interest in biochemistry
hoping to find a new solution in it
problems. His major scientific work
period there was a monograph "On the issue of
excitation of the organ regeneration mechanism
and tissues in higher vertebrates." This book
made a lot of noise. Its main provisions
were sharply criticized by some
leading biologists and biochemists. Then
something unexpected happened. Ridge retired from
University of Michigan, where he directed
Department of Biology, and notified Zvezdny
UN center that no longer has the opportunity
offer your services as a pilot
any state or
international organization. After that
Ridge creates his own laboratory,
rather a small research one
center where he invites you to workseveral prominent scientists.
To make Ridge's motives more clear
ponatny, you should make a non-ball
retreat and return to his youthful
years.
Tij's childhood and youth coincides with the
period when in a number of states the beginning
the nationalization of the most
large private estates. As is known, in
this period the processes of social
developments have had a particularly strong impact on
the mood of these student youth
countries Those years were marked by student
desires, calls to renounce all
state power. Ridge was active
participant in these performances. He performed
for the complete abolition of all property, for
liquidation by revolutionary means of all forms
state power and state
apparatus, tried to create
self-governing, but essentially
anarchist student communes.
At the same time, he preached ideas of goodness,
love of humanity, universal equality. His
the political position in these years was very
fuzzy, his philosophical views are very
confused. At one time Ridge was prominent
leader of the youth and, sitting around, seriously
thought about a political career. However, very
his followers soon lost interest in him.
The decline of Ridge's authority as an ideological figure
leader was accelerated by the fact that
he, sharply speaking out against private
capital and all typesproperty, not
broke ties with his family, who retained
and after nationalization enormous wealth.
Just at this time his grandfather died, bequeathing
the young man all his capital. Many expected
that Ridge will refuse the inheritance or
will donate it to some organization.
However, this did not happen. Ridge neatly
completed all formalities necessary for
introduction into inheritance, and became the owner
huge fortune. To be fair
It should be noted that for many years
Ridge hasn't touched this money for years, but
funds, and quite significant ones,
which he had were earned by him
on your own. However, the overwhelming
most of his supporters broke with him.
Soon a disappointed Ridge, having received
diploma, left his homeland.
The turbulent period of the creation of the World Union
There are almost no post-communist republics
affected Ridge. Over the course of a decade
he conducted research in his laboratory,
however, he did not make any publications.
Several times he was invited to party
participation in space expeditions, but Ridge
every time he refused.
Ridge got married while still a student. U
he had two children - daughter Anna and son
Leopold is an astrophysicist by training.
The very first expedition in which Leopold
Ridge took part, crashed
in the ER chanterelle system. Upon learning of this, Ridge
insisted on its inclusion incomposition
rescue expedition. Rescue
the work was largely successful
thanks to fearlessness, composure and
Ridge's vast experience. In unimaginably difficult
conditions, he brilliantly landed the ship on
planet, actively participated in the search and
saving people, and then produced
uniquely difficult takeoff, during
which the crew, in the words of one and
participants' hair literally stood on end
from horror. After this flight Ridge was
awarded the rank of 1st class pilot. But nothing
Ridge was not happy. His son returned to
The earth is in a very difficult condition. For
his life had to be saved in flight
amputate his legs. And on Ridge Land
expected a new blow - in the car
His daughter died in the disaster.
Until now, Ridge could be considered
darling of fate. Beautiful, versatile
a gifted person, a favorite in his youth
zhrnshchin, a talented scientist, he has almost no
than did not know failures. First in college
first at the cosmonaut school, first at
numerous sports competitions
(Melbourne yacht racing champion,
three-time Universiade champion
fencing), a brilliant researcher,
each work of which caused hot
disputes, experienced cosmonaut pilot, more than once
admired his colleagues with his skill...
Everything came easy to him. Possessing a huge
condition, he, nottouching him
achieved complete economic independence
and never needed funds.
The only major failure he talks about
preferred not to remember, was associated with
political aspirations of his youth.
Perhaps Ridge was an adventurer by nature.
He could easily take risks, and not
always acquitted, and he was always lucky.
Constant luck taught Ridge to the idea
about one's own exclusivity. Those
few disappointments and failures that
he had to experience, he endured
hard. Ridge wasn't prepared for failure.
Perhaps that is why he immediately
abandoned political activity, and
after harsh criticism for many years
preferred to leave the hatched theory
scientific arena and continue research in
complete isolation from the scientific world. Now,
many years later, we understand that Ridge
never betrayed his ideals. Having suffered
failure to create a judicial commune, he
created not subordinate to anyone
self-governing group within its own
laboratories. Having not found support from my own
scientific ideas, he continued to develop them
contrary to the opinion of the largest authorities.
When faced with misunderstanding or
opposition, Ridge experienced
disappointment, but continued to believe in his
rightness. Over the years, his confidence has become increasingly
turned more into self-confidence,belief in one's own infallibility. Only
this can explain the subsequent
tragic events.
Leopold's condition continued
stay heavy. The crippled young man was
for the father, living evidence of powerlessness
medicine. All these years Ridge has been developing
methods of regeneration of lost organs and
believed that he was on the verge of success. And he
decided on an unacceptable experience - he applied
your method on your son. It was the only one
an incident in his life when common sense
I completely refused the scientist. Desperate
the experiment ended tragically -
Leopold died.
About the subsequent period of Ridge's life
very little is known. He's completely
abandoned his scientific work and for several years
traveled through the most inaccessible areas
planets - across Africa, South America,
Himalayas. On one of these trips he
lost under unknown circumstances
right hand. Several romantic
stories about this incident, none of them
which obviously does not correspond
truth, they still characterize Ridge as
an unusual and original figure. B
one of these stories is Ridge himself
solemnly cut off his hand in front of
a crowd of inhabitants lost in the countryside
villages where he was elected chief, declaring
that cannot accept the signs of power with his hand,
which he killed his own son. B
he lost another storybrush in bloody
saber duel. Next they say,
that Riju's hand was bitten off by a crocodile, from
whom he saved who was bathing in the river
boy. They also said that he amputated
brush to test the methods for yourself
regeneration of lost organs... Ridge himself
I always remained silent about this. He and
I wasn't sociable before, but now
In recent years he has become completely unsociable.
A few years later in Ridge again
interest in extraterrestrial biology arose. But
he understood that the armless canvas or
No one is happy with an armless doctor. And
then Ridge first remembered the inheritance.
By the way, this happened shortly before the cancellation
monetary system in the countries of the World
Union of Post-Communist Republics...
Ridge used his vast fortune
worn out after the death of his father, for
construction of the starship Leopold.
Fifteen years ago Ridge and his wife and
a small crew left Earth -
left forever. Upon return
"Leopold" its captain stated that Ridge
wished for the place where he decided
spend the rest of your life, left
unknown. However, it was noted that
last ten years "Leopold" twice
left with a free search. Perhaps in
During these flights he visited Alpha. If
this is so, that is, there is hope that Ridge is still
wishes to return to Earth to
proverightness to those who have been for many years
ago ridiculed his idea of the possibility
restore lost organs. Help
him to make the right decision. Judging by your
Ridge's discovery on Alpha is reported
are of great interest to science. Yes
and Ridge himself deserves a better fate.
We hope this is extensive
the message will help you choose the right one
line of conduct towards Ridge.
Try to be unobtrusive with him
contact. Ridge should bring his own
opening to people...
Epilogue.
Alpha will live!
"Tsiolkovsky" arrived in two weeks.
The giant ship entered the circle
orbit, and the landing boat separated from it.
From a safe distance those who met with
we saw excitement, as if on a pillar
roaring flames slowly descend
a sparkling metal carcass, spreading
landing feet. The bot sat down on a soft
soil that could not withstand pressure,
and Spencer lowered it slowly, slowly,
ready to turn on again at any time
full traction. Everyone thought it was over
eternity before the roaring flames became
fade and finally disappeared. Then into the air
discos took off and circled over
bot.
Half a kilometer from the landing site, on
the heights that were to become
shore of the first sea of Alpha, three Alfians
looked through binocularsairborne
bot. Barton provided clarification. He hasn't yet
learned the local language and therefore
I used the services of a translator. Here
stood Sergei, Akhmed, Mashenka and
Kuleshov, to whom at Tsiolkovsky
my wife arrived - a specialist in high-speed
drilling Kuleshov was very worried, not
knowing how she would react to the changed
husband's appearance - he overdid it a little,
lubricating himself with the elixir, and now he didn’t know
what to do with a rapidly growing beard and
mustache
Sergei listened to Barton with half an ear and thought about
his. He spent all his last days here,
studying the geological structure of the bottom of the future
seas. Alpha was exhausted from the heat, every
the day brought death to hundreds of helpless balls,
accustomed to coolness and moisture. On this
technology did not exist on the planet. U
Alfians had no writing, schools and
crafts. They ate balls and were treated
balls, were born in balls and in them
were dying. They knew the simplest
tools, they learned to make spears and
knives, they built in impassable
primitive dwellings in the bushes, saving
them from bad weather. But they were helpless
before a terrible drought, and only people
could help them.
Sergey presented how laser drills
crash into dry soil and through
a few days a noisy, sparkling stream
breaks out of the well and begins to spill
over the surface, graduallyfilling out
lowland The tower will move to a new location,
then even further, leaving behind
saving lakes that will later merge
to the first sea on Alpha...
From time to time he looked at the sky:
Will Ridge's discus show up? A few days
back on Barton's orders, Ahmed left
one of the expedition's discos in front of
old man's home. At sunset Ridge flew to
expedition house, greeted him dryly
Sherman greeted him and put him in a stance
beam gun and handed Sherman a small
folder. “I’ll ask you to convey this to Barton,”
he said. - This... uh... for everyone...” Here
he turned, straight and long, as if
arshin swallowed and left without saying more
not a word. When Barton read the one lying in
manuscript folder, he said that her prices
no, and ordered the immediate transfer
all text on extradimensional communications at
Earth. "We'll send the manuscript to
“Tsiolkovsky,” he said. - For her
humanity must put Rija
monuments on all continents."
Where stood shrouded in a cloud of dust
bot, explosions occurred. It worked
explosive bolts separating the self-propelled truss
drilling rig from a bot. Then powerful
the jacks smoothly moved it to the side and
lowered to the ground. Only after that
the airlock hatch opened, and Spencer
waved his hand from there.
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