Kay turned on the signal booster. The planet"s golden ball has become full-screen. Yuna went up to Kay from behind and laid a hand on her husband"s shoulder.
- Wow, so beautiful! - said Yuna.
Billions of golden sparks played in the light of the star Matthew. The atmosphere of the planet shone with an orange-yellow halo.
- There are a lot of nitrogen oxides in the air of this world, - said Kay, Therefore, such a Gaudeamus is observed from space.
- What"s a strange name!
- In Latin, new planets were named in the era of discoveries.
- I know, but there is something special. What does "Gaudeamus" mean in Latin?
Kay shrugged and opened the space guide. "Gaudeamus, - he said aloud, - is the planet of the 20/8 system of the third sector of the galaxy. Discovered by captain Foton Kamnev in the space age 3044. The radius is 0.58 of the radius of the Earth, 0.65 of the mass of the Earth. There is an atmosphere. At the surface level, the pressure is 0.5 atmosphere, the composition is highly dependent on height. More than 70% is carbon dioxide, 10% is nitrogen, about 2% is water vapor, the rest is nitrogen oxides. On the surface, it is mainly nitrous oxide or "laughing gas", at an altitude of 40-60 kilometers under the influence of radiation, it turns into nitrogen dioxide. There is a version that the name of the planet comes from the words of the ancient hymn "Let's have fun" or "Gaudeamus".
-"Gaudeamus" means hilarious, Yuna said.
- Yes, nitrous oxide has a narcotic effect. But no one can breathe there. There is no oxygen.
2.
The ship revolved around Gaudeamus a second day. Devices collected information and sent it to the host computer. Key was sitting at the remote, thinking and stroking Rex, a large black dog.
The only expedition to Gaudeamus landed at its North Pole. That was over three hundred years ago. Since then, no one has been interested in a small world with a toxic atmosphere.
Last year, Kay and Yuna Stone signed a contract for the supply of mineral samples from Gaudeamus. Scientists hoped there would be many rare-earths in unusually high concentrations. Some experts even believed that there could be natural uranium and plutonium on the planet. With the development of hyperspace flights, the delivery of ores even from such distant planets has ceased to be a problem.
Yuna reluctantly went on an expedition, but the prospect of a good reward prompted her to fly. Yuna really wanted to arrange her daughter Kena at a prestigious art school. Research company often used wife and husband teams. Kay was an astrophysicist of the fourth category, and Yuna was a research physician.
3.
Kay was preparing to load the lander and took a spase suit for the dog with him.
Yuna asked:
- Do you want to take Rex with you?
- Yes. Such a friend will not hurt. In addition, it is a sensitive seismic-bio-radio electronic device. You will insure me here.
Yuna silently stood next to him. She crossed her arms over her chest. She didn"t want to let Kay go alone. According to the instructions, Yuna was supposed to remain in orbit, and there was nobody to send her with her husband. Of course, you could include someone else in the team. But then the salary needs to be divided into three parts.
- The temperature at the surface of the planet +90 * C. Take a thermostat for your suit with you, "said Yuna.
- This is during the day and -150 * C at night. I will work in the dark.
- Have you carefully studied materials about the planet? Do you know that life exists here?
- Yes, fungi or lichens. Thanks to them in the atmosphere a lot of laughing gas. Some special kind of photosynthesis. On most planets, plants produce oxygen, but here they produce nitrous oxide. But don"t worry, I took a radiation bio-deactivator with me. There are no other life forms.
-Then why are you taking the plasma gun?
-So, just in case.
- You know, when I wrote an article on extraterrestrial flora at the university, I came to the conclusion that if there are organisms on the planet that produce oxygen, then there must be other organisms that absorb it.
- Gaudeamus has laughing gas.
кислороде.
- It is also an oxidizing agent. A smoldering stick gives a flash in nitrous oxide, as in pure oxygen.
- This means nothing.
- What area are you planning to land in?
- Almost at the equator.
- That is, in places with the most lush vegetation?
-Yes. It is assumed that because of them in the soil there is a concentrating of metals.
- I read that no expedition has ever observed local life in the immediate vicinity.
Kay's face seemed clearly displeasure:
- Yes, I will be the first to see for myself that this is really a living planet.
- Have you seen that Gaudeamus has almost no mountains or valleys? The terrain is more diverse only at the poles. This is strange.
- Strong storms are actually here. - Kay said.
- There are also severe storms on Mars, in the solar system, but there are colossal peaks and craters. Please be careful and contact every two hours.
4.
The surface of the module was heated and covered with thick haze through which the rays of the blue-white sun passed. Seeing this on the screen, Kay thought that he needed to cover the ship with fluoride film to protect it from the effects of the atmosphere.
A hurricane raged on the surface of the planet. The module carried the wind like a feather, and the on-board computer made the ship land a hundred kilometers from the supposed point at the equator. Before landing, Kay noticed a bright spot on the screen. But the dust raised by the storm hid an unknown object.
The landing was quite smooth, the lander was covered with sand to the portholes. From space, this storm did not seem so powerful. About an hour passed, and the wind died down.
It was the height of the local day. The temperature overboard was + 97 0С. The wind howled terribly, and small grains of sand pounded on the unshielded window of Kay's cabin. The glass dimmed the light, but it was impossible to look at the hot desert.
"I have to work only at night, - Kay thought.- I will let Rex out of the cage, take a break, and in five hours it will be dark, and I will begin to assemble the devices. Interesting what I saw? If it were on Earth or on our Tetania, I would think that this is a lake. But how does water exist here? The temperature of the soil is one hundred and forty degrees, and at such a low pressure there can be no liquid water. What if it's molten metal? This is a huge wealth!"
5.
On the remote control a blue light came on.
- How are you, my dear? - Yuna got in touch.
It's all right, - Kay answered, - don't worry.
- Why is your coordinates so far to the south?
- Ask the computer. There was a storm.
- Strong?
- Not.
- Do not lie to me. What are you doing?
- Now Rex and I will have dinner. In an hour dusk will come, and I will begin the construction installation. Make a night weather forecast, please.
- Kay, I took control of an area within a radius of 500 kilometers from you.
- So what?
- The atmosphere is calm. By morning, sharp gusts of wind are expected.
- Thank you, honey. End of communication.
- End of communication.
Kay calmly worked in the lamp light. Wind did not have. Rex was jumping in a spacesuit near. He enjoyed reduced gravity. Sometimes his jumps reached five meters in height, and Kay called the dog on the radio.
Kay activated a cyber technician and he set about assembling. Almost an hour was left before contacting Yuna. Key was visited by a crazy thought. He called for Rex, fastened him with a cable to his spacesuit and went deep into the desert.
An almost twofold, compared with the usual, decrease in gravity created a pleasant ease in movement. Hoarfrost crunched underfoot, it was easy to go. Kay took a surface sensor with him, the device everywhere showed a homogeneous structure: an absolutely flat plain stretched to the horizon. Moving away from the ship about three hundred meters, Kay noticed that the properties of the soil have changed. Under a layer of hoarfrost there was a surface that the engines of the module did not worked above during landing.
Bending over, Kay picked up it by probe. It was thick and sticky like tar. In the spotlight, the ground seemed gray, steam rising from it. Particles of soil were covered with gray foaming substance. It was Gaudeamus's life.
6.
- Yuna, hello! - said Kay loudly.
- Hello. How are you?
"Did you notice something?"
"That's the thing that I noticed in you." Far was gonna away from the ship?
- I explored the local biota. The sensor showed that it really emits nitrous oxide. The time of its activity - a short time - at dusk, when it is not very hot, but light. Microorganisms accumulate energy in the form of hydrocyanic acid. They are deadly poisonous. It may be nitrogen-based life! Do you hear me?
Yes! - answered Yuna in a choked voice, - when will you finish drilling?
- You know that, here are rains of nitric acid!?
- The end of the connection! - said wife Kei and her image disappeared from the screen.
Kay sat in a chair and drank coffee. In front of him in boxing,
packed in a diamond capsule, lay something for which any xenobiological institute would pay an amount equal to fifty annual salaries of a fourth category astrophysicist. Who knows, maybe ten grams of this mud will help, finally, solve the mystery of the origin of life. What he gathered today could have revolutionized science.
7.
The last Kay's expedition day arrived. The cyber technician regularly reported to Kay on the extent assignment was completed.
Yuna got in touch.
"Kay, how is your intelligence work march so?"
- It's finishing today.
- Tomorrow a very strong storm is expected. What do you have left?
- Dismantling.
"Can you return to orbit today?"
"Then I have to work during the day."
"Kay, I'm afraid."
"Honey, I'll be back today."
"You know, I noticed something on the radioscope."
- What?
- Some kind of movement. The computer could not determine.
- Maybe it's the dunes?
"They are moving in your direction." Come back soon. End of communication.
- Today I will. End of communication.
The luminary of Gaudeamus mercilessly was radiating burn. Kay looked at instruments: overboard was +120 0С. It would be nice to have a portable thermostat, he thought. But every kilogram is hard boading at landing. After breakfast, the astrophysicist took the dog into a cage and began to prepare for the exit.
8.
A bright light hit his eyes. Cybertechnic at fifteen minutes longer than usual, he launched life support systems and reported on extreme conditions: air temperature +150 C. In order to finish faster, Kay began to help the robot. A little later, when he saw that the car was coping, he stepped back and stood in the shadow of a spaceship. The temperature inside the suit was +47 C.
"If there are no failures, then I'll go for twenty minutes into the gateway of ship," Kay thought.
He looked at the casing of the descent module. It was covered with a bluish coating. Pulling out the probe, astrophysicist placed it surface of the ship. At that moment, he felt unwell. "Damned heat!" Kay thought. In his eyes darkened. There was a buzzer, a red light flashed on the cuff of the suit. "Depressurization!" Rather, to ship gate! " - flashed in the astronaut"s head, but Kay"s legs gave way and, having managed to turn on the emergency call of the cyber technician, he lost consciousness.
9.
It was hot. Kay felt the fragrant scent of unfamiliar flowers and opened his eyes. He was lying at the ship entrance, a cyber technician was standing nearby. His lamps chaotic was flashing. Kay raised his head and sat down. The module and the drill stood on the sandy shore of a small lake. "I am poisoned; I have hallucinations!" - flashed in Kay"s brain. An impassable green thicket rose a few meters from which flowers of unprecedented beauty peeked.
The sun played on the surface of the water. The light was so bright that it was impossible to look at it. The astrophysicist got to his feet. He saw an object of white color. It was a bench, either of marble, or of some other stone. And then Kay noticed that this bench was in the same place as his lander. They occupied the same place near lake.
The bench was "on top" of the module. Kay held out his hand and she passed through a stone object. "Poisoning!!" - he wanted to scream, but throat was constricted. "How can you sens smell through a spacesuit !? Rather, to the gateway! " - flashed through the head of the astronaut.
At that moment, the green bushes stirred. He heard a slight rustle of footsteps. Kay froze. A tall blond girl stepped out of the thicket and sat on the edge of the bench. We can say that she was very high, above two meters. Probably due to such high growth, she seemed thin, although her figure was well-built.
Having looked closely, Kay realized that the girl had reached adolescence not so long ago. If not for her height, she would have been given ten or eleven years. The girl was strangely dressed. The fabric of the suit made of metal material tightly encircled her figure. Cuffs clasped hands above elbows, and legs above knees, leaving them naked.
The bushes stirred again, and after the girl a young man came out. He was taller, dressed in the same. He was also a blond. The young man went to the bench and sat next to his companion. They sat in silence for a long time, not noticing Kay, a cyber technician and a descent vehicle standing nearby.
10.
The girl was the first to break the silence.
- Atm, she turned to her companion.
- What, Eyya?
The words came to Kay as clearly as if he were without a spacesuit. They sounded even clearer in his brain.
- I spoke with my father today, - the girl continued.
- What did he say? asked Atm.
- What do you think?
- He said you should become the crown princess of Atnia?
- Yes, and I must marry the ruler. But it will not be soon. I am small. And the ruler of Atnia is four years younger than me.
"These are all their regents." It is he who persuades your father for damned union!
- Father said that this alliance is needed to defeat Basturia. It occupies the entire continent. If we are not going to unite, people from another continent will come and make us slaves.
- But why sacrifice your freedom?
- In order to reconcile peoples who have long fought, we must be an example. Then the atnian boys will marry our girls, and our boys will marry the girls from Atnia.
- Your father is the Great Leader of Kontia.
- Why does he need an alliance with these atnias? They are insidious.
- They are stronger than us. My father said that if I did not marry the ruler of Atnia, the Basturians would offer the ruler to marry the sister of their ruler. And Atnia and Basturia will make an alliance against us. I will have to marry Prince Atnian. Such is the will of the father. This is for the good of people.
- I can"t allow this! After all, you love me! I can't let you be miserable. I love you! I will steal you, I will take you to Fez. We will not be touched in their city. The laws of neither Atnia, nor Kontia, nor Basturia apply to them. Fez is a free nation!
- Atm, I love you. But I cannot commit treason. And even if we fled to Fez, we would have to live there all our lives. The lords of Atnia, Kontia and Basturia divided the whole world among themselves. I think that one of them will soon capture the island of Fes. What will happen to us then?
She touched Atm's cheek with her hand and said:
- But you do not grieve, dear,for seven whole years we will be together!
- But you will never become my wife!
- No, Atm, we must reconcile. Let's come here, to our place in the garden as often as possible, and then, when we grow up, and we are parted, we will remember each other and this lake.
- Eya, my love, I can"t put up with it! Your father is a great leader, and mine is a great sage. He is the first adviser. In his youth, he studied with the prophets Fez. I will go to him, and I will ask him to help us.
- Atm, I really respect your father. But what can he do?
- He has a half-brother in Fez, my uncle." He owns the art of the prophets.
- The prophets do not reveal secrets unless they are needed for the good of the people.
- Is our happiness not good with you?"
- They think of all of humanity."
Atm was silent.
Darkness fell into Kay's eyes. He again lost consciousness.
11.
Kay heard loud screams and the splash of water. The women screamed. When everything calmed down, Kay opened his eyes. He and his module were on the sandy shore of the lake. Eya stood a few meters away. Another girl, slightly shorter, with ash hair, buttoned up Eya's dress with a metallic sheen.
She herself wore a black and white dress. When the toilet was finished, Eya turned to her and said:
- You can go, Hana. Make my favorite dessert.
Hana bowed and, without taking her eyes off the princess, retreated into the green thicket. The green thicket began to stir again. Atm came from there. His entire body was covered in a tight-fitting metal suit, and on his head was a transparent helmet. With his right hand, the young man held a finger-thick red pipe.
- Today we are performing, - said Atm.
- Uliya? - Eya asked.
- Yes. Eotes rebelled, displeased with taxes.
- Please take care of yourself.
- I can not. I made an oath. Don't worry, Eots are not armed and trained in military science.
- Tell me, what is the reason for the expropriation?
- You know that. The basturs detained the ship of our merchants in the port. Your father gave a note to their ambassador.
- Will there be a war?
- I'm afraid.
- Let's hope for the best.
There was silence.
- Tell me why your uncle came from the Fez?" - Eya asked.
Atma's face darkened.
- Eya, until we form an alliance with Atnia, we can't be sure of anything.
- Does the Fez want to help us?" Shouldn't I marry the person I hate?
- No, my uncle didn't come for that. The Patriarch sent him because he found out that someone had stolen the secret of the prophets.
- What secret?
- Living weapon.
- Do they think we did it?
- Yes.
Kay felt dizzy again and passed out.
12.
- Atm, it's over, - Kay heard through the veil of the unconscious, - we will perish. The fate of Basturia awaits us. Living death is coming. It even destroys stones. It poisons everything. The father said that the acrid rain fell on Atnia. We have violated the ban. We will be punished.
- Eya, listen to me. I spoke to Uncle Ayake today. I have to tell you. But tell me first, do you love me?
- I cannot love you for so long. I think there is a way out. We can take poison. Let's die without suffering.
- Eya, listen to me. I spoke to Uncle Ayake today. I have to tell you. But tell me first, do you love me?
- I cannot love you for so long. I think there is a way out. We can take poison. Let's die without suffering.
- Don't, Eya. Uncle Ayak wants to save us.
- Why only us?
- He can only save two. Do you know about the underground lake in the Drak mountains?
- It is mentioned in the Book of the Prophets.
- Yes. You will remember that it is also said that once every hundred thousand years a passage opens there to another world, very similar to ours.
- But this is a legend!
- Uncle says that this is not a legend. We can get into this world by walking along the bottom of a cave lake on a certain day and hour.
- How to do it?
- Uncle made special costumes. He managed to do only two.
- When will this day come?
- The stars say that tomorrow, after sunset. Uncle will leave a message here.
- Eya do you love me?
- Yes, Atm!
The voices died away. After a minute, Kay opened his eyes. As far as the eye could see, blackened plant stems lay around. The sky was covered with brown clouds. It was raining. The red drops hissed and evaporated in the sand. Only the lake hasn't changed. Its surface reflected blue skies and green bushes.
13.
Kay was awakened by a sharp sound in his headphones. The first thing he saw was a yellow desert. The wind drove hot sand. The storm has begun.
- Pressure relief eliminated. The purifier-absorber is on, - the cybertechnologist's mechanical voice rang out over the radio. Kay raised his metal-gloved hand and brought it to his eyes. There was a gray patina on her and all over his suit. Kay's mind interrupted own cry: "Just don't take him to the ship!" . He got up with difficulty, ordered the cyber technician to collect the equipment in the airlock and turn on the radiation disinfection.
Before that, Kay had injected himself with an antidote. An hour later, he took off his spacesuit and entered the wheelhouse. Rex barked furiously in his cage.
Kay ordered:
- Cybertech! Place in # 9 capsule with a sample of local flora overboard! Switch on the disinfection of the module of the highest degree! Treat the case with gamma radiation!
When capsule # 9 disappeared into the drainage chamber, Rex fell silent. Kay took his place at the remote control, activated the key to start program. He was leaving Gaudeamus, a ghost planet. His wife was waiting in orbit.