by Kir Bulychev
“Petrov.” He introduced himself. “M-micael Petrov. I’m project director. But it will be Richard here who will actually operate the machine.”
“Of course, of course.” I said. The name of this famous physicist, who had discovered temporal changes in superstring plasma, and who had then went on to head the Time Institute, was one very familiar to me. “I am delighted you could come here.”
“Is there some holiday or celebration.” Petrov asked. “A birth day, p-perhaps? I’m sorry; if we had known I’d have brought something..”
“No, no celebration.” I said. “Our friend Gromozeka brought some flowers yesterday. And as Gromozeka never does anything at less than ten thousand percent he just cleared out an entire flower nursery.”
“Do sit down.” Gromozeka said. “Have some Ex-Lax and we can talk.”
He reached inside the deep pouch which grows on the belly of all Chumaroseans and pulled out a bottle of Ex-Lax, several kinds of crackers, cheeses and dips, as well as some bottles of wine for the rest of us.
“So,” he said, spreading out on the rug and surrounding all of us with his tentacles, as though we were afraid we might all run screaming in every direction, “We now have ships, the agreement of the Academy of Sciences for your expedition into space, and we will soon be testing your machine. Are you happy?”
“Thank you.” Petrov said politely. “Your invitation was…most kind.”
“Ah,” Gromozeka said mortified, turning to me, “in reality he is anything but happy. And do you know why? Because he wanted to spend time on Chud lake.”
“Chudskoe.” Alice corrected Gromozeka.
Gromozeka ignored her.
“He wanted to go to Chudskoe lake because he knew what was awaiting him there in the past. As many times as he might venture there and then, nothing will change the fact that Alexander….. Nevsky defeated the Tattletonic Knights. But on Coleida we do not know, with certainty, how everything came about. And what if the planet died not from Space Plague but from something else?”
“If you are trying to imply cowardice on our parts,” Richard grew angry, “try somewhere else. You have no idea what sort of risks are associated with working out-time. Our people have tried to save Giordano Bruno from the fire, they have infiltrated the Crusades and Fascist camps, sharing the danger and misfortune, and sometimes fates, of the peoples of other times…”
“Don’t get angry, Richard.” Petrov said. “Can’t you see that Gromozeka is trying to tease you? And you took the bait.”
“But I am teasing no one!” Gromozeka grew agitated. “I am a very direct and naive archaeologist.”
What Gromozeka said was anything but the truth. In reality he was not devoid of spite himself, and he was afraid the temporalists would somehow get out of going to the archaeological dig and that all his dreams would turn to dust.
“Don’t be afraid, Gromozeka.” Petrov said suddenly. “If the Time Institute promised you the exp-perimental model of the time machine would be tested at your expedition, it will be.” He was a very perceptive person.
“Now that is superb!” Gromozeka answered. “Of course I don’t doubt it. Otherwise I would never have introduced you to my best friends, Professor Seleznev and his famous daughter Alice, about whom you know far too little, although you will soon have the opportunity to become more fully acquainted with her.”
“And why will they? Become acquainted, I mean?” I asked.
“Because I have conceived the perfect gift for your daughter’s birthday, Professor.” Gromozeka answered.
“And what is that?”
“We’ll take her with us to Coleida?”
“When? Now?”
“Of course, certainly, now.”
“But Alice has to go to school.”
“Tomorrow I’ll go myself to visit your school and have a word with the teacher. She will certainly let her go for several days.”
“Oh!” Alice said, “Thanks a lot! But just don’t walk into the school yourself.”
“Why ever not?”
“Because Elena, my teacher, she’s really nervous and afraid of spiders and mice and other critters.”
“And in what way am I like unto them?” Gromozeka thundered.
“You’re not.” Alice hurried to answer. “But she’d really be afraid of you a little. Not so much for herself but for me. She’s say that she was afraid to let me go… that is not so much with you as with what you are; just don’t get angry Gromozeka…”
“I understand it all.” My friend said sadly. “It’s perfectly obvious. You, dear child, have fallen into the hands of a cruel and terrible woman. You fear what she might threaten me, your friend, with evil…”
“No, you don’t quite understand…”
“I understand everything. Professor!”
“What?” I asked and tried to hold back the grin on my face.
“You must immediately remove your child from that school. They are torturing her. If you do not do it I shall go there myself tomorrow and save Alice myself.”
“Alice is perfectly capable of saving herself.” I said. “Don’t have any fears for her sake. Now, how many days do you propose to take her for?”
“A mere thirty or forty.” Gromozeka said.
“No. Don’t even think of it.”
“Then for twenty-seven days.”
“Why twenty-seven.”
“Because the two of us are bargaining and you have already gotten me to back down two days. Your move.”
The temporalists were laughing.
“I had no idea that space archaeologists were so….” Richard said.
“But I am not prepared to bargain with you on this.” I told Gromozeka. “You really must understand that earth children have to go to school.”
“To such a monster like the foul Elena, who tortures mice and spiders? Who would have attacked me, if not for Alice’s timely warning?”
“Yes to the monster, to the charming, pleasant and intelligent woman, my thick skinned egoist friend.”
“P-please do not argue.” Petrov said. “When does Alice’s term break start?”
“In five days.” Alice said.
“How long is it?”
“One week.”
“That’s just p-perfect. Send your daughter with us for the term break week. There is certainly no way we will be able to finish loading before Alice’s break starts.”
“Stop!” Gromozeka fumed. “I have yet to finish my bargain with the Professor. Let your daughter go for twenty-six days.”
“No.”
“For twenty-two.”
“Not on our life.”
“You are a hard man, Seleznev. Not even my little bouquet of flowers yesterday can move you. Eighteen days, and not a minute less.”
“Why for so long?”
“The flight there takes two day. Then two days return. And two weeks on the planet.”
“Okay.” I said. Four days travel time, five days on Coleida, and one day for a fudge factor. Ten days in all. I will go to the school myself and ask for Alice to be permitted to return from break three days late. And not another word on the matter.”
“Alas.” Gromozeka agreed. “But the ship might be delayed en route. What if it has to avoid a meteorite swarm?”
“I will not hold meteorite swarms, novas, or other natural disasters against you.”
“Alice,” Gromozeka turned toward my daughter. “You understand it all? You’ll get the instructions from me tomorrow. But now, my dear temporalists, I must tell you how lucky we were that this cruel Professor has agreed to send is marvelous daughter with us. Hear my recounting of the story of how Alice found the Three Captains and saved the Galaxy from the space pirates.”
And Gromozeka set about to detail for the temporalists our flight in the Pegasus in search of exotic and rare extraterrestrial animals, and how we found the Second Captain. His retelling was so far from the truth that I did not bother to interrupt and correct Gromozeka but just told Pe
trov and Richard:
“Scale it all back about ten times. And you, Alice, go to your desk and do your lessons, or else you’ll end up believing Gromozeka’s tales of your own feats of daring do.”
“I haven’t yet begun to do daring do, Papa.” Alice said, but she behaved herself. “Good night. I have my homework to do. I’ll see you in space.”
When Gromozeka finished his story of Alice’s Labors the temporalists began to discuss their own work on Coleida, what else they would need to take to Coleida, and did not depart until after midnight.
And when I was going to bed I asked Gromozeka:
“Tell me, you old scoundrel; why did you insist that Alice go along?”
“A mere trifle; I thought it would be good for the child…” Gromozeka said.
“I do not believe you. But as to what I can do…”
“I will look after her myself.” Gromozeka said, making himself comfortable and turning into a large shining sphere. “Not one little golden hair will be missing from her beautiful little head when she returns.”
And four days later the ships with the disassembled time machine aboard took off from Earth and headed toward Coleida. Alice went with Gromozeka on the first ship. As to what happened on that planet, I only learned two weeks later, when Alice got back. What happened is this…
5
The ships landed on Coleida early in the local morning. By the time the locks were open the guard on duty at the field camp’s com center had already managed to awaken all the archaeologists and they, pulling on their clothing on the run, hurried to where the ships had landed in a dusty field tracked over by the robots and excavatory machines.
“I’ll go out last.” Gromozeka said to the temporalists and Alice. “You are our guests and I a mere archaeologist. They already know we’re bringing the time machine and will be delighted to see you. Alice, dress more warmly; I promised our father that you would not catch a cold. On the other hand, a cold or sickness that needs microbes will not threaten you; there are no microbes on Coleida.”
“Why not?” Alice asked.
“Because on Coleida there is nothing at all that is alive. Not people, not animals, not planets, not flies, not microbes. Space Plague eliminates everything alive.”
Alice was the first to exit the ship.
There were some thirty-five archaeologists in the expedition. Not one of them was from Earth. There were Lineans, Fixxians, Ushans, and other scientists. Other than their profession, they had nothing else in common. Among the crowd that came to greet them were archaeologists without legs, some came on two legs, some on three, and some on seven, some on tentacles, some on wheels, and one archaeologist could boast one hundred forty-four legs. The smallest of the archaeologists was about the size of a cat, and the largest was my friend Gromozeka. The archaeologists displayed a varied assortment in the number of hands, eyes, and even heads as well.
And all of the heads were turned to the ship’s airlock, and when Alice stopped in the lock and waved to her new friends, they began to wave their arms and tentacles in answer and started to shout at her in dozens of different languages.
The crowd of archaeologists was even more demonstrative at the appearance of the temporalist researchers, but when Gromozeka appeared in the lock they went wild, clapping Gromozeka with the hands (and tentacles and feelers and wheels) and dragging everyone toward the camp of tents that sprouted like a multicolored soap bubble garden at one end of the field. Along the way one of the archaeologists, the very smallest and most fragile, was nearly trampled to death, but, was able to spy him out beneath the feet (and tentacles and feelers and wheels) of the others and dragged him, battered and nearly suffocated, back into the air.
“Thank you, my child.” The archaeologist said as he curled himself into a ball in Alice’s arms. “Perhaps I shall be able to return the favor some day. My friends have gotten quite carried away.”
The little archaeologist was light green in color, and fury; his round face was dominated by a single purple grey eye.
“I am the Galaxy’s leading specialist in the decipherment of ancient and dead languages.” He said. “Not one Cyberbrain or computer can compare with me. If my companions had managed to crush me, it would have been an enormous loss for science in general and for our expedition in particular.”
Even at such an extreme moment the little archaeologist was thinking about his work, and not about himself.
Alice brought the battered little archaeologist, who was called Purr, to the largest of the plastic domes where the others had already gathered, and with Petrov’s help sought out the expedition’s doctor, a gruff inhabitant of the planet Cromanyon, who bore a strong resemblance to a garden watering can on legs. When the doctor said the little archaeologist was not in any danger, Alice turned her attention to the discussions going on among the researchers.
It turned out that the members of the expedition had not sat on their hands (and tentacles and feelers and manipulators) while their team leader had flown off to Earth for the time machine. They had finished excavating a medium sized city, en toto, with all its houses, streets, markets, factories, movie theaters, and the railroad station.
And after lunch at the long dining table, during which Gromozeka regaled his friends with his adventures on Earth, the archaeologists took their guests on a tour of the dig.
A hundred years had passed since the city had died; the winds, rain, and snows had tried to wipe the city from the face of the planet, and to a great extent they had succeeded. But the buildings made of stone still stood all the same, if without their roofs, and with windows like the gaping eye sockets of fleshless skulls; weathered, the pavements lined with rows of thick tree stumps, still remained in place. Best preserved was the old castle on the hill above the town; its thick stone walls had stood a thousand years or more and would endure the assaults of the wind and rain for far longer.
The excavators were smearing dried wood with preservative, setting fallen bricks and mortar back into place in half fallen walls, carefully gathering up the century’s accumulation of filth and dust from the street and on a bright, clear day the city may have appeared rundown, old, but clean and almost alive. As though its people had departed not all that long ago.
The city’s inhabitants had been very similar to Earth people, but of short stature, so that when Alice found herself in one of the re-built houses she felt as though the table and bed and chairs had been made specially for her.
A small train stood beside the train station. The steam engine had a long tube, but the wagons with large round windows and overhanging roofs were similar to old Earth train cars.
One of the archaeologists, a specialist in restoration who had resurrected the steam engine and train from pieces of rusty scrap, kept the guests at the station for what seemed to be forever. He wanted them to be able to appreciate how masterfully all the handles, buttons, and switches in the ancient machine were made.
Then the guests got a chance to tour the museum, into which the excavators had gathered all the small objects found in the city: pictures, statues, pots and pans, clothing, household utensils, knickknacks and decorations, and everything else. It was obvious just how much work would have to go into returning all these artifacts to life.
“Tell me,” Petrov asked, when the guests had finished looking over the museum. “have you been able to determine precisely when the planet Coleida died, and what it died from?”
“Yes.” The little archaeologist Purr said. “I’ve read the remains of their newspapers and magazines and found numerous documents. Very clearly an epidemic was responsible. The epidemic began on Coleida one hundred years, three months, and twenty days ago. From the description, and taking into consideration the terror of the inhabitants who described it, it is very similar to Space Plague.”
“But how could the disease have gotten down to the planet. They’ve shown the virus can’t make it to the surface through the atmosphere. That means, something or someone brought it. Coul
d it have been a meteorite?”
“That we have not been able to determine. It could be.” Purr said. “All that is known, is that the first news of the strange disease appeared in the newspapers on Seventh Day, Thirdmonth, year 3070 by the local calender.
“For the explanation we have turned to our temporalist friends.” Gromozeka finished after him. “That is why they flew here, after all. Consider, my friends, victory is almost in sight!”
Gromozeka shook his tentacles, flashing the sharks’ teeth of his enormous maw; all the archaeologists shouted, and the temporalist Petrov whispered to himself:
“You’re right about then ‘almost.’“
6
For five days all the archaeologists, temporalists, and space ship crews erected the time machine and the atomic batteries that would power it. Finally, in the middle of the empty field rose a structure as high as a three story house.
The Time Cabinet occupied only the very center of this enormous construction; the rest of it was given over to control instruments, computers, back-up computers and back-ups for the back- ups, and vast amounts of recording instruments: tapes, paper read-outs, holographic crystals.
All the work on the excavation came to a halt. Who in their right mind would root about in the dirt if there was the possibility to see these artifacts and their creators in reality?
“Well, that,” Petrov said on the morning of the sixth day, “is that. Everything is in place. There is room for just one individual in the temporal transposition chamber, and, since this model of the machine has never been fully tested before, I’ll be the first to use it.”
“Certainly not!” Richard said, waving long, skinny arms. “We’ve been arguing this for the last four days; I’m the one who has to go first.”