13 minutes to an hour "h" ...
Our captain watches with us the performance of the Four Horsemen at the missile control post - wonderful! I sit in front of my remote control, look at the TV screen and feel it breathing in the back of my head. It seems to me that he knows what is happening to me, but I don't know what is happening to him, and as a result something unclean is mixed in the fire that burns me.
But then the advertisement ended, the spiral flashed on the screen again, and - the end, I was again captured by the TV, I was no longer up to the captain.
And the spiral is filled with yellow light on a blue background, then red on green, it starts spinning - at first slowly, after a few seconds a little faster, faster, even faster in a feverish ripple of color, in a frantic dance of turns ... And something rings, like a bell of a horse of island carousels, it rings faster, and this ringing is spinning, spinning, spinning, flashing red-green, yellow-blue, spinning, spinning, non-stop spinning. ..
I am filled to the brim with a low buzz, from which everything around is shaking, it is also spinning, spinning. My muscles relaxed, it seemed that they pulled a rod out of me, and everything in me is spinning, spinning, and so easily, so blissfully, everything spinning, spinning, spinning ...
And in the center of this color maelstrom is a bright, colorless dot, it is in the very middle, it stands still and does not move anywhere, and around it, in an irresistible flicker of colors, the whole world is spinning and spinning to the roundabout ringing of pulsating turns. At this point, a low, dull buzz trembles, it sings its song to me, for me, about me ...
This point - the light - at the end of a long, infinitely long rotating tunnel. The buzz is slightly amplified, a bright dot begins to grow. I slowly swim towards her through the tunnel, and everything around is spinning, spinning, spinning ...
11 minutes to an hour "h" ...
A whirling whirlwind carries me through a long tunnel pulsating with paints there, to the exit, to the bright light ... Hurry to swim to it, plunge into this entrancing, piercing my whole body vibration, then I can forget that I'm sitting in the dungeon in my hand I have a start key and next to me is only Duke, we are alone with him in this cave among the curly colors of a spiral, and some circles and circles and circles and circles some kind of power and rushes to the alluring light that shines at the exit of the tunnel ...
10 minutes to an hour "h" ...
The light circle at the exit of the tunnel is getting bigger, bigger, the buzzing is louder, the soul is getting lighter, the walls of the Backfish are moving farther away from me, further, the terrible burden of responsibility is getting easier, and everything is spinning, spinning, spinning, and such a joy it overwhelms me that I want to cry, and this joy is spinning, spinning, spinning ...
9 minutes to an hour "h" ...
Everything is spinning, spinning, spinning ... I am spinning, Jeremy is spinning, our bunker is spinning ... the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer, closer ... Finally! I got out. Everything around is flooding with yellow light. Light, chemically bright yellow light. And suddenly it turns into a chemically bright blue. Yellow ... Blue ... Yellow. Blue Yellow-cyan-yellow-cyan-yellow-cyan-yellow ...
Pure pulsating light. Pure vibrating sound. And the word. I can't read it behind the yellow and blue flashes, but I know that it is there, behind them, pale, almost indistinguishable - the most important, most important word in the world ... And the voice, it's like singing in me, as if I'm singing it myself:
“Find out ... find out ... find out the whole truth.” Find out ... find out ... find out the whole truth ...
The whole world shudders in pulsating flashes around a word that I can't read, I can't make out, but I must, I must certainly do it ... now, now I will read it ...
- Find out ... find out ... help find out the whole truth ...
Shapeless swirling shadows hide from me the blue - yellow-blue flickering universe, hide the word ... Off, you stop me from penetrating into the secret, to know the whole truth!
“Oh tell, tell me ... the truth, the truth, the truth, the truth ...”
7 minutes to an hour "h" ...
I can not read this word! Why is the captain bothering me? And the voice inside me continues to sing: "Find out ... find out ... find out ... why such a torment ..." Yes, shut up you, finally, let me read the word! Why does it flash so fast? Can't you stop him? Or at least slow down the pulsation of colors? Then I will read it, then I will know what to do.
6 minutes to an hour "h" ...
My palm burns the starting key wet from sweat. Duke also twirls his hands. Discover! I must learn! Through the pulsating yellow-blue - yellow-blue light, through the elusive letters of the word, which, with a terrible, intolerable tension, tears the back of my head, I see the Four Horsemen. Kneeling with their faces to the sky, they pray:
- Say, tell, tell me ...
Gigantic waves of thick red, boiling gold fire slowly flooding the world, I hear a voice like thunder. He is trying to utter a word, he starts it and cannot finish it and breaks off with a groan ...
Blue - yellow-blue flashes curl around a word that I can't read - but this is the same word, suddenly I understand, trying in vain to utter the voice of fire, praying on the knees of the Four Horsemen is waiting for the same word:
- Oh say, say, tell me ...
And the warm, gentle fire so wants to say it!
4 minutes to an hour "h" ...
What is this word? What order should I give? The guys are waiting for him, I know. After all, I'm a commander, I have no right to hide an order from them, it is my duty to recognize him.
“Oh, tell me, tell me ...” four figures in black pray under the echoing alarm in my temples, and I already see that word ... now, now ...
“Oh, say, say, tell me ...” I whisper to the gentle orange fire, which grows strong and cannot utter a word.
“Oh, say, say, tell me ...” the guys sitting next to me whisper.
3 minutes to an hour "h" ...
My brain burns with yellow-blue fire. Question: “What does the fire want to tell me? What is this word? "
I have to free him, open the dungeon where it languishes. Find the key to her.
The key ... the key? Yes, here it is, the key! And the castle of this dungeon is in front of me! You need to insert a key into it ... I look at Jeremy. After all, there is something in the world - or rather, it was once, a long time ago, that now you can't even remember - was there something for which Jeremy would try to stop my hand?
But I put the starter key in the lock, and Jeremy does not make the slightest movement to stop me.
2 minutes to an hour "h" ...
Why is the captain hiding from me what order he received? The fire knows this order, but it is not given to him to express it in a word. Something is beating painfully in my brain, the word is slipping away, slipping away from me.
“Say, say, say,” I pray. And suddenly I understand that our captain also repeats with a prayer:
- Say, say, say ...
90 seconds to an hour "h" ...
“Tell me, tell me ...” the Four Horsemen pray. And the word hiding behind the flashes burns in my brain like fire.
I see Duke's key in the start lock on the remote control in front of which we are sitting. From somewhere from far away his voice comes to me:
“We must do it at the same time.”
Our keys ... Well, of course, our keys will free the word.
I put my key in the lock. One, two, three, we simultaneously turn the keys. The cover that closes the remote control folds back. There are three red buttons on the remote control. Three red missile alert lights are on.
60 seconds to an hour "h" ...
People are waiting for the order! The orange-gold fire wants to tell me it. Four black figures pray to the fire ...
Through the yellow-blue flicker hiding the word, I see a huge crowd around the tower. People standing silently pray.
The tower rising above the c
rowd flashes with the very same orange fire that wants to set free the languishing word in the dungeon. And suddenly the pillar of fire turns into a mushroom cloud - majestically swirling smoke and an unbearable orange-red glow piercing the eye ...
30 seconds to an hour "h" ...
Now the giant pillar of fire will tell us and Jeremy what we should do. The crowd screeches and roars. Yellow-blue - yellow-blue flashes around the mushroom cloud curl faster, faster, faster ... Now I will read the word, now, a little more! I already see him!
20 seconds to an hour "h" ...
Why is the captain silent? Now I will read the word myself! And suddenly the crowd surrounding the magnificent atomic cloud begins to chant:
- Do It! Do it! Do it! Do it!
10 seconds to an hour "h" ...
- Do It! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! What do they want me to do? Maybe Duke knows?
9…
People are waiting. Order, order, what should I give them the order? They bent over the fire control panels and ... OVER THE FIRE CONTROLS?!
- Do It! Do it! Do it! Do it!
8…
- Do It! Do it! Do it! Do it! - the crowd rages.
- Jeremy! I shout. “Jeremy, I see a word!”
7 ...
My hands are on the remote near the start buttons.
- Do It! Do it! Do it! Do it! - Here it is, this word! Has the captain still not understood?
6 ...
“What do they want us to do, Jeremy?”
5…
Why doesn't the mushroom cloud give orders? My people are waiting. Real sailors are always eager for battle.
But a voice like thunder bursts from a pillar of fire:
- Do It! Do it! Do it! Do it!
four ...
“There is only one thing we can do here, Duke.”
3 ...
- Attention guys, listen to the order! To the battle! The fire!
2 ...
- Yes Yes Yes! Jeremiah!
one ...
I reach out to the start buttons on the remote. All the guys reach out to their buttons. But I got ahead of them! I press the button ...
0 ...
AND KINNED THE FIRE!
Bill brown
Star ducklings
Translation from English A. Lebedeva
As soon as Ward Rafferty glanced at the old Alsop's farm, he immediately sensed a linden with the sharp scent of a seasoned newspaper wolf. There was no crowd of curious farmers, no ambulances. Ordinary outback, quiet and grace.
Old Alsop's house turned out to be a mossy two-story ruin with cream platbands on the windows and a yard overgrown with weeds. Behind the house was a barn and a dozen dilapidated chicken coops. The rickety fence, which was surrounded by all this economy, in some places propped up boards and pipe trunks. The gate hung on one loop, and Rafferty had to lift it to enter. Climbing the porch required from him a full strain of mental and physical strength.
The door opened and Mr Alsop appeared in person.
“Good day,” he said.
Rafferty pushed his hat to the back of his head, as always before the careless: “Hello! The Rafferty of The Times. Many knew his reports, and he was pleased to watch the expression on his face at these words.
- Rafferty? Mr. Alsop asked again, and Ward realized that the landlord was not a subscriber to The Times.
“I'm a reporter,” he explained. - Then they called us and said that a plane flopped in your area.
Mr. Alsop scratched his head thoughtfully.
“Nah, I never heard,” he said after a long pause.
“And the old man is slow-witted,” thought Rafferty, mentally dubbing Alsop the silent Yankee.
“Nooo,” the farmer repeated.
The door creaked and Mrs. Alsop appeared on the threshold. While the old man, hard tossing his brains, digesting what he heard, Rafferty repeated the question to his wife, hoping that she would turn out to be more eloquent. But mrs. Alsop shook her head and with the same expressive intonation blew: "Noooo."
Turning his back to the clever couple, Rafferty looked with his eyes where to put his foot so as not to rattle off the damned porch, and said with a sigh: “I thought it was a duck.” In our case, this happens. Some donkey called the editorial office and wrote something about a burning plane that fell on your field. ”
Mrs. Alsop's face suddenly lit up:
- Oooh! - she said. - But only he did not crash. And what kind of plane is this? He has no wings.
Rafferty's leg froze in the air.
“Sorry ...” he said. - So the plane still was? Yes, and what about the wings?
“Yeah,” said Mrs. Alsop. - There he lies in the barn. And his masters are those who forge iron.
“So, this is better,” thought the reporter and asked:
“So the helicopter?”
Mrs. Alsop shook her head again.
- Not-eee. He did not spin so much from above. Yes, you go to the barn and see for yourself. Take him, Alfred. Just go along the path, otherwise after the rain the whole yard is lucky.
“Welcome,” Mr. Alsop perked up. - I myself would not mind looking at this thing one more time.
Rafferty trailed behind the old man on the boards and thought that during his reporter life he had seen all kinds of outlandish people. He came across eccentrics, idiots, and idiots, and just crazy, but he had never met such boobies as these Alsopes.
“Well, chickens this year, I tell you.” And all as a selection. Minorca breed is what you need! Kochetkov wrote out - a sight for sore eyes ... How do you think, Mr. Rafferty, there will be a better deal on a star with chickens than ours, huh?
Ward mechanically looked at the sky and immediately stumbled into the mud.
- where?
- Yes, on the star.
“Ugh,” Rafferty got angry. “Apparently the old man is completely crazy.”
Mr Alsop, meanwhile, reached the barn and unsuccessfully tried to open the door.
“Jamming,” he said joyfully.
Rafferty gave the door a shoulder, and when she creaked, opened, she stuck his head inside. As soon as his eyes got used to the gloom, he immediately realized that he was dragging himself into the cursed dirt for good reason.
In the middle of the barn stood a strange object, something like a half-inflated ball. Its flat bottom rested on a plank floor, strewn with sawdust and bale thatched.
“Everything is clear,” Ward decided. “It can be seen that such a spaceship should be presented to some titan of thought from local pigs.”
Rafferty had already seen a large-sized headline for the entire Times page: "An illiterate farmer is building a rocket to fly to the moon!"
“Mr. Alsop, ”he asked casually. “And how long have you been busy with this vessel?”
The old man thought for a moment, and then smiled broadly.
“What are you, Mr. Rafferty. ” This is beyond my power. It's not a chicken coop to put together. Some of our friends arrived in this thing.
Rafferty looked steadily at Alsop and saw that his face was serious.
- And who are these your friends? He asked insinuatingly.
“You will laugh,” the farmer replied, “but I really don't know.” It really hurts badly in our opinion. In truth, one cannot even draw words out of them. I only know that calling them something like "people-who-forge-iron."
The reporter, listening to the old man's chatter, circled around a stupid ball, getting closer and closer to him. Suddenly I knocked on my knee about something very hard and cursed.
“Oh, I completely forgot to warn you, Mr. Rafferty. ” They have something like a wall here. Although it is not visible, but to approach - you will not come. I think - this is from the boys, so as not to be mischievous.
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