Alice: The Girl From Earth

by Kir Bulychev

  “With pleasure.” The Chief answered. “And give him our greetings while you’re at it. And don’t forget to transfer the tadprowlers to your pool.”

  We said our farewells to the hospitable researchers and departed.

  Before I dropped off to sleep I decided to examine the tadprowlers.

  It turned out their similarity to salamanders was only superficial. They were covered with a tough, shining mass of scales, and they had enormous sad eyes with long lashes, short tails split in two and ended with thick, coarse brushes.

  I decided would move the tadprowlers to the pool in the morning there was nothing that could happen to them overnight in the aquarium. I threw the tadprowlers two pieces of water plants and turned off the light in the hold. A beginning had been made the first animals for the Zoo were aboard the Pegasus.

  In the morning Alice awakened me.

  “Papa,” she said. “Wake up.”

  “Anything happen…”

  I glanced at my watch. It was still only seven O’clock in the morning ship’s time.

  “Why have you gotten up so early?”

  “I wanted to take a look at the tadprowlers. I’ve never seen anything like them on Earth before.”

  “What of it? For that you have to awaken your elderly father? You should have turned on the robot. Let him get breakfast ready; we have to reason to hurry to get up.”

  “Your breakfast can wait, Daddy!” Alice shot back very impolitely. “I’m telling you, get up and come look at the tadprowlers!”

  There was something in her voice that made me very apprehensive.

  I got out of my bunk and, without bothering to get dressed, ran to the hold where the aquarium had been placed. The sight which awaited me was tremendous. The tadprowlers, as unbelievable as this may sound, had more than doubled their size over-night and now no longer fit into the little aquarium. Their tails stuck over the sides of the glass and now hung down almost to the deck.

  “That can’t be!” I said. “We’ll have to ready the pool immediately.

  I ran to awaken the engineer Zeleny.

  “Come quick; the tadprowlers have grown so much I can’t even lift one up.”

  “I did warn you.” Zeleny said “It’s all going to be like this. Why in heaven’s name did I ever agree to work on a wandering Zoo? Why?”

  “I don’t know.” I said. “Come on.”

  Zeleny put on a coverall and let himself be dragged, grumbling, to the hold. When he saw the tadprowlers he gasped, scratched his beard, and groaned:

  “Tomorrow they’ll occupy the entire ship!”

  Fortunately for us the pool had already been filled with water. With Zeleny’s aid I transferred the tadprowlers. They turned out to be not quite as heavy as they looked, but they twisted and squirmed from our hands so much that when we had dropped the third and last of them into the pool we were bruised and covered with sweat.

  The Pegasus’s pool wasn’t very large four by three meters and only two meters deep but the tadprowlers found it comfortable. They began to circle around inside, hunting for fish. It took little intelligence to realize they were famished certainly these creatures, evidently, were intent on setting the Galactic record for speed of growth.

  While I fed the tadprowlers half the contents of one of the crates of water plants were consumed at once Poloskov appeared in the hold. He had already showered, shaved, and was dressed in uniform.

  “Alice tells me your tadprowlers have grown a bit.” He said, laughing.

  “Not enough to be worth mentioning.” I answered, pretending that such wonders were anything but unusual to me.

  Then Poloskov looked into the pool and gasped.

  “Crocodiles!” He said. “Real crocodiles! They could eat a man in one gulp”

  “There’s nothing to fear.” I said. “They’re vegetarians. The researchers should have warned us, though.”

  The tadprowlers swam on the surface of the water and opened thier enormous, hungry maws.

  “They want to eat again.” Zeleny said. “Pretty soon they’ll come hunting us.”

  Toward supper the tadprowlers had reached a length of two and a half meters and had entirely consumed the first crate of water plants.

  “They could very well have warned us.” Zeleny groused, referring to the researchers. “They knew what was going to happen and were thinking: let the specialists sweat some.”

  “Naw, that wasn’t it.” Alice spoke up; the researchers on Arcturus Minor had given her as going away presents: a model of an ATV carved from wood, a chess set made from the bones of an excavated parallelepiped, a small paper knife carved from the core of a petrified tree, and a number of other interesting items which they had made themselves over the long evenings to maintain their sanity.

  “Oh well, we’ll see.” Zeleny said philosophically and went off to check the engines.

  Toward evening the length of the tadprowlers reached three and a half meters. They were already finding it difficult to swim about the pool and they kept close to the bottom, swimming to the top only to munch on bunches of waterplants.

  I found myself going to sleep that night with the heavy forboding that I would not be able to get the tadprowlers to the Zoo. The first of the animals had turned into a snow ball rolling down hill. Space was still filled with mysteries which a smiple terrestrial biologist just can’t sink his teeth into.

  I made certain I got up before anyone else. I tiptoed down the corridors, remembering the nightmares that had run through my mind during the night. I had dreamed the tadprowlers had become longer than the Pegasus itself, crawled outside, and were now flying beside us in empty space and still trying to eat our ship.

  I opened the door to the hold and stood for a moment on the threshold, looking around to make certain that a tadprowlers didn’t crawl out from around some corner.

  But the hold remained silent. The water in the pool was unmoving. I walked closer. The shadows of the tadprowlers, now about four meters long, were black pools on the bottom.

  My heart almost burst from my chest. I grabbed a mop and stuck one end into the water. Why weren’t the tadprowlers moving

  The mop knocked against one of the tadprowlers and shoved it easily to one side, pushing one of its companions to the far side of the pool. That one did not move either.

  “Expired.” I realized. “From hunger.”

  “What’s up, papa?” Alice asked.

  I turned. Alice was standing barefoot on the cold plastic surface of the hold, and instead of answering her I said:

  “Go right back to our cabin and put something on your feet. You’ll catch a cold.”

  Then the door opened and Poloskov came into the hold. Over his shoulder I could see Zeleny’s red beard.

  “Well, what’s up?” The two spoke in chorus.

  Alice ran off to put on her slippers, and I, not bothering to answer, tried to push one of the motionless tadprowlers to the side of the pool. His body felt like it was empty and drifted lightly around the pool. The eyes were closed.

  “They kicked off.” Zeleny said sadly. “And after all our work transferring them to the pool yesterday. Well, I did warn you!”

  I turned the tadprowlers over with the mop. That proved not at all difficult. The tadprowlers spotted belly was split open down the middle. All that remained in the pool were the creatures’ outer skins, which retained the form of their bodies because hard and thick scales covered them, not permitting the hides to collapse.

  “O-ho!” Zeleny said, looking around the hold. “They’ve shed their skins!”

  “Who?” Poloskov asked.

  “If we’d only known!”

  “Listen, Professor Seleznev.” Captain Poloskov turned to me in his official capacity, “judging from everything I suspect that unknown creatures are now aboard my ship, creatures which were hidden in the so called tadprowlers. Where are they?”

  I turned the last of the tadprowlers over with the mop. It was empty as well.

  “I
don’t know.” I admitted honestly.

  “And when you entered the hold, was the door shut or open?”

  My mind was simply not working to well, and I answered:

  “I don’t remember, Poloskov. Most likely it was closed.”

  “Tarnation!” Poloskov said, and hurried toward the exit.

  “Where are you going?” Zeleny asked.

  “To search the ship!” Poloskov said. “And I advise you to search the engineering compartment. Just make certain you’re armed. We don’t know what’s come out of the tadprowlers. It could be dragons.”

  They hurried out, but a few minutes later Poloskov returned running and handed me a blaster.

  “This isn’t something to laugh at.” He said. “And I’d advise you to lock Alice in your cabin.”

  “There’s really no need for any of this.” Alice said. “I have a theory…”

  “I don’t want to hear your theory.” I said. “Off to the cabin.”

  Alice fought back like a wildcat, but we finally succeeded in locking her into our cabin and began a search of the entire ship.

  It is remarkable how many holds, bulkheads, corridors, accessways and simple spaces are hidden in a comparatively small research vessel. The three of us, covering each other, wasted three hours while we examined every cubic centimeter of the Pegasus.

  Nowhere did we find monsters.

  “That’s it.” I finally said. “Let’s have breakfast; then we can search the ship all over again. They had to have gotten somewhere?”

  “I want to eat too.” Alice, who had been listening to our conversations over the internal com system, said. “Just get me out of this prison.”

  We released Alice and proceeded to the crew’s lounge like soldiers on patrol.

  Before we even sat down for breakfast we locked the door and placed the blasters beside us on the table.

  “It’s a mystery!” Poloskov said, hunched over Soya-Bix. “Where could they be hiding. In the reactor? Could they have gotten outside.?

  “Infernal monsters.” Zeleny said. “I just don’t like monsters. I didn’t like the tadprowlers right from the very start. Hand me the instacaf.”

  “I fear we may never resolve this mystery.” Poloskov said.

  I nodded, agreeing with him.

  “No, it’s simple.” Alice interjected.

  “Now you be quiet and drink your tea.”

  “I can’t be quiet. If you want, I can find them for you.”

  Poloskov started to laugh. Then he laughed a long time, and sincerely.

  “Three grown men searched the ship for three hours, and you want to find them on your own.”

  “All the easier.” Alice answered. “Bet I can’t?”

  “Of course I do.” Poloskov laughed again. “What do you want to bet?”

  “A wish.” Alice said.

  “Agreed.”

  “Only I have to search for them alone.”

  “Not on your life!” I said. “You are not going out there alone. Have you forgotten that there may be creatures of unknown capabilities and intentions roaming about the ship?”

  I was furious at the Arcturus Minor researchers for their dangerous practical jokes. I was angry with myself as well for being asleep in bed and missing the moment when the tadprowlers’ outer coverings were discarded. And, I was angry with Alice and Poloskov who had taken such a serious moment to make a childish bet.

  “Then we’re off.” Alice said, getting up from the table.

  “First finish your tea.” I said severely.

  Alice finished her tea and confidently headed for the hold where the aquarium stood. We followed after her, feeling ourselves to be fools. What reason, after all, did we have for listening to her?

  Alice quickly looked over the section. She asked Poloskov to pull the cases off the wall. He complied with a smile. Then Alice returned to the pool and walked about it. The tadprowlers’ empty skins of the lay black on the bottom. On the surface of the water drifted uneaten waterplants.

  “Here.” Alice said. “Pick them up. But be careful they can jump.”

  And then we saw what was sitting on the green water plants in a row, three frogs. More precisely, not quite frogs, but three creatures very similar to frogs. Each about the size of a thimble.

  We snatched at them and placed them in a can and then I, regretting my earlier obstinacy, asked Alice:

  “Listen, kid, how did you guess?”

  “That’s not the first time you’ve asked, papa,” She answered, covered with pride. “It’s all because you’re all grown up, all very wise and educated, and you think, as they say, logically. I’m not very wise and educated and I think about whatever pops into my head. I was thinking, that if the name of these tadprowlers comes from tadpoles then what they turn into is frogs. And young frogs are always smaller than tadpoles or prowlers. You went about the ship with pistols and hunted for giant monsters. Even I was afraid at the time. But I was sitting locked in the cabin and thinking that, you don’t always look up and search for something enormous. Maybe you should look in the corner and hunt for a really small frog. And I found them.”

  “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 bein
gs. 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.”