Аннотация: This scientific - fantastic story I have written in 2005 - 2006.
Lampyridae of the Universe.
This scientific - fantastic story I have written in 2005 - 2006.
Chapter 1. The winged assistant.
The day was drawing to a close. The helt from day time heat the sun, with sensation of the executed debt weary has passed for horizon and with skill paint rare variogated of a cloud in gentle - pink colour. The large triangular cobble-stone laying on a slope of a mountain, any more did not give saving in heat of a shadow, but hospitably has sheltered under the reliable roof last was late small insect, successfully avoided speed up small locust, peacefully escaped fate beside by large green locust.
Heat of long summer day gradually beginnings to fall down, and closeness in territory of the closed research complex gradually varied on cool and sated by freshness of ocean air. The working day, for a long time was finished, and as could seem on the first sight, all his premisesroom were absolutely empty, but this sensation was deceptive. Not knowing rest and not thinking about rest, the thick green fly the third hour permanently stupidly also was persistently beaten in the densely closed window of laboratory. I do not know, how about brusly and bump, but the head, i think about, was of headache, and in such situation, even the easy click of opening of the lock, should seem to her by a thunder among the clear sky.
But the door was opened silently, and not a bit winged animal having broken calmness , the high sky-blue-eyed brunette of a name Alex has come in a room. Such name is not rather unusual to the south of old kind England, but on that there was a will of his parents and they lived with him all twenty five years. He was dressed in green sports-shirt, dark blue shabby jeans and soft shoes doing his gait like a cat moving silent. So he in any way does not interfere with our fly, and at all did not give out to her the presence.
Not turning on the light, Аlex has poured to itself coffee-cup of strong coffee and, passed to a window, by one movement has flung open its shutters outside. The happy fly, having felt sweet air of freedom, has not forced itself long to wait, and here was dissappeared in warm evening air. So, when he has switched on cut-out, the fly was already far.
All central part of a room was occupied by a long laboratory table, at which distant end face, there was fixed an easy and rather unusual design connected by flexible multi-coloured wires to set of devices on shelfs, environmental a table.
The young man has added frequency of the generator, has changed off-duty ratio of pulses, and the devices, bent inside of a needle, have begun exhale a vivifying and rich ozone smell .
All is right, - he has thought, and has brought in a flame of a candle between needles of a design.
In the beginning ionic the wind hardly was fire has not blown, but Alex has oriented and has moved it closer to the centre... Whether It was necessary to you, sometime to see a photo of a huge spiral Galaxy? I do not know as you, and personally feeling two-dimensional of an immovability, does not give to me to appreciate to estimate its power and greatness. Here there was something similar, but flat spiroid the flame seized by jet of ions, slowly rotated counter-clockwise. It moved!
Alex also wanted to see such phenomenons in the experiment. He has fixed a fiery Microgalaxy on a videocamera and has lowered a candle downwards. But the next second the middle of a disk has swelled, and he has turned to a sphere. Аlex has not believed the eyes... Before him there was a real fireball, and reliably fixed in space sliding around by jets of ions.
- the Ball of fire in the pure state, - has thought Аlex, and was pulled to a videocamera.
But at the same moment by lateral sight he has noticed a firefly, flown through an open window. It slowly flashed yellow - green belly, confidently gained height and was directed straight to a luminous sphere.
The next second the deafening crash : was heard.
Chapter 2. The Zero town.
It was dawning. The fog was long disappeared. The sleepy disk of the sun at last has found the strength to take off from the line of horizon and now it is lazy rising above blue mirror-like surface of the ocean, illuminating all around by its tender morning light. Easy breeze, enjoying the freshness of the air, slightly touched the tops of the trees and slowly fell on the grass which was ready to be filled with cheerful singing cheerful of grasshoppers.
Not far away a cicada was singing persistently, and from the thick smoke bushes it was echoed by some little bird. The world was slowly waking up from night dream, and together with it Alex became conscious and already started to feel his large and strong hands, which were pressed to the ground by something cold and heavy.
Last, that he remembered was a deafening crash of a lightning in his laboratory. It seemed still to be in his ears. Still not understanding, what had happened, he hardly managed to lift his eyelids, which seemed to be filled with lead. A piece of his laboratory table shining with its nickel-plated leg was resting just in front of Alex's nose. A red wood ant, which was running on it stopped, touched its smooth grey surface with his horns, waited for a second and ran further on ant businesses.
There was a pair of barefooted female legs standing just behind the table, near to a round triangular cobble-stone. Аlex lifted his eye and followed the long straight shanks, knees and beautiful smooth thighs. All of this belonged to a young blond girl. She squatted near him, and looking into his eyes asked sympathetically:
- Can I help you, Sir?
- No, all is OK, miss, -he mumbled being in a pose inconvenient for exchanging civilities. He then threw away the load sitting on him, sat down and looked around.
The girl stood up, glimpsed on the hands of the young man, and ran down a little path quickly moving her bare feet.
He followed her with his eyes for a while. Everything around was well familiar to him... The slope of the mountain was covered with a grass and small bushes, abounded with limestone spots, on which lizards used to expose their agile bodies to the warm rays of the sun in the afternoon. Behind that the slope gradually went upwards to a small plateau, and from the front it went down enclosing the right edge of a small green valley.
The piece of the table laying near, seemed to be cut off from the rest of it by a laser and slightly gleamed with a smooth surface of the cut. Thinking about it Аlex touched it with his fingers and suddenly noticed some reflection in the grass. He stretched his arm and picked up a green transparent cube, which was size of a dove egg made of some unknown to him material.
Neither glass nor emerald could have about 0.7lb of weight in so small volume.
- It is like lead, - Аlex thought, and accurately put the unusual finding into his pocket.
He stood up and quickly went upwards, stepping softly on the stony surface. After a couple of hundred of steps, Аlex found himself on the plateau, where there should be his laboratory. But it was not there!!! There was even no hint at the building or its ruins. All central part of the meadow was covered with a rich thorny bushes, mixed with thick sets of ash trees here and there and yellow flowers of arnica among feather-grass.
The only thing which was the same was the narrow racing path running on the side of the ocean, along which some guy was jogging right now, accompanied by a large shaggy sheep-dog jumping and yelping with exuberance of feelings. Gradually he changed into walking and went towards a horizontal bar. Having exercised for a while, the guy jumped down and together with his jogged towards the little l path, which Alex took a moment ago to climb up.
- Hi Аlex!
- Hi Nick, - Alex said instinctively, but suddenly he stopped and looking back at the guy with bewilderment started to think, why he had called the guy Nick and why he was not surprised?
The heat coming from the green cube in his pocket woke him up from his thoughts. Surprised by this fact not less, than buy the guy's awareness of him, Аlex examined the finding once again and this time easily noticed a translucent three-dimensional image inside the cube. He saw himself inside the cube, caught at the moment of the explosion of plasma, and alos a piece of the table sitting now on the slope.
- It is incredible!!! I must be sleeping or...
But his "Or" could not be interpreted by his common understanding of the world and space. Being a scientist, he did not believe in miracles and journeys through time, but trusted his sharp-sighted eyes and strong hands:
Mention should be made, that in this life, Alex's curiosity was born earlier than him, and consequently his brain, constantly and involuntarily carried out some work, automatically analyzing everything he saw around. Thus it did not matter if he was sleeping or was awake. Moreover the absence of blinders of a conventional thinking allowed him to see the things which normally were not noticed by others.
Once, on some silent May night, when the tender southern sun was already gone behind the horizon, and thick darkness swallowed the bats flying around in the air, Аlex was sitting outside enjoying the fresh air and admired the stars. He looked at Pleiades, rhombus of the Lyra and hardly seen Andromeda Nebula... The endless depth of space bewitched his soul and filled it with delight up to the edges.
- Almost like a white hot star, - he thought then, looking at a bright and white Jupiter's disk. - a cold planet, a hot star :, - he repeated this to himself, being lost in his thoughts for a moment. Interestingly, but if "hot" and "cold" are like "plus" and "minus", where "white" should go?
If the white colour of teeth is because of he abundance of calcium then I is a "plus" but the white colour of a gray hair because of absence of a pigment is a "minus". Apparently it cuts both ways:
- It is interesting, whether the speed of time flow is constant, or can change to this or that side too? What does it depends on and what will indicate whether it runs forward or lags behind? - the young man thought, and his thought ran like a fast and powerful tornado, sweeping away stereotyped patterns and adding to his suddenly ripened theory different new and new facts... Then this path led him to the laboratory, where they carried out scientific researches on some elements of the theory of time. He quickly accustomed himself and got easily involved in a slow working rhythm of a silent scientific town. And now, he was standing on a familiar, but unknown to him plateau and thought about what had happened. There was no answer:
Well, what will be will be, let's play this game, - Alex decided, and went down the slope.
But he did not make even ten steps, when with his back he felt someone's look on himself, and in a second his ears were blocked. Аlex instantly turned around with bewilderment. There seemed to be nobody in the nearest bushes... There was just a white goat ringing a small copper bell while grazing in the bushes not far away.
- Strange: What could it be?
Having waited for a few seconds, he looked round again and not having noticed anything suspicious walked further. Having passed by his table, he ran down along the steep slope turning around a thick-set of various vegetation into the covert of low trees. Then he was on a narrow road leading towards the ocean. By the right edge, it joined to the slope overgrown with bushes, and the left one to a row of houses, which did not exist at all yesterday.
First house in the row was a small wattle-and-daub building in the form of a box with a low white wall around. There were a stone well and a stove for burning ceramic tableware in the centre of the court yard and a little baby goat was playfully butting a log in the corner.
The next house was built of stone and covered with a tile roof. There were a couple of turkeys wandering behind a wicker fence among the greenery and willingly responded by clucking to any whistle they heard. A sheep-dog was resting under a lilac bush having its muzzle on the forelegs. The dog was a spitting image of the one he saw on the plateau.
A Japanese style could be easily guessed in a quiet harmony of proportions of the third house. For its owner, the house probably was Furusato - a small native land. A large square court yard had a length of more than hundred meters and was surrounded with a line of small green trees. There was a hall with wide cornices and with perches bent upwards, almost up to the level of the horizon in the middle of the court yard. Some other buildings were attached to it from the eastern, northern and western sides, On the southern side of a house, there was a verandah - Engavah, made of rough bars with the entrance of a sliding door - Myrado with its slightly opened shutters showing Soedzi behind them. All southern part of a court yard was covered with a landscape garden with a large pond with several small isles, connected by little bridges, and an open pavilion sitting on piles for musical performances.
Soon Alex reached a small costal square. There were a wear shop, a high snow white building, and a grocery store on it. Judging from the sign in the centre above the building that was a scientific library of Whiteland town and STV and the whole square, the sky and an endless azure of the ocean were reflected in the surrounding house and shop windows like in one enormous mirror.
There was a massive right-angled flower bed in the centre of the square, with some plant resembling a tall and graceful palm, arising from the centre of the flower bed. Its thin trunk was as colourful as feathering of a parrot and its crown was reaching the very top floors of the building. However he was really astonished by a passing by pterodactyl in the sky much higher above the library.
- Must be a mirage or they have not become extinct? - watching that wonder flying away.
Loud chirps of sea-gulls coming from the shore quickly brought him back to life. One of them was drifted aside by the wind and it turned its white head looked at Alex with its small black eyes. It then flapped with the wings and flew towards the ocean again.
Being lost in conjectures Alex went to the wear shop. In spite of an early hour, the door was open and the girl behind the counter greeted him with her friendly smile. In this girl he recognized his morning bear foot jogger who offered him her help on the hill slope.
- Good morning, sir, thanks for calling in to our shop, - she said with a ringing and a very pleasant pitch of her voice, but her accent!!!
Alex knew Americans from the South, Yankee, Irish but it was not that. A strong Scottish dialect hinted at a resident of the North of the Great Britain.
- Hi
Having heard his voice she was also a little bit surprised and asked quieter:
- Where are you from, sir?
Not knowing what to say, Alex only smiled in response and thought for a second.
- This lady is from far away.
- Are you a new scientist from our library?
- Not yet
Having no intention to look foolish in the eyes of the young lady Alex decided to stop the conversation but then he asked suddenly:
- Is there any scientific laboratory in your town?
- No, there isn't, just the library. This is the only scientific institution in our town..
Mentioned should be made that those few people he saw that morning were dressed in casual T-shirts and shorts of a light-sand colour without any extravagancy at all! However all females without exception were happy owners of a long and slightly wavy hair and also of perfect figures, bringing men to an ecstasy. He wanted to ask the girl what country it was but he could not do it directly.
- Where do you come from? You accent sounds very familiar to me.
- From Shirling and I came here quite recently, only about seventy years ago
Alex bust into laughing. He always liked a lambent humour of people from Misty Albion.
- Are you serious?
- Yes, everyone in my town has this accent.
Alex's ability for analysis failed to help him here. Not knowing what to say he looked around at the shelves with sandy coloured clothes, bade good-bye and left the shop.
Not giving a long thought to it he went to the grocery store. Passing by a big and transparent door of the library he could not help but looked inside. The was a small fountain among a lot of different plants in the middle of the hall and a white marble stair with a thin carved handrail going upwards just a little bit further from the hall centre.
- Beautiful...
In the grocery store Alex saw a shop assistant and the girl was as pretty as the one in the wear shop. She has big green eyes, small straight nose and a thick fair hair, falling on her shoulders and back with magnificent locks.
- Good morning, - he heard a soft pleasant voice, - What can I offer you, sir?
Alex had only that cold cube in his pocket and some change but what the currency was in use here he did not know.
- How much is this? - he asked pointing at some buns, sweet scented brown of which could be smelled even through the transparent wrapping.
- Nothing, everything is for free, sir - the girl answered with surprise, quickly putting the buns into a bag and giving them to Alex.
Being unable to speak from the surprise Alex took the buns, having noticed how gentle the skin was on the girl's right wrist.
- Free for everybody? - he asked again.
- Of, course, why did you ask about it?
- By accident.
They both burst into laughing. Alex did not hear such a clear and contagious laughter for many years. He could hardly remember where he might have heard it earlier at all.
- It must be d?j? vu; he thought and could not take his eye off the shop assistant.
- Would you like more milk? The girl asked, pointing at another department and showing her left wrist not less tender than the right one...
There was a picture of a flashed cow but there was nobody behind the counter.
- My colleague will come in a minute, - the girl smiled at Alex again, who was just about to lose his head.
- Have you been working long here, Ms?
- No, not really, just about forty years. I used to be a lecturer of Physics of High Energy in Shirling but then I decided to take a break a little bit and changed my occupation.
Once again Alex bewildered.
- Either I am going mad or all people here are desperate messers.
- We have a new shop assistant in the dairy department but she came here only about thirty years ago and was involved in science for a long time before.
There was a distant sound of steps heard in the corridor and a young dark-haired girl with an elegant gait walked into the hall. In a minute the smile from his face vanished, her eyes expressed surprise and her face became snow white. With a deep groan the girl nearly fainted but Alex reached her within a second and caught here gentle body a few inches from the floor. He saw something painfully familiar in her white face but the memory was hidden somewhere so deeply that he could not reach it.
Splashes of cold water to her face brought her back to life very quickly. The girl took a deep and gulpy breath and then opened her eyes. She looked at Alex as if he were a ghost. Her bloodless lips started to move.
- Who are you, sir?
Alex her tears in her eyes and did not know what to say and how to explain his appearance in his town.
- I am Alex, but I came here only today, if something happened?
The gentle face was not that pale anymore and the strengths were coming back to her but the eyes were full of tears again.
- Once, long time ago, I was on my holidays in this town, and my future husband, risking his own life, rescued me from the surgent ocean. However, thirty years ago, when we were walking under a warm summer rain, a gust of wind took the hat from my head and carried it away along the street. My husband ran after it and almost caught it when there was a flash of a lightning... I will never forget its deafening crack. The discharge was so strong that nothing was left just a pile of ash. You are a spit image of him..., and his name was Alex too.
- I am a physicist and research the theory of time but do not know anybody in this town.
- Very strange, my husband was working on the same problem but he could not finally work out his theory. The death stopped him. He told me he wants to prove the primacy of time but this theme is extremely difficult to understand without special knowledge. He also said with his theory it will be possible to prevent tragedies in our world. However, the materials left after him are not enough further researches. This part of the theory is still a mystery for everybody.
It gave creeps to Alex. He was dealing with the same problem.
- What's your name Mrs.?
- Actia
She fully recovered by now and was sitting in the arm-chair, bewitching Alex with her elegance at "that age". They all sat silent for a while.
- I am Elphie, - said the girl from the first department suddenly with a charming smile.
- I, - Actia continued, - did not want to break that bad news to my husband's colleagues and just said he left for some time. Where are you from, sir? Alex never mentioned he had a twin brother.
- I cannot explain that myself as I do not know myself.
The girls looked at each other.
- Only yesterday I seemed to be working in a scientific centre on the plateau of this mountain but found myself in this town this morning. There is not a single sign of my laboratory and I do not understand anything. I have an impression that a piece of the space, in the volume of which I was in, was transferred here and also.., also I found this. With these words Alex took that cold green cube out of his pocket.
- Elphie's big eyes became even bigger with surprise.
- I read about two cases like that. The cube is an energetic cast of the space, in other words, a pass to our world for a creature from another planet. By its presence it brings the energy of our planet into balance, disturbed by aliens.
- It means I did not die there?
- No, sir, you just disappeared there and appeared her.
- Can I come back?
- Nobody knows that for sure, but theoretically you cannot exclude such a possibility.
- Have many people come here the same way I did?
- No, not many, it is a very rear thing. You are the third person for the period our planet exists. Exactly the same cube was found in the outskirts of our town about three years ago and after that our pets started to disappear and even one man went missing.
- And nobody died here before? - asked Alex with a great surprise.
- The cleanliness and energetic balance of our planet, - Elphie continued - allow the people live free of illnesses and constantly stay the prime of life.
- How is that possible? How is this planet different from others?
- The energy of vanadium, - Actia joined the conversation again,-like a shell it covers the whole surface of the planet and perfectly neutralizes destroying tendencies of time. That is why we do not have either illnesses or ageing. All the inhabitants have a chance to study and develop without any limits. Only disasters and accidents can take our lives away. Once somebody achieves perfection in any area of knowledge or production and is bored he or she can change the occupation for what seems to be more interesting. Do not be surprised, Alex, when you learn that a former hardware engineer grows wheat and a former ballet dancer is engaged in a scientific research. Although all people are different here, they are all well balanced and get pleasure from being useful for other people by doing what is interesting for them.
- Did aliens from other worlds try to conquer your planet?
- It is simply impossible, - Elphie responded, - as there is only one entrance to our world. It is securely closed for the creatures differing by their behaviour from us. However if by any chance a human being, alien to the nature of our society happens to be here our technical devices allow us to send him to any inhabited planet of the Universe where he will stay all his life in the environment suitable for him.
- And what do new comers to your town do?
- First of all it is necessary to go to the library and report to the attendant on duty on the ground floor about the area of your interest and where you would like to live. She will tell you what to do next. Feel free to come to us at any time if you need food, - answered Actia.
- You have not eaten anything; - Elphie smiled putting a glass of milk in a caring manner on the clean and beautiful table beside the window.
Having thanked the welcoming hostesses and smiled them good-bye, he went off. Outside Alex turned right and went to the library entrance, which was already familiar to him. At the same time a green car with a big boot approached the grocery store. It pulled over backwards to the shop and different goods were handed out to the girls that they put carefully inside.
After a quick look at the process Alex pushed a light door and entered the library. There was a young girl sitting at the table made of a light wood in the left corner of the hall and was writhing something. Having seen Alex, approaching her, she gave him a friendly smile.
- Good afternoon. Do you want to live in our town?
- Yes, I do but I have come from far away and do not know anything here.
The girl took a yellow-green remote control from the table and pressed one of the buttons. A virtual screen appeared in the air.
- Our town is called Whiteland and it is only two hundred million years old and therefore it is considered to be a young town. Its main function is storing and processing of scientific information that is kept in this library. The majority of the data is kept on the ninth floor in an energo-informational shape on a special spherical storage and the rest of the information is kept in books and on information carriers. It is available for all our staff, analyzing scientific researches, discoveries and theories in order to allow them to find a useful use of them the people of our planet. You can choose your own accommodation with the interior and equipment appealing to your taste. Food supplies can be taken from shop on the right from the library and clothes in the shop to the left.
- And the houses with domestic animals that I saw are also available for any staff member? - asked Alex, and vividly imagine himself surrounded by ducks, chickens and pigs.
- Yes, of course. Each person feels himself much more comfortable in the environment best appealing to his soul. Some people like cats, some dogs and others like a cricket behind the fireplace. In the long run it keeps people in harmony with nature.
- What are the working hours?
- Everybody works in accordance with his or her peculiarities and demands. Some people prefer to work at night but others in the morning. The majority of people work during the day and eat only in the morning and in the evening. Some people keep on working after dinner though.
When can I start working?
- Right now if you like. What activity appeals to you better, Sir?
- I used to work in a scientific laboratory and studied characteristics of time, and also was involved in various researches and experiments and analyzed the results.
- There is an analytical department on the second floor of the library. You can choose any job you think is interesting for you.
- And where shall I live?
- Here is a manipulator. Choose all the necessary things for you.
Having seen the 200-th floor on the floor, Аlex nearly gave a whistle and without any hesitations chose it.
- Tell me, please, how should I pay for my accommodation? - he asked, trying to estimate how many hundred years he will have to pay off the loan.
We do not have money relations here as on other planets. Interesting job not only brings pleasure but also gives such results, that the inhabitants of the planet can have well off existence. The apartment is already yours, and soon you will be able to look at it, sir. It is just behind the bridge on the right hand side.
- However all this is a dream, - Аlex thought and off he went to the second floor of the library taking the white marble staircase.
The hall happened to be rather spacious. It had a parquet floor and stuffed with ancient furniture, and a lot of blossoming plants, created necessary coziness and an excellent working mood. A red haired girl was sitting at the table and reading in the farthest left corner.
- Probably she is an attendant too, - Alex thought and, walked towards her making his way between the plants,
- Well, Аlex, - he was stopped by the thin guy, which he had seen on the plateau,- you have decided to continue the job, haven`t you?
- Yes, I just have to find my theses; - he answered and passed him by towards the attendant without stopping.
- Hi there.
- Hi Аlex, you have changed a little, - the girl said, stopping her look at his hands and clothes,
Do you want to continue your research?
- Yes, miss. If only I can remember, where my notes are.
- The Archive Number four, - she pointed at one of presses at the right wall of the hall.
Burning from impatience, Аlex went there. At this moment, he felt, like a racing horse at start, which impatiently stamps the ground, but in mind already rushing forward: He quickly found a thick dark blue notebook, set down near the window and opened the notes written in his handwriting... In the beginning the speculations were correct, but by the end they were mixed up and stopped completely not coming to the most important bit.
Filling in the blank spots of the theory with the missing information took him three hours, but they flew by like winking. After that Аlex checked the added text, and was pleased with himself. Then he took the manipulator extracted from the box with the notebook and pressed the start button. And again, like by the wave of a magic wand, a screen appeared in front of him, and he could put his hand through it as through the air. He chose an encyclopedia from the list of the literature and found his theory. Alex opened it and found out that all the notes he had just made today up to the last letter were there.
- It is incredible! The technologies are just fantastic!
Аlex clucked and switched off the screen. A good work always wakens a good appetite. He stood up and went to the attendant. The Red haired girl was not there, and there was a guy sitting there instead of her.
- Tell me, please, sir, if I can take the manipulator home with me to work at home?
- There is another one in your apartment already.
Аlex thanked him for the explanation and ran downstairs stepping over every second step.