Alice: The Girl From Earth - Булычев Кир - Страница 16

“But why did frogs so small need such big skins?” Poloskov was curious.

“I wasn’t thinking about that.” Alice admitted. “I didn’t think about that at all. And if I had, then I would never have found the frogs.”

“And what do you say, Professor?” Poloskov asked me.

“What’s there to say? We have to study the tadprowlers outer covering. Evidently it’s some kind of fabric from feed and a complicated concentrate for the frogs. Or maybe the enormous size of the tadprowlers makes it easier for them to defend themselves from predators.”

“And don’t forget about my wish, Poloskov.” Alice said severely.

“I won’t forget about anything.” Our captain answered.

Chapter Five

The Advice of Doctor Verkhovtseff

While en route we sent a subspace message to Doctor Verkhovtseff: “Arriving on Saturday. Can you meet us?” Verkhovtseff answered immediately. That he would be delighted to meet with us and would lead us through the dangerous belt of asteroids that surrounded the Three Captains’ World in his own speedster.

At the appointed hour we slowed to a halt outside the asteroid belt. The thick roi of sone debris was like a cloud hiding the planet’s surface from us. For some reason we were all excited; it seemed likely the encounter with Doctor Verkhovtseff would lead to important and interesting events. Perhaps, Even to adventures.

The doctor’s space cruiser flashed like a silver arrowhead among the asteroids and then he was beside us.

“Pegasus, are you receiving me?” A muffled voice came from the speaker. “Follow my lead..”

“What does he find so interesting here? It must be boring to be on just one planet.” Alice said; she had taken her place on the bridge in the little acceleration chair that had been made specially for her.

No one answered her. Poloskov piloted the ship while I took the navigator’s position. Zeleny was not on the bridge; he remained in the engine room.

The Pegasus changed course, avoiding a jagged asteroid, and immediately obeyed Poloskov’s command to drop toward the surface.

Beneath us passed a desert at various points cut with gorges and dotted with the pockmarks of craters. The space yacht’s silver arrow flew in front of us, guiding us in.

We slowed noticeably. You could already make out cliffs and dried rivers. Then in front of us was the dark green circle of an oasis; arched over it was the dome of the base. The doctor’s yacht went into a curve and landed on flat ground. We followed his example.

The Pegasus had hardly stopped rocking when Poloskov stood up from his acceleration couch and said, “That’s it.” Out the port, between the green oasis and our ship, I could see three stone statues.

It was the Three Captains. Their monument had been erected on a very tall base; even from far away you could make out that two of them were human beings. The third was a spindly, three legged Fyxxian.

“We’ve landed.” Alice said. “Can we go out.”

“Wait a moment.” I answered. “We don’t know the composition of the atmosphere or the temperature. Which space suit are you planning to wear?”

“None of them.” Alice answered. She pointed out the port. A man had exited the silver space yacht; he wore an ordinary, if very old fashioned grey business suit and had a floppy grey hat on his head. He raised his hand and waved to us.

Poloskov turned on the outside speakers and asked:

“I take it the atmosphere is suitable for breathing?”

The man in the hat quickly started to nod: Come on out, there’s nothing to fear!

We let down our gangplank; he met us at the bottom.

“Welcome to the base!” He said and bowed. “We so rarely see guests here!”

His manner of speech was very old fashioned; it went with his clothing.

Doctor Verkhovtseff appeared to be about sixty. He was short and skinny, but in general looked like a pleasant late middle aged mam with a face covered with tiny wrinkles who spent most of his time squinting or laughing, and when from time to time the skin of his face was stretched the wrinkles became white and very broad. Doctor Verkhovtseff had long, thin fingers. He shook our hands and invited us to visit the base.

We followed the doctor the green trees of the oasis.

“Why is there an oxygen atmosphere here?” I asked. “The rest of the planet appears to be sheer desert.”

“The atmosphere is artificial.” The Doctor said. “It was made when they erected the monuments. Several years from now they will be erecting a large museum dedicated to the heroes of space. They will be bringing in ships that have outlived their usefulness and all sorts of trees and wildlife from distant planets, a whole ecosystem.”

The doctor stopped in front of a stone block. Carved into it were these words in InterGal:

SPACE MUSEUM TO BE ERECTED HERE SOON

“As you can see,” Verkhovtseff said, “The museum will be the joint venture of some seventy different planets. In the mean time, as a beginning, an enormous atmosphere reactor was built in the center of the planet to separate out oxygen from ores. At the moment the atmosphere here isn’t the best, but by the time the museum opens it will be the best in the Galaxy.”

As we spoke we approached the base of the monument.

The monument was enormous, at least as high as a twenty story building. We stopped, bent our heads back as far as they could go, and looked over the Three Captains.

The first captain appeared to be young, broad shouldered and muscular. He had an almost up-turned nose and a broad face. The captain was laughing. On his shoulder sat a strange bird with two claws and a beautiful crown of stone feathers.

The second captain was taller than the first. He had the very wide chest and thin legs of those people who had been adapted to live on Mars. The Second Captain’s face was sharp and lean.

The Third Captain was a Fyxxian in a stiff space suit with helmet open and thrown over his back, leaning with one hand on the branch of a stone bush.

“They’re not at all old.” Alice said.

“You are correct, little girl.” Doctor Verkhovtseff answered. “They had already won fame and glory when they were quite young.”

We entered the shadows of the trees and walked down the broad path that led to the base. The base turned out to be an enormous establishment but mostly fille with cases, containers, and instruments.

“They’ve started to send the in the museum exhibits already.” The doctor said, as though apologizing for the clutter. “Come with me to my den.”

“It looks just like the Pegasus at the start of our voyage!” Alice exclaimed.

And in fact the passage through the base to Doctor Verkhovtseff’s living quarters was in some ways like walking though our ship when it had been filled with packages, cargo, and all sorts of equipment.

Doctor Verkhovtseff’s sleeping and working quarters turned out to be in a small store room between containers, filled with books and microfilms; there was scarcely room to place a folding cot which was covered with papers and films.

“Sit down, why don’t you; make yourselves at home.” The doctor said.

Other than to the occupant it was completely clear that there was nowhere here to find a place to sit. Verkhovtseff brushed a pile of papers onto the floor. The pages flew end over end, and Alice bent down to gather them up.

“You’re writing a novel?” Poloskov asked.

“Why would I write a novel? Oh, yes, of course, the lives of the Three Captains are far more interesting than any novel. It would be worth while in order to describe them as examples for future generations. But I have absolutely no literary gifts whatsoever.”

I thought that Doctor Verkhovtseff was just being modest. After all, it had been he who flew to the researchers on Arcturus Minor in order to find the plans of one of the Captains’ ships.