Kay came to himself from the fact that someone was dragging him across the floor. He tried to move his hands. Movement was restrained by a heavy spacesuit. Kay Stone raised his hand and unfastened his helmet.
- You are a miracle, mine from another planet! - He heard a high voice over his head, - If you rushed where you don't need, I would be left without a husband!
He was released. He rolled onto his stomach and got down on all fours. Looking up, he saw Yuna standing over him.
"What a parasite you are!" He not only failed the company's mission, but almost died. What stupid people, men!
"Okay, let's go to the infirmary!" - Yuna answered, helping her husband to take off his spacesuit.
"Well, you're a weakling," Yuna exclaimed. "How to pay off the mineralogical corporation now?" "You not only threw away all the samples, but you left all the equipment in Gaudeamus. How did you manage it? "Why did you go for a walk on an unfamiliar planet, and even at night?
"Don't worry," Kay assured her, "we'll leave the satellite here to gather information. I will transfer her details to the insurance company.
- Want an insurance claim? But do you have insurance?
- Yes. I insured our expedition against biological attack.
- What did you find there?
- Do you remember seeing something on the radar?" This was a warning. There is a biological hazard on the planet. No one can stay on Gaudeamus.
- I'm going to ask you, - Kay continued, - while I'm in the medical bay, to go through the Galactic network. Maybe you'll find something ...
- About Gaudeamus?
- No, we have already learned everything about him. About the first expedition to this planet.
- Expeditions of Captain Foton Kamnev?
-Yes.
2.
-The search continues, - said the computer in a pleasant baritone voice and turned on the music.
Yuna stood in front of the screen with her arms crossed over her chest. A minute later, columns of headings and numbers appeared on it.
- Completed the search for 'Captain Photon Stone, researcher of the Percenturon 20/8 system of the third sector of the Galaxy'.
- List the documents,- Yuna ordered the computer.
- The database of the Galactic Network contains: biography of Foton Kamnev, a report on the expedition to Gaudeamus in 3044 The space era, a transcript of Foton Kamnev's speech at the Space Council. Files in video format.
- It's all?
- There is a scanned document. The title is "Diary".
Yuna went to the keyboard and turned on the file viewer.
- Video-files are damaged. Recovery is required,- said the computer after a second.
- How much time will it take?
- Maximum 20 hours for all files
- Can I view the scanned document?
- Its format is supported. Continue work?
- Yes,-Yuna said
- An image of sheets of paper covered in small, illegible handwriting appeared on the screen. The text was in Russian.
- Y-yes, - Yuna thought, these must be letters from five hundred years ago in a foreign language! This is too much. She turned on the microphone and said:
- Kay, listen, are you out of your mind? Could you find the alien texts?
- Well yes! Really? I thought they were usually saved on the computer.
- Not. Here you can see that these are sheets of some kind of notebook. Why did you decide that there should be a magazine on the net?
- I do not know. This is usually written by the captains.
- No. This is a personal diary
- All the more interesting! Kay said.
3.
Yuna opened the created file
- So! - she thought, - the program won't read these scribbles. Less than half of the text has been translated.
Yuna zoomed in and read it.
At the beginning of the diary there was an epigraph:
"Tues responsables de celui qui a apprivose".
(You are responsible for those you have tamed ( French)).
"A quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery?" Yuna thought. What does it mean? Then was the diary entry:.
- August 42, 3037 on the galactic calendar. The 10th day of the expedition of the Institute of Astroarchaeology to the Moon. We are at the lunar base in the Tycho Brahe crater.
The two-storey buildings under the dome of the foundation are a great place to rest after excavations. The giant grass around my cottage is less than ten meters from the dome. It is located above the surface of the Moon, at an altitude of 100 meters! The stars are perfectly visible through it (with the lights off).
Base staff release pigeons under the dome. Today, during the watering from the sprinkler, a white dove flew to my window. I opened the window wider and gave him bread from my space ration.
September 1, 3037 according to the galactic calendar. Day 28 of the expedition of the Institute of Astroarcheology. What the hell are we doing here anyway? Professor Cadmius Plutonsky, in my opinion, does not know what he is doing.
If I were to lead the search, we would have begun long ago research in the region of the asteroid belt. What's the use of looking for traces of the first space expedition here? Everyone knows that Mars is the oldest planet, and most likely the first interplanetary flights were along the Mars-Juno and Mars-Westa routes.
The land was settled much later. A well-known astronomical fact: the galactic calendar coincides with the Martian one with an accuracy of 0.5%!
September 3, 3037 according to the Galactic calendar. Day 30 of the astro-aocheological expedition.Today is a good forecast. The radiation level is normal, there is no meteorite hazard. In the morning, Professor Plutonsky and his wife, Dr. Janet Plutonsky, retired to the walls of Tycho crater. They did not take anyone with them and stayed there for two hours, brought four boxes with samples. Nobody was shown anything.
Today, during watering, a white dove flew into the window again. I gave him some bread, but he took a bite reluctantly. But a few grays flew in and ate everything. I wish I had pigeons. On Mars
Tonight, John Pluto and his twin brother Steve organized a medical examination of all members of the expedition. Two, Kena Cash and Martin Trigger, suffer from mild moon fever. They were forbidden to leave the dome or even wear spacesuits until the end of the expedition.
September 5, 3037 on the galactic calendar. The 32nd day of the expedition to the moon. Today it became known why a general medical examination was organized. Martin Trigger, who was on duty at the dome waiting for the professor and his wife, saw a naked woman on the edge of the crater.Martin turned on the repeater and, of course, found nothing, which he reported to his superiors. It's a strange disease - moon fever! Kina Cash didn't complain about anything. Or maybe she was just afraid to admit it.
I fed the pigeons again today. The white dove didn't eat anything, just sat alone and looked at me. How I want to go home!
September 6, 3037 on the galactic calendar. The 33nd day of the expedition to the moon.
Plutonsky announced today that there will be an expedition council tomorrow and wants to make an important announcement. (Due to reorganization or what?) Our expedition is funded by sponsors, although this is the money of a whole research institute. So it is not profitable. Firing someone? I have not come to the surface for three days. I am terribly toiled from idleness. Others too.
White didn't show up today. A flock of grey pigeons came and ate all the bread
September 7, 3037 on the galactic calendar. The 34nd day of the expedition to the moon.
Finally the professor called a council. What nonsense he said! That there is nothing to do on the moon, that's for sure. He offers to fly to Earth, in his opinion, there he will find traces of the first space expedition.
Plutonsky claimed to have found an artifact to support his hypothesis. Moreover, he demonstrated it! This is either a piece of sheathing or a fabric with a pattern - a five-pointed star. Pluto claims that a cosmic-type civilization existed on Earth and that such artifacts should be found there. (But they are over five thousand years old!)
White never returned. The grays ate all the bread.
September 8, 3037 on the galactic calendar. The 35nd day of the expedition to the moon.
Today the professor invited me to his home. We had a confidential conversation. He asked not to disclose this topic. One thing I can say is that, of course, there is no point in flying to Earth.
In the professor's cabin (he lives on the ship) there is a photograph of him with his family on the beach in bathing suits. He told me that in his youth, on Earth, he drove up to his future wife on the fifth floor of the house on a motorcycle (I wonder what it is?).
My White probably won't come back. I don't think he needed bread.
September 11, 3037 on the galactic calendar. The 38nd day of the expedition to the moon.
Packing our bags. Finally! Tomorrow is the start!
White did not return. This is how we sometimes lose friends when we think they need bread from us. But he only came to me. I remember he got stuck between the windows and I helped him out. Immediately after that, he began to fly to me.
And then the Grays flew in and pushed him away. They just came to eat! He just didn't have enough room. I like comparing people and birds. They both have a dream - to fly. I also love poets and writers from the very beginning of the development of the Earth. Their ancient languages and parables. Here is one of them.
A fox lived in a wild forest. In his youth, it was easy for him to hunt even birds. But by old age, the strength was no longer the same. And then the fox came up to the birds and said: "It's time for me to think about my soul. I have sinned a lot in my life. I want to ask you and God for forgiveness. Let's pray together. The birds were surprised. They are not used to trusting the old fox.
But he mentioned the name of the Lord God! Even a fox cannot be denied repentance. The birds came down from the trees and bowed their heads in prayer. That's when the fox grabbed everyone.
Everything is clear, but it is not clear whether there is a God or not? "
Yuna finished reading.
"Kay," she told her husband over the radio.
"I don't remember very well galactic history. Do you know how the ancestral planet was found?
"Do you mean the Earth?" Three hundred years ago, excavations were carried out on it, which confirmed the hypothesis of proto-civilization.
- And before that, Mars was considered the birthplace of mankind?
- Well, of course, the conditions are much better! Low gravity, almost the same climate at all latitudes. And most importantly, the atmosphere is almost half oxygen! Probably, all this was done artificially, with the exception, of course, of gravity.
4.
September 13, 3037 on the Galactic calendar. Second day in space.
We are in low earth orbit. Apogee 3600 km, perihelion 400 km.
We have to send part of the team to Earth. Maybe tomorrow. Ken Cash too. She came to my cabin last night. She said that she wanted to take a shower, but could not: she broke down (I doubt it). She took a shower, entered my room, took off her robe and was in only her panties. She went to bed with me. I turned off the light. I wanted to ask, "Is your bed not working either?" but I didn't say anything. She was lying on her side with her back to me.
I started kissing her spine. Then she turned to face me and took my cock. Oh, sorry, something worked out here. She said we needed a towel or something dry. I began to carefully remove her panties. I jerked off her. Well, she's a hurricane! She sat on top of me and began to push my penis into the vagina.
Why did she do it at all? It would be nice to do it with her without weightlessness. In any case, she would have been written off to Earth. She has moon fever. It's good that it's not contagious. I am, of course, considered a good pilot in the solar system. But while I'm with Plutomsky, I don't decide anything. Did she sleep with him too? Anyone else? "
Yuna stopped reading. " Pornography? - She thought, - Moon fever in general activated the nervous system".
She continued to read.
"September 14, 3037 on the Galactic calendar. Third day in space. We left Earth orbit today. Martin Trigger, Kena Cash, Janet Plutonsky and Cadmium Plutonsky are sent to Earth. I was appointed captain. I am a senior pilot of the 5th rank Foton Kamnev. Finally, I can write about the true goals of the expedition ... "
At this point, the recording became very illegible and the computer could not read it.
"September 14, 3037 on the Galactic calendar. Fourteenth day in space. The speed is three ten-thousandths of the light. We are at the edge of the solar system. This is the Kuiper belt. Asteroids shine and glow in it. I slow down our speed to get through them.
Places that I have known since my youth. Who on Mars in my time was not engaged in immersion in space? We go to the asteroid 14-69-alpha. We'll have to gather an expeditionary council. And then there will be a festive dinner ..."
"September 27, 3037 on the Galactic calendar. Sixteenth day in space. We made a stop. The landing was made on asteroid 14-69. The places are familiar to me. There was a gala dinner yesterday. The kitchen is ordinary and spacious. Steve Pluto was at the ceremony, listened as I read Plutonsky's farewell letter to the crew, and left.
Kay entered the computer compartment. He asked Yuna:
- How's the transcript?
- Why did you get out of the capsule? - she answered the question with a question.
- I'm fine. Have you read a lot?
- Less than half. The rest is completely undecipherable. Look at it. That's pretty much it. I almost finished reading.
- I don't think he tried very hard to make his notes legible," Kay said.
- And he wrote in Russian, although the crew spoke English.
5.
"September 28, 3037 on the Galactic calendar. Seventeenth day in space. I can't wait to cross the watershed - the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt - where galactic space begins. It seemed so far away, and suddenly it was so close. I have to go around the whole ship before we will go out into the Big Space. After all, am I the captain or not? And I will definitely look into the medical compartment, although Pluto resists. I need to know what's going on on the ship before the crew hibernates.
"September 29, 3037 on the Galactic calendar. Eighteenth day in space. No, this Pluton is definitely getting on my nerves, and his brother Steve is a little crazy. I talked him into going out for dinner with the crew yesterday and he came with his tray of sandwiches, grilled meats and juice. Like this? Trainee Feng Selen, a mischievous guy who listens to "Product of Decay" all the time, discreetly exchanged a glass of juice for his own. Everyone except the brothers noticed this, but said nothing. So what? A minute later, Steve vomited right on the table. Therefore, his brother hastily took him to the infirmary.
"September 23, 3037 on the Galactic calendar. Eighteenth day in space. Twenty-second day in space. My patience has run out. It was Steve Pluton's watch hour. A patrol cruiser from Ruthenia approached us. Is it really necessary to behave so idiotic !? Instead of following the cosmic ritual of turning the bow of the ship and then the stern with lighted beacons, this idiot sent an informational letter! What a self-respecting captain of a warship would read a thirty-page dissertation! It was with difficulty that I managed to resolve the situation. It's good that I know Russian. Thanks to my grandmother and her robot Vanka, with whom I loved to play as a child ...
... Oh, those colonists from distant space villages! There are three professors for one normal person. Plutonsky was also born on a space base. You see one: the reflection or the sun. Did he really have to rise to the top of thought along with Pluton in order to disturb the order! Wouldn't that hurt the expedition to the ancestral planet? So, in order.
So, I have a plastic card on the infirmary door. I open the door and Steve meets me on the doorstep. I recognized him immediately. He and his brother are as different as mirror images. And next to him is a strange dog. Never seen such a breed. And she did not bark, but whined strangely, snapping her teeth.
I ask: "Who allowed to keep the animal on the ship?" Steve blushes, looks down and says, "This is Dr. Pluto's special permission. I have a veterinary card. " "Okay, I say, let me go to the infirmary and inspect the rooms". Unlike his brother, Steve is not so stubborn. "Condi, place," he said to the dog and let me in.
And at that moment John Pluton appeared. He returned from the galley. He carried a tray of food and canned food for the dogs. He was furious. I remember this scandal. Pluto shouted that I had no right to visit the medical bay without his permission, and I told him that if he did not stop his tantrum and did not allow me to inspect the entire ship before the crew went into hibernation, then I would cancel the expedition. He shouted that I had no right to do this, but at that moment his brother Steve said that he needed to tell everything, otherwise at some point it would become known.
However, he is a reasonable guy. He managed to calm John down, so John walked into the medical ward, closed the door behind him and said he was sorry, and he wanted me to promise that I wouldn"t say anything to the team until we reached sublight speed and hibernated. I replied that I could not make such a promise, since I did not know what was being said. He was hysterical again. Steve tried to calm him down again. He said: all the same. He has to tell me this, because this also applies to the team. When he finally calmed down, he and Steve told me things that shocked me.
In short, the achievements of modern science can do what a normal person could not dream of.
The one John Pluton passed off as his brother is his clone! He and Pluto cloned it on a ship using molecular assembly. Only the cloning was wrong, and Steve was not born a copy of John, but a mirror image of him. Moreover, the poor man cannot eat ordinary food. His body does not absorb it. John prepares food for him from enantiomeric sugars and proteins.
He and Steve explained to me for a long time that there are antipode molecules that are linked to each other like mirror images, and that all normal people eat only nutrients, and Steve, poor fellow, must eat their stereochemical isomers. Could they clone it, as usual, from an egg? You know, experimenters! They say this opens up new possibilities in cloning - to create a new person. In my opinion, a dangerous idea.
And they also cloned an animal that I thought was a dog. From fossil DNA. Some kind of prehistoric predator. Condilartra is called. This one eats everything.
We are nobody and nowhere on the path to Eternity. If humanity disappears, spring will meet a new dawn on Mars and Earth without noticing that we are no more. If anything happens to the crew, no one in the solar system will know. This is the order: if the expedition does not return, we never send another one to find out the reasons. We cannot afford to risk two ships if one expedition to this sector of the galaxy has shown it to be dangerous.
Each expedition means years, money and human destinies. We only fly to safe worlds. But a person cannot live without symbols and labels. He turned the Cosmos into a huge freeway with warning signs. And we have to deliver another one. But if we don't return, Steve will survive. An artificial man, forever young and practically invulnerable. He guards the team, which is in a state of suspended animation on a forty-year journey into obscurity..."
She read the diary. Yuna got up from her chair, walked over to her husband, hugged him and said, "What a fool, Professor Pluto! To keep Steve from getting bored, he didn't need a dog, but a wife! "