《The Boy with the Lizard》


 PART I: THE AUTUMN IN STAROGORSK I (EARTH-2)

    "The Boy with the Lizard"


    By Vladislav Krapivin


    (Illustrated by E. Sterligova)


    (Translated and edited by Invir Lazarev -  2024)


    +++


    Editor''s note


    Dear readers, the book "The Boy and the Lizard" is the third and final book of the trilogy "The Dovecote on the Yellow Meadow." The first book in the series is called "The Dovecote in Orekhov¡±, the second book is ¡°The Summer Carnival in Starogorsk¡±.


    The series takes place on Earth and Earth- 2, two worlds occupying the same space in two different dimensional planes of our Galaxy and on Planet, a world beyond the Galaxy.


    Earth


    A world from which journalist Gleb Vyatkin came to Earth-2. The author had in mind the real world of the late XX century or its very close analogue.


    Earth- 2


    In this world, the plot of "The Summer Carnival in Starogorsk" and part of "The Boy and The Lizard" takes place. Futuristic Earth-2 is similar to how the science fiction writers of the 20th century imagined life in the 21st century. In megacities, life is very comfortable, automated and computerized, but small cities, such as Starogorsk described in the novel, have retained many features of the past, and life there is not so different from what it was in the second half of the 20th century.


    Interstellar spaceships (known as a ¡°scaders¡±) have been created. The astronauts (they are called "scadermen") go into deep space, exploring the Galaxy in their spaceships. Although the project had been going on for many years, brothers in mind have not yet been found in space, with the exception of the Scader-7 expedition, which brought to Earth information about the presence of a crystalline life form in the Galaxy, an attempt to contact it, however, was unsuccessful.


    Planet


    In this world, the plot ¡°The Dovecote in Orekhov¡± and part ¡°The Boy and the Lizard¡± takes place. At first glance, it looks like the twin of the Earth, as it was at the end of the 20th century, but only at first glance. Although in this world, as in ours, there are governing bodies and laws, in fact it is ruled by "Those who command" - creatures that take the form of people, but are not people. When they need something, they appear to people and tell them to act one way or another. Resistance is punished, depending on the circumstances, up to the annihilation of those who disagree, but few decide to resist. Neither bullets nor other ordinal weapons can take on "Those who command." Everyone knows about ¡°Those who command¡±, but most prefer to pretend that they do not exist. There are many strange things and phenomena, which, however, are taken for granted by the inhabitants of this world. For example, "Invasion." Invasion is the name of a natural disaster that periodically happens in the world of the Planet. A huge black cloud charged with electricity, consisting of small, bumblebee-sized fragments, approaches the city. Wooden houses and trees burn; the surface of stone buildings is corroded; people left in the open, are killed by electric discharges. They wait for the Invasion, having closed off the cellars of stone buildings for two to three days. The Invasion is somehow connected with the activities of "Those who command."


    The Empty City


    The Empty City is a city on one of the banks of a river on the Peninsula. There are huge stone buildings in the city, it looks recently abandoned, although no one remembers either those who built it, or the fact that someone lived there. Only The Windies live in The Empty City.


    The Windies


    In The Empty City, on a Tower, on the upper platform, a spell is carved on a stone. A boy needs to cross the River, climb the Tower and learn the spell by heart. After that, he needs to jump from a great height and to read this spell during the fall.


    Then the boy will become the Windy - he will turn into a small spiral air vortex, which can fly wherever he wants, and become a living person or the Windy at will. If a boy who passed the rite subsequently dies, he does not die for good, but turns into the Windy forever. Many Windies live in The Empty City. The Windies that survived can become people for a short time - from several minutes to several hours. They also know how to "go into foundlings": to turn into living babies who are living on the doorsteps of a family (and not necessarily in the world of the Planet). Such a child lives an ordinary childhood, not knowing about his past, until the age at which he died at one time. When he reaches this age, he remembers everything, and soon turns into the Windy and flies away.


    The Train to the Bridge station


    A small, old-fashioned-looking train that can be found on railway tracks or at a station somewhere in the outback, in any of the worlds of the trilogy, but most often in the world of the Planet. On the plate with the name of the departure and arrival stations it appears: ¡°Bridge st. -  Bridge st. " Many people saw and rode the train. In the Planet world, it is used as a completely ordinary vehicle, but nobody has ever seen the Bridge station - usually passengers get on the train when it goes in the direction they need, and get off when they reach their destination. In fact, the train is not simple - it goes through several parallel spaces (at least three), so if you get on the train and ride for a long time, you can find yourself in another world.


    On Earth, the train sometimes passes through the station of the provincial city of Kolych and stops for a few minutes on one of the distant routes.


    On Earth-2, there are two places where you can meet this train - a railway switch in the vicinity of Starogorsk, and the Bridge at a junkyard (also in the vicinity of Starogorsk).


    The Bridge


    A railway bridge, arising at the full moon on Earth-2, on a desert junkyard in the vicinity of Starogorsk (possibly appears in other worlds). The bridge exists for about 5-7 minutes, after which it dissolves in the air. During the appearance of the bridge, ¡°the Train to the Bridge Station" always passes through it.


    The Sparky


    It is necessary to mix a drop of blood from three, four or five friends, a little sawdust from the wheel, the ship''s anchor and the plane. The resulting mixture must be ignited from the festive fire at sunset. The result is the living Sparky - a tiny luminous dot in the darkness like a firefly. The Sparky is eternal (at least, it can exist for a very long time), and contains tremendous energy. Presented to the axis of a wheel, it sets it in motion. The Sparky belongs to those who created it. It can be gifted, but it cannot be taken by force or stolen. Looking at  the Sparky under high magnification, you can see that it is a spiral disk resembling a spiral galaxy. According to the conviction of ¡°Those who command¡±, the Sparky is a model of the real Galaxy, exactly the one in which it was created, and the model associated with the original: acting on it, you can influence the Galaxy.


    The Plot of the trilogy


    "The Dovecote in Orekhov¡± (book I)


    Yaroslav (Yar) was an experienced space scout, a person who goes out on an unexplored planet first, expecting the unexpected to happen. He was keeping watch during hyperspace flight when their ship and its crew, strictly speaking, did not exist in the traditional sense. Imagine his surprise when he saw a young boy entering the bridge section. A perfectly normal-looking boy who definitely was not on the ship moments ago. Yar followed him through the nearest door and instead of on the spaceship, he ended up in a world that looked almost like ours - or his. It turned out, from the boy''s point of view - whose name was Ignatik (Tik) - he and his three friends (two boys and a girl) imagined Yar as an adult guardian. The adventure, which began as a fun game or an unexpected return to childhood, ended tragically: the old Fortress, where Yar and the guys hid from ¡°the Invasion¡±, was falling apart.


    Yar, who before the collapse of the fortress went to the river to get water, was sure that he alone survived. He embarked on a boat on the River, descended on the other side, near the Empty City, and unexpectedly found living Ignatik in the City - at the time of the catastrophe, he fell into an underground passage, passed it and ended up on the other side of the river. Together they went to the sea, where Yar got work, and Tik settled with his aunt who lived here. After some time, they were found by ¡°Those who command¡±. Tik was intimidated and strongly advised to stop contact with Yar. The boy escaped by train to the Bridge station. Yar went after him.


    Yar learned from a conversation with one of ¡°Those¡± that all their activities were subject to one purpose - the creation of a Thinking Galaxy. According to ¡°Those¡±, the Thinking Galaxy is the highest peak of development, the highest achievement that civilization can achieve. It was for the purposes of this project that epidemics, ¡°the Invasion¡±, and other disasters was arranged. "Those" said that after the collapse of the fortress, not only Ignatik survived. Yar did not manage to catch up with Tik - the boy died on the way, and Yar saw only his grave.


    The next day, Yar met Alka. It turned out that he survived almost the same way as Tik, and, having got out on the other side, ended up in a boarding school. Yar and Alka returned to Orekhov town, where, in fact, they found Chita and Dasha alive. Taking advantage of Yar¡¯s momentary weakness, ¡°Those who command¡± send him back to his starship, but Alka managed to repeat the miracle previously done by Tik: he made his way to the space cruiser and returned Yar to the Planet.


    Friends were going to live further on the Planet and fight with "Those who command." In addition, Chita, in spite of everything, hoped that Ignatik was alive. He believed that "Those who command" made a spectacle to force Yar to leave the Planet world and they kept Tik locked up.


    At the request of Chita, he and Yar made their way to the abandoned post office, and, through the emergency radio station available there, called Ignatik (Tik). Chita believed that Tik, wherever he was, would hear their call. Thanks to his psychic abilities.


    Immediately after the broadcast, Chita and Yar were attacked by a member of ''Those''. No weapon could harm him, not even the emitter taken by Yar from his spaceship. But the enemy was destroyed with hitting an ordinary rubber ball,which was once used in a game of five holes.


    Yar, although he did everything that Chita requested, did not believe that Tick was alive. But a candle left by the post attendant on the windowsill suddenly lit up by itself. Only Tik could light the candle by will.


    ¡°The Summer Carnival in Starogorsk¡± (book II)


    Earth-2.  Provincial town Starogorsk. The time between the expeditions of scader-7 and scader-9. Summer holidays.


    Two friends ¨C Gel¡¯ka Travushkin and Yurka - got acquainted with violinist Yanka, robot Jeremy and a young journalist Gleb Vyatkin who appeared from nowhere and settled at the station, in an old wagon on the siding.


    From Jeremy, who dreams of assembling a baby robot, Vaska, they learned about the existence of a ¡°PM engine¡± - an engine whose energy source is the source of the living Sparky. Friends decided to make this magic Sparky to help Jeremy create his Vaska.


    When the plan succeeded and the Sparky, very similar to the miniature model of a spiral galaxy, is created, it turned out that some strange creatures really wanted to get their hands on the Sparky.


    Jeremy, having learned something about his opponents, died under circumstances most reminiscent of a premeditated murder - on the way to the car he was smashed into pieces by a hit from a metal rod that emerged from an unknown electric locomotive passing through the station.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Frightened by the death of the robot, the station master demanded that the guys and Gleb immediately get out of the wagon. The whole company spent the last night before their eviction on the wagon. Having hold the Sparky close the axis of one of the wheelsets, the heroes moved the wagon, left it by the station and traveled for some time to who knows where. The night went on unnaturally long. Yurka talked about a conversation with his mother, from which he concluded that his father is a scaderman. Our heroes went to a railroad fork somewhere in the steppe. At the entrance to a switch point, Gleb managed to make out familiar places: it seemed they managed to find the point where the rail tracks of Earth-two and the Earth connected. Gleb could return to his world, but he decided that he had nothing to do there and went down the path ahead into the unknown. Yurka left with him. He hoped that there, in an unknown world, he would be able to find his father-scaderman.


    Gel¡¯ka and Yanka send the Sparky on a paper dove in the wake of departed friends and returned along the railroad tracks back. Turning back before leaving, they discovered that their old wagon had disappeared, as if it had never been.


    Inside the old jacket¡¯s pockets, taken from the wagon, they found Gleb¡¯s notes and full drawings of Vaska¡¯s robot, after which they decided to create Vaska.


    +++


    PART I


    THE AUTUMN IN STAROGORSK I (EARTH-2)


    Autumn was very similar to late summer, except that there were more fluffy white seeds of snowflake grass in the air, and the  bright yellow leaves of maple trees fell more often. And there was another sign of the oncoming autumn ¨C the school holidays were over.


    Gel¡¯ka only found out on September the first that he and Yanka wouldn¡¯t be in the same grade. Gel¡¯ka was in the fifth grade, and Yanka in the sixth.


    Yanka said, a little guiltily: ¡°I¡¯m not very tall, but I''m almost twelve.¡±


    ¡°So Yurka and you would be in the same class,¡± Gel¡¯ka said.


    Gel¡¯ka and Yanka couldn¡¯t stop thinking about Yurka, but they did not talk about him often, as if they tacitly agreed not to dredge up the past with questions - ¡°Where is he? What happened to him? Where did the railroad lead him? Did he find his father? Will he come back? ¡±


    Yanka said: ¡°It¡¯s not so bad. He¡¯s not alone.¡±


    "Today, the school principal asked about him," Gel¡¯ka said and knitted his brows.


    "It''ll mean trouble," Yanka said.


    But the following few days were quiet. At least, no one bothered Gel¡¯ka and Yanka with questions about Yurka.


    After school, they usually walked home past the children''s clinic, along the old brick wall, where the benches overgrown with grass were hidden in the niches. And each time, they silently remembered how they met here in the summer, but did not talk about it out loud. Yanka smiled silently. Gel¡¯ka angrily waved around his heavy school bag with a bronze lizard on its cover. The lizard was a badge, as long as a matchstick. Once Gel¡¯ka scratched his leg with this badge and after that he removed the lizard from his bag cover and hooked it under his collar.


    "Why are you hiding it?" Yanka was surprised. "Can¡¯t you wear the lizard on your shirt?"


    ¡°Come on. Guys might say that it¡¯s too girly.¡±


    ¡°It''s not like that, it''s just a badge. What a good lizard, it is as if it¡¯s alive. Where did you get it?"


    "Didn¡¯t I tell you? My dad found it in the forest, in the grass, not far from the well.... Yanka, look at these two, thick as thieves! Well, whatever were they heading for?"


    Ahead, about thirty steps from them were Vaska and Alyosha Listov. Gel¡¯ka used to call Alyosha ¡°Twinkle¡±. Alyosha was in a brand new green second-grader uniform. Vaska shone in the sun.


    ¡°Look at these two hooky players!¡± Gel¡¯ka said.


    ¡°Why?¡± Yanka asked. ¡°Maybe they are like us....¡±


    For some reason, Gel¡¯ka¡¯s geography lesson was canceled. Yanka was sent home from his gym class, because he suddenly felt dizzy when he was on the climbing frame.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m sure that it¡¯s time for their math class. Hey, Twinkle, Vaska! All right, hold it right there! Are you ditching school?¡±


    Alyosha turned around, and Vaska froze, but then without moving his body, he had turned his square head 180 degrees around, which made his ribbed neck creak quietly. His rubber lips stretched out into a smile, and a short antenna on the top of his head moved and spun. But immediately Vaska frowned and said: ¡°So wut? She started all this¡­.


    ¡°The teacher was really upset and threw Vaska out of class, and therefore me as well,¡± Twinkle said it matter-of-factly.


    ¡°How did that even happen?¡± Yanka was surprised.


    Twinkle gave Vaska a stink eye.


    ¡°Well, what can you expect of him? He had it coming. He¡¯s always telling guys in our class correct results!¡±


    ¡°Hey! It''s not my fault they couldn''t do even simple arithmetic.¡± Vaska brought his head and body to a normal position. He seemed to be dancing on his thin duralumin legs.


    "Not everybody has your electronic brains," Gel¡¯ka said. "You, Vasily, watch yourself! You keep boasting of your abilities and the guys will call you a smarty pants.¡±


    ¡°The guys don¡¯t mind. They are just glad, but our teacher is always picking on me. She can''t stand me. Yes! She hit me yesterday....¡±


    ¡°How''s that?¡±


    ¡°Just what I said! She hit me with her plastic drafting triangle,¡± Vaska rubbed behind his lower part of the convex ferroplastic canister from which his torso was made.


    ¡°That didn¡¯t hurt you. It''s a very tough armor you have.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Vaska flashed with his purple photocell eyes. ¡°You think I''m not upset?¡±


    Twinkle said to Vaska:¡± Man, she said she was sorry.¡±


    ¡°Ha! And then she began to pick on me again. ¡°Why did you come to school with no clothes?¡± I was like: "Hello! I¡¯m a robot." And she said: ¡°You are not a robot, but an ordinary bully! Don¡¯t try to come to school without pants! ¡±


    ¡°I will give him my sailor suit,¡± Twinkle said.


    Gel¡¯ka almost had to laugh, when he imagined Vaska with his big-foot, square head and pipe-legs wearing a little sailor suit.


    Gel¡¯ka said in a serious tone: ¡°I¡¯d better get you a jumpsuit.¡±


    ¡°In this heat!¡± Vaska responded protestingly.


    ¡°What difference does it make to you?¡±


    ¡°There is a difference for me. I inserted thermoreceptors into myself.¡±


    Vaska patted with his hand in the rubber glove on his shiny belly where the convex brand ¡°Promneftegaz¡± was.


    "Vaska, did you sneak around the junkyard in search of bits and pieces again?" Gel¡¯ka asked strernly.


    ¡°I gave him money for spare parts and he bought them at the Young Engineer shop,¡± Twinkle stood up for Vaska.


    ¡°But our little robot still went to the junkyard,¡± Gel¡¯ka remarked.


    ¡°Well, of course. The rusty witches lured him,¡± Yanka said.


    ¡°It¡¯s got nothing to do with the old ladies,¡± Vaska snapped. ¡°I just wanted to see where my dad Jeremy lived.¡±


    ¡°Your dad Jeremy lived in the Henhouse on wheels,¡± Gel¡¯ka reminded him.


    "But first he lived in the junkyard, till he had confronted the old ladies. But now they are feeling sorry for him¡­. But you went in there, too. I know!"


    Gel¡¯ka and Yanka looked at each other.


    ¡°We were there on business,¡± Gel¡¯ka said and looked at Vaska hard. ¡±Nothing goes in here, right? And don''t talk back to me!¡±


    ¡°What is the big deal?¡± the small robot shook his antenna boldly.


    Yanka supported Gel¡¯ka.


    ¡°Come on, Vaska. We are just like a family. We stuck our fingers with a needle because of you. Then my finger hurt for two days, I couldn¡¯t even play the violin.¡±


    "I stuck my finger for this, too," Twinkle said.


    ¡°Alright, listen to your bro Twinkle,¡± Yanka said tactfully. ¡°Otherwise he will have trouble at school.¡±


    ¡°I''m already in trouble¡± Twinkle sighed.


    Vaska began to snuffle angrily with his nose made from a kettle spout, and said:


    "Three on one.... Well, that''s not fair!"


    Vaska lived with Twinkle.


    ¡°Let''s go,¡± Twinkle said to Vaska. "I¡¯ll ask my grandmother to tailor my sailor suit for you."


    Vaska was short; he barely reached Twinkle¡¯s shoulder.


    Gel¡¯ka grinned, holding his gaze as they walked away.


    "I never thought I¡¯d be able to make such a speech, just like Aunt Vika!"


    ¡°I guess, you and I have built a good robot,¡±Yanka said.


    Gel¡¯ka laughed: "Without your grandfather''s help we may not have¡­."


    "Well, I mean, we built him together: my grandfather, you, Alyosha-Twinkle and I."


    "I thought your grandfather was merely a luthier, but he just turned out to be a jack-of-all-trades.¡±


    "Yes, but it wasn¡¯t so difficult. After all, we had all the drawings ... And most importantly, all the stuff was in old Jeremy''s trunk!"


    ¡°That''s what was so surprising,¡± Gel¡¯ka said, sighing. ¡°Our wagon was in the same place - as if it had never gone. Even the rusty wheels were stuck to the rails as before. Too bad our wagon was destroyed on the order of the station master.¡±


    Yanka said thoughtfully: ¡°I probably would''ve thought that I dreamt all this if it weren¡¯t for the second jacket. One jacket was on me and the other was hanging on the nail in the wagon. As if it had never been taken from there. I was even scared. Do you remember?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but I was very happy. I thought, "Well, it¡¯s good that Jeremy¡¯s drawings are now in duplicate."


    Yanka smiled softly. "And Gleb''s diary. Gelka, have you read all its pages?"


    ¡± Of course, more than once...."


    "Me too. I can even remember his poems by heart.... I have his diary with me." Yanka pulled a pack of tattered sheets of paper from his school bag. "Let''s sit down ....?


    They cut through the thickets of wild dill to a bench in the brick niche wall.


    The niche was narrow, and they had to sit squeezed together, so Gel''ka saw Yanka¡¯s brown knee was covered with the pink patches. A red firebug from somewhere fell on Yanka¡¯s knee. A pattern blackened on the back of the bug. The pattern looked like a human face, or rather, a mask. Gel¡¯ka blew the bug off; he remembered the motionless mask of the Clown.


    "Gel¡¯ya Travushkin, give me the Sparky...."


    "Yanka .... What if the Clown keeps hunting the magic Sparky? What if he takes it away from Vaska?"


    ¡°No way. He cannot do it without his permission.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but he would take the Sparky by fraud.¡±


    ¡°Well, Vaska is no fool.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I suppose he¡¯s not.¡±


    Vaska really was not a fool. For two weeks of his life, he read a bunch of books and all the textbooks from the first grade. He learned English and physics through a college radio program. It was no wonder that the principal allowed him to go directly to the second grade. But by his nature, Vaska was ill-mannered and, in addition, too independent for his age. He was quite similar in character to his ¡°father¡± Jeremy when he was a young robot.


    Gelka said to Yanka: ¡°Here''s what I thought¡­. We need to find that drumstick that caused the gypsum rower in the park to fall apart. It is probably still lying there in the bush. Vaska should carry it around with him.¡±


    ¡°Sure. We''ll find it together, you and me¡­. Well, we can go in the park right now if you like, but first I want to read you a fragment of Gleb¡¯s poem. Now, listen¡­.¡±


    Yanka¡¯s lips started moving. He did not read loudly, but the words of the poem (or the song) plucked Gel¡¯ka¡¯s heartstrings; he knew them by heart.


    ¡°In the starry fall darkness


    I am flying the nest.


    The blue star - on my helmet,


    The blue blades - on my breast.


    The blue bird¡¯s always ready for a furious fight,


    And my horse won¡¯t betray me, feeling storms in the night.


    The red drum ¨C to my saddle,


    Put the bullet in your gun¡­.


    But right after the battle,


    At the campfire light,


    I keep dreaming about


    Beginning a new time


    Where all pains are forgotten,


    Clear and calm in mid-sky,


    Over meadows and forests,


    In the silence of a friend,


    Only songs tell us sadly


    Of the war in the land.¡±


    ¡°Yanka, why did Gleb write that the star on the helmet is blue? The stars were always red.¡±


    ¡°Yes, red enamal stars¡­. But each type of  the troops had a star of its own color. The infantry - raspberry, the artillery - black, the cavalry - blue .... Horsemen, in those days, were the fastest. But they did not wear helmets on their heads, but budenovkas. Budenovka is a military hat such as an old helmet, but made of felt. Gleb told us.... I¡¯ll draw it.¡±


    Yanka took a blue marker pen out of his breast pocket, laid the pack of paper on his lap and made a drawing on the back of the pages. He showed his drawing to Gel¡¯ka. Gel¡¯ka saw a pointed peaked cloth helmet with a visor, flaps and a large star shaded blue.


    ¡°It''s just as I had imagined,¡± Gelka said.


    At home, Gel¡¯ka took the crumpled pages of Gleb¡¯s notes from the shelf and read the song lyric again. It was not a song but rather a poem or a ballad.


    ¡°It is as if the song was talking about Yurka,¡± Gelka thought once again.


    Sparrows were quarrelling outside the window in the grass under the birch trees.


    Duplex barked lazily at them. The autumn leaves shone golden in the sunlight. The thin rays of light fell on the windowsill and on Gel¡¯ka through the foliage. Gel¡¯ka took a thin felt-tip pen from his breast pocket and wrote in the margins:


    Yanka


    Gel¡¯ka was still short in breath wen he and Yanka were sitting on the veranda with colored glass half an hour later. Two identical pages from Gleb''s diary lay in front of them on the unpainted floorboards. There were the same two drawings on the back of each page - the blue budenovkas with the large stars, and the exact same writing: ¡°Yanka¡±


    "So what?" said Yanka, as if he wanted to calm Gel¡¯ka. ¡°This is understandable. You know, it is the same sheet of paper. But.... as if it has a dual existence.... Their nature is completely the same. Technically, it is a single sheet of paper.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s unexplainable,¡± Gel¡¯ka sighed.


    ¡°It¡¯s unexplainable but true. There are many such things in the world,¡± Yanka said. ¡°What is music, anyway? And what about electricity? Scientists still do not know what it is. But people have been using it for a long time. If people were afraid of all the things they didn¡¯t understand, what would happen then?¡±


    ¡°There are some things they are really afraid,¡± Gelka said sadly. ¡°The ultra-deep well closed down, like.... like everything else. My dad has been living in the city for a month; he is trying to get permission to continue the drilling, but they do not allow it.¡±


    "But why?"


    ¡°It¡¯s not allowed, and that''s that.¡±


    Gelka said in a bored voice: ¡°Due to the ambiguity of the results and the possibility of unforeseen consequences, the drilling of the ultra-deep well should be suspended for the period necessary to develop a new program ...¡±


    ¡°What kind of program?¡±


    ¡°No one really knows.... But they have poured cement down the well.¡±


    ¡°Gel¡¯ka, what have they discovered in this well?¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t know anything.... The drill got jammed against the side as if it had hit an armor. They lowered a microrobot with a camera, and it showed the stars on the screen...."


    ¡°As if they dug through the earth and saw the sky?¡±


    "Well, it¡¯s not. They saw the very sky above their heads and the same star constellations. It was at night.... And then everything went out and the robot did not return. They sent another, but there was only darkness on the screen.... "


    ¡°Maybe this well is a direct tunnel to other galaxies, or to other spaces ....¡±


    ¡°You mean, like those rails?¡±


    Yanka nodded and they were silent for a long time, thinking about Yurka and Gleb, who had gone beyond the switch point of the mysterious rail track.


    Gelka leaned against the wall and put one of the twin-pages with the drawing of the budyonovka in his lap. He looked at the drawing.


    ¡°We don¡¯t even need a phone anymore.¡± Yanka smiled.


    ¡°We can write on these papers. This is the fastest and most secret way to communicate.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. You know, my aunt always hears my phone conversations.¡±


    To be continued...

 PART II: THE VISIT OF THE MAGISTER (THE PLANET)

    1


    The Christmas tree was big and decorating it took a long time. It was dark outside. The principal finally told the fifth graders hall monitors that they could go home. He also let their teacher leave early. The teacher went to the school porch. A bare light bulb above her head shook in the wind, but ishe couldn''t see further than five steps away.


    The blizzard was howling. The teacher shivered from the cold, but she was not far from her home. Suddenly, a bearded man in a snow covered coat came out of the dark and said, ¡°I beg your pardon. Would you be so kind as to take me to the principal Yar?"


    Stupid fifth graders had torn Christmas tree beads, so Dasha was sitting on a toy box and was putting shiny balls on a thread.


    Al¡¯ka stood on a three-meter stepladder and hung glass icicles, baubles and yellow foil stars, which resembled sunflowers, on the Christmas tree. Each time he hung a bauble, he asked from up high: ¡°Yar, how do you like it?¡±


    ¡°Fine. Be careful and don''t fall off, okay?¡± Yar responded and looked with anxiety at the little door near the stage. There was an adjacent room in which the children prepared the Christmas lights. Finally Chita appeared and said: ¡°The wire is sparking. I need a little more time to braze it again¡­.¡±


    The large door next to the hall opened and the teacher''s displeased voice spoke in the hallway: ¡°Principal Yar, someone''s here to see you.¡±


    A bearded man in a fur wedge hat and a snow-covered coat stepped into the hall. His beard was blond and trimmed in a neat square. It was getting cold in the hall. It seemed to Yar that someone quietly and quickly removed the glass from the windows. The beads fell off the thread. Fortunately, not on the floor, but in Dasha¡¯s hem. A silver bauble fell from above and burst muffledly on the floor.


    "A thousand apologies for the intrusion, Principal Yar," the stranger said hoarsely.¡± I would not be here if it was not an emergency.¡±


    ¡°Come on in,¡± Yar said, feeling a terrible sense of foreboding. "If you like, you can take off your coat.... You can even take off your beard, if it bothers you. You''re just not right for the part of Santa, you know."


    ¡°I know,¡± the guest agreed. ¡°But this is my own hair¡­. Wherever possible¡­.¡±


    He took off his hat, shook the droplets off of it, and then he loosened his scarf. Slowly, like an old man, he pulled his coat off. There were no hangers in the room, so he laid his clothes on a chair at the entrance. He looked like an elderly professor. He had a neat grayish hairstyle and a well-pressed jacket. Some kind of a badge was pinned on the lapel of his jacket. His dark crimson tie was half covered with his wide beard.


    He had blue eyes. The pale face of the ¡°Professor¡± was good-natured and seemed quite alive. However, both his behavior and his speech were excessively proper, wich made Yar and the guys feel uncomfortable. Even Dasha and Al¡¯ka were startled, even though they had learned about ¡°Those Who Command¡± only from stories.


    "Where can we talk, Yaroslav Igorevich?" ''Professor'' asked Yar.


    ¡°Right here,¡± Yar said.


    "But ...." ''Professor'' looked at the guys.


    ¡°It''s okay,¡± Yar said. "They know. These are the kids who were in the fortress."


    "All right," ''Professor'' said with a purely human inflection. "They are your fighters ...."


    "Yes," Yar said. He took a step to the window, removed the Christmas toys box from the chess table, and pulled up two chairs.


    ¡°Have a seat.¡±


    "Thank you."


    The guest sat down, showing the perfect crease of his gray trousers. It became quiet. Chita looked at the top of the Christmas tree. Al''ka put a golden rooster on the Christmas tree with a carefree look. Dasha threw herself back into putting on the beads.


    ''Professor'' broke the silence, ¡°I understand that my visit doesn¡¯t match the holyday spirit ...."


    ¡°Frankly,¡± Yar interrupted him.¡±I am a little surprised. I didn¡¯t think that after that incident at the post office any of you would decide to have direct contact with us."


    The guest drummed his fingers on the table.


    "I have to, Yaroslav Igorevich .... But why not? We are not enemies. We were faced with a vicious twist of fate, but if you think well, there is absolutely nothing to split in this world. We can live without interfering with each other, but helping one another ...."


    ¡°Really?¡± Yar said in a quiet, reproving voice.


    "I understand. There were painful episodes and you had losses ... But in the end, you were the winners! Yaroslav Igorevich! In the last conflict, you have eliminated one of our ... uhm ... representatives. Although he was, from all accounts, an invincible one."


    ¡°Well, he started it,¡±§³hita said.


    ¡°Of course!¡± ''Professor'' exclaimed. "It is not disputed that your actions were justified!"


    ¡°We called him ¡°Observer,¡± Yar said. ¡°I think he didn¡¯t have many brains.¡±


    ¡°Absolutely!" ''Professor'' said cheerfully. "He was a hopeless dummy. This is understandable, since he had just one Unit.... We don¡¯t feel much for him; he failed in his mission. Above all, he did not have time to inform us what kind of weapon you have used.* We did consider that any such weapons did not exist. Alas, we were wrong and I''ve got to say, we are ever so confused. I do say this in all honesty."


    Yar asked ''Professor'': ¡°What does "Unit" mean? A unit of measurement of intelligence?"


    ¡°Yes, to some extent¡­. If you are interested, I can explain."


    ar sat back, making it clear to the intruder that he was interested.


    *See in the book I ("The Dovecote in Orekhov¡±). At the request of Chita, he and Yar made their way to the abandoned post office, and, through the emergency radio station available there, called Ignatik (Tik). Chita believed that Tik, wherever he was, would hear their call. Thanks to his psychic abilities. Immediately after the broadcast, Chita and Yar were attacked by a member of ''Those''. No weapon could harm him, not even the emitter taken by Yar from his spaceship. But the enemy was destroyed with hitting an ordinary rubber ball, which was once used in a game of five holes.


    ¡°You see, we are very different from the humanoid civilization to which you belong,¡± the guest said kindly.


    "I can see that," Yar said sarcastically. His anxiety lessened and he was really curious.


    "I do not mean the morality or the goals of our activity, but our physical nature," the ''Professor'' patiently explained. ¡°Our self-aware unity consists of a kind of mind atoms, as a blob of thought energy.... There are those who consist of one such atom, like the simplest molecules. But there are "molecules" that resemble huge clusters.... Well, I''m simplifying to a certain extent...."


    ¡°I''m interested to know how many of these blobs of mind are personally in you," Yar asked.


    The ¡®Professor¡¯ smiled as adults smile when they hear a child''s tactless question. But he answered almost without delay: "No point getting misty about it - seven hundred twenty-nine."


    "Wow," Yar said.


    "Why such an uneven number?" Al¡¯ka asked from above. "You would do it at least seven hundred and thirty."


    "The number is even," the ¡®Professor¡¯ politely explained. "We just have a different counting system, not the decimal."


    ¡°One more question,¡± Yar said strictly. ¡±So what do I call you? The rank you have is obviously not low. I don¡¯t want to use nicknames."


    The guest nodded.


    "Call me Magister. It¡¯ll be true, to some extent."


    ¡°All right then, you move along, Magister.¡± Yar said.


    2


    The Magister was silent. He §ãoncentrated, wrinking his forehead, trying to come up with a way to ask.  The skin on his forehead seemed completely human, not like the skin Thoth''s glazed face.


    Remembering Thoth made Yar smile ironically.


    Yar said: ¡°I hope you are not going to tell me to go back to my star cruiser.¡±


    ¡°Heaven forbid! Why would you think that?¡±


    ¡°Thoth tried to tell me to turn around and go back to Earth.¡±


    "Then things were different.... In addition, Thoth was not flexible  enough in his thinking; he had only twenty-two Units. Although he was diligent and efficient."


    ¡°When you say ¡°he was¡±....¡±


    "Yes ... His death is one of your victories."


    "What happened to him?"


    The Magister grinned and rised his bushy eyebrows.


    ¡°Poor Thoth¡­. Your idea that every person is a whole galaxy affected him greatly. That would be just a phrase for you, but it made him mad. He could not refute this idea logically. He had lost his reason for  existent  and he fallen apart.... You see, I¡¯m not hiding anything from you, Yaroslav Igorevich. I expect you to be forthright with us in return.¡±


    ¡°Erm¡­.¡± Yar said.


    ¡°I''m sorry, what do you mean?¡±, the Magister asked with a tone of human annoyance in his voice.


    ¡°If you want to know about the weapon that we used against the Observer...."


    "God forbid! Yaroslav Igorevich! Why do we need this?First, we are not going to fight with you..."


    ¡°And second....?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­. I don''t mean to sound rude, but I think you can guess that in case of emergency we can blow the entire Planet into star dust, including everyone who is on it, plus your weapon."


    ¡°Take it easy,¡± Yar said to himself. "Just don''t be hot-headed...."


    Yar paused and then said calmly: ¡°You are powerful, but also naive. Why do you think that we would let you destroy the Planet? You do not know our powers and our abilities."


    ¡°Dammit!¡± Yar thought to himself. ¡°What hope could I possibly have? I don''t have a leg to stand on.¡±


    "Listen to me, Yaroslav Igorevich....¡± The Magister smiled condescendingly.


    ¡°No, you listen to me. I¡¯m not the same naive newcomer on the Planet I once was. I don''t rely anymore on the outdated seven-shot Viking system pistol. I¡¯ve figured a few things out. Your repeat your Invasion tricks every twelve or thirteen years. First you have to accumulate enough energy to make another attack.  If you destroy the Planet, it''ll get worse. What will happen to your bases and the gypsum dummies production? Isn¡¯t that it, Magister?¡±


    The Magister started blinking hesitantly, and it was pleasant for Yar to see this.


    The Magister said, without  much confidence: ¡°"You do not know.... We have other ways."


    Yar markedly yawned and said: ¡°Let''s not go around trying to scare one another. So let''s cut to the chase.¡±


    ¡°That''s all I want!¡± the Magister exclaimed. Then he looked back at Chita.


    ¡°"Excuse me.... Could the boy stop bouncing the ball? It distracts me."


    ¡°Chita, knock it off with that ball!¡± Yar said. ¡°"It makes our guest nervous."


    "So?" Yar asked.


    The Magister said quietly and solemnly: ¡°We¡¯ve got a big favor to ask you, Yaroslav Igorevich. We''re asking for your help.¡±


    ¡°Interesting,¡± Yar said.


    "Yaroslav Igorevich, you are not the only person who came to the Planet from your world. Another man has been living here for many years. I mean, another earthling. Is that the correct word?¡±


    ¡°Quite correct,¡± Yar said in a whisper. His suddenly felt pain in his neck and his breath stopped in his throat with excitement.


    The Magister strummed his fingers on the desk and said: ¡°We really want you to meet him.¡±


    ¡°Me too!¡± Yar thought. ¡°I really, really want to!  But, of course, not for the reason that you have...."


    ¡°What¡¯s the reason?¡± Yar said in a shaky voice.


    "It¡¯s a very serious matter. This man from Earth has a tiny model of the galaxy. We really need it."


    ¡°I see,¡± Yar said, although nothing was clear to him. "You need it, but he needs it, too. And he doesn¡¯t want to give it to you. Right? But you can¡¯t just take it away from him....¡±


    ¡°We cannot,¡± the Magister agreed. ¡°For many reasons.... And we can''t bargain with him. This man hates us much more than you, although he has much less reasons for this than you.¡±


    ¡°What do you know about my hatred?¡± Yar thought. He remembered how bullets bounced off Thoth¡¯s coat. And how the fortress was collapsing. And how Dasha was crying at her mother¡¯s grave....


    ¡°I want details,¡± Yar said.


    ¡°Here you are. Gleb Vyatkin. He appeared on the Planet about forty years ago. We don¡¯t know what he did before and what he was on §¦arth. He¡¯s also known as Shooter and Gleb the Wild. He is a former terrorist, and now he¡¯s a little-known writer. He lives not far from Orekhov, in the Hill village on Luchnikov Street in house number eleven, on the second floor. He lives a hermit....¡±


    ¡°Why? Does he feel a longing for home?¡± Yar asked.


    "I don''t think so. As far as I know, he never made an attempt to return to Earth."


    ¡°And what kind of galaxy model does he keep?¡±


    ¡°It has great sentimental value to him, although he has no use for it. Apparently, it has great sentimental value for him. According to some reports, the model was created by children in the city of Starogorsk, which is located in your world. They made it just for fun and then they gave the model to Gleb Sergeyevich . I don¡¯t know the details.¡±


    ¡°Those kids did it, but you cannot¡­.¡±


    ¡°Trouble is, we can¡¯t do much of your children can.¡±


    The Magister sighed very naturally, like an old man.


    ¡°Yaroslav Igorevich ... Can I be assured that the information that I tell you would not be used against us?¡±


    "I don''t know. You have to take a chance."


    ¡°We are interested in putting an end to our hostilities and open to the possibility of an alliance in the future.¡±


    ¡°From the sounds of things, you desperately need this galaxy model,¡± Yar said.


    ¡°Urgently¡­. The fact is this is not just a model. It¡¯s.... I can¡¯t find the right word. We have a concept that can be loosely translated as a ¡°mirror factor¡±. Are you familiar with the Twin theory?"


    ¡°I''m afraid not.¡± Yar said.


    ¡°It''s like a psychic connection between twins. The model we are talking about and our real Galaxy are, in a way, twins. They are carriers of the mirror factor... I''m sorry if my explanation may sound strange.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay.  I understand to an extent,¡± Yar said politely.


    ¡°Actually, they¡¯re not twins, but a whole, although the galaxy is huge in our view, and the model is just a tiny spark. I guess that''s why they call it the Sparky.¡±


    "So, by acting on the Sparky, you wish to change something in our sinful Galaxy?"


    ¡°You get the point.¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t understand why I should become your accomplice and help those who brought so much grief to the Planet! I¡¯m sure that this isn''t the only planet where you showed up! Isn¡¯t that it, Magister?"


    The Magister was drumming his fingers on the chess table again.


    "I don¡¯t think we can agree on this matter," Yar said grimly.


    "But why, Yaroslav Igorevich?! If we have the galaxy model, we can rid the Planet from the invasions, the epidemics, and other undesirable phenomena that our experiment causes! We would not work with the Galaxy; we could then operate on its model!"


    "Yes! And one day you would decide to stick a pin in the Sparky for purely experimental purposes. And the core with thousands of inhabited worlds in the center of the Galaxy would explode in hell...."


    ¡°Yaroslav Igorevich.... Sorry, but that''s the narrow view.¡±


    Yar sighed wearily, "You know, I have only one Unit of Intelligence. I can¡¯t understand your wild idea...."


    ¡°There is a higher purpose in all of this, which you can''t possibly understand,¡± the Magister interrupted Yar. ¡°A thinking galaxy is the peak of development, the ultimate accomplishment... This idea gives us a sense of eternal life and total satisfaction. We see this as the reason for being."


    ¡°Well, everyone has his own way. Everyone shapes peace and quiet to his own image and thinks it''s good for him,¡± Yar said.


    ¡°Exactly!¡± the Magister said. ¡°You humans, you are divided. Everyone has his own measure of happiness. One is happy when he marries his girlfriend, the other one when he has enough money to buy a motorcycle, the third one is happy thanks to a decent salary and a beautiful summer residence ...."


    ¡°There is something bigger¡­.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t disagree. One would make it his life¡¯s mission to win as many battles as possible, the other one would devote himself so that no battles ever took place again, the third one dreams of discovering an unknown planet ....¡±


    ¡°It once seemed the same way to me, but now I know that happiness is when those who you love are happy.... But you are just a clay dummy and you¡¯ll never understand this," Yar thought wearily.


    The Magister seemed to read Yar¡¯s thoughts. He said with a cushioned voice, ¡°Well, my friend, to each his own. The nature of human affection is still mysterious for us, but maybe that is what will get you to cooperate?"


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Yar said.


    The Magister said quietly, "Yaroslav Igorevich, here''s the deal -- you get the Sparky for us, and we give you the boy back."


    Yar stood up and asked, "What boy are you speaking of?"


    ¡°Well, of your stepson, whose name was Ignatik Yar - Tik.¡±


    Yar was silent.


    ¡°You saw his grave. But he.... he did not die. It is in our power to return him to you unharmed.¡±


    Yar remained silent.


    ¡°So, what did you decide?¡± the Magister asked impatiently.


    Then Yar called out loudly, ¡°Tik!¡±


    The little door near the stage opened and Ignatik crossed over the threshold. The wires with colored flashlights hung on his neck. Tik said to Yar, ¡°I¡¯ve fixed it. I just need to change the light bulb.¡±


    ¡°Tik,¡± Yar said. "Come and sit with us while we are talking here¡­. Well, go on, Magister. I''m listening to you...."


    3


    There was a thaw in the morning, but after noon the road was covered with a crust of ice and the worn tires of the old school jeep glided on the icy bumps. The jeep had one headlight out, so while driving Yar had to strain his eyes to keep the rough road in view and try to see anything in the distance. A blizzard was coming.


    Ignatik and Al¡¯ka were sitting in the backseat and bouncing every time the jeep went over a bump.


    Al¡¯ka laughed, ¡°When Tik came out, Magister¡¯s jaw hung down from astonishment.¡±


    Yar grinned and said: ¡°Just like me last September, when Tik, who was believed to be dead, stepped out of the next room. Although, Magister and I had different feelings about it.¡±


    ¡°Tik, how did you do it?¡± Al¡¯ka asked.


    ¡°I''ve told it, like, a million times.¡±


    ¡°Have they kept you locked up?¡± Al¡¯ka pressed.


    ¡°Of course. I was kidnapped and then they made me like lethargic, half-asleep. I didn''t want anything - neither to eat, nor drink. I opened my eyes, looked at the ceiling and fell asleep again. The room was white and there was a window high on the wall, almost at the cieling. They said that Yar flew away and that you are all gone, too. Then.... everything lost its meaning. And then the Windies* came through the window and I heard a voice on the radio.... Well, you yourself know!¡±


    ¡°Did you escape right away?¡±


    ¡°No, I didn''t. Before leaving I laid the pillow under the covers, as if were stillI sleeping. I tried the door, but it wouldn''t open. Then I told myself, ¡°Now I can open it and there will be Yar and the guys.¡± I tried the door again and it opened. I stepped into the room just like I did it before on Yar¡¯s scader*.¡±


    Yar said, ¡°There is one thing that is not clear to me, why didn¡¯t they didn¡¯t notice you were gone until today?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s pretty clear,¡± Ignatik answered. ¡°They looked through the crack and saw the boy asleep under the covers, under their hypnosis¡­. Are you afraid that Magister would do something worse to us?¡±


    ¡°I don''t think so,¡± Yar said. But he lied to Tik. Yar was afraid. He was not worried about Cita and Dasha who remained at home as much as Gleb Vyatkin, though they were yet strangers to each other. What if the Magister would take urgent action against the owner of the mysterious Sparky?


    Yar recalled how confused Magister stood on his shaky legs and muttered, ¡°With your permission¡­. I''ll visit you again. I''m not quite ready.... to continue to speak it....¡± The Magister nodded awkwardly, pulled on his coat and hat and walked out the door.


    ¡°I don''t think, Magister would try anything in the near future. I mean, he flipped out over Tik''s sudden appearance.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± Yar agreed. ¡°Don''t talk. Please, don''t distract me.¡±


    But Al¡¯ka said again: ¡°What do you think his beard is made of? He must be lying that it was his real hair.¡±


    * The scader - a star cruiser


    * The Windies. In The Empty City, on a Tower, on the upper platform, a spell is carved on a stone. A boy needs to cross the River, climb the Tower and learn the spell by heart. After that, he needs to jump from a great height and to read this spell during the fall. Then the boy will become the Windy - he will turn into a small spiral air vortex, which can fly wherever he wants, and become a living person or the Windy at will. If a boy who passed the rite subsequently dies, he does not die for good, but turns into the Windy forever. Many Windies live in The Empty City. The Windies that survived can become people for a short time - from several minutes to several hours. They also know how to "go into foundlings": to turn into living babies who are living on the doorsteps of a family (and not necessarily in the world of the Planet). Such a child lives an ordinary childhood, not knowing about his past, until the age at which he died at one time. When he reaches this age, he remembers everything, and soon turns into the Windy and flies away.


    THE VETERAN


    1


    Yar covered the jeep¡¯s engine with an old sheepskin coat, and they all went up to the front door of a dark building. They climbed a rickety wooden staircase that made two turns among the cold and damp old brick walls. The rotten steps caved in under their feet.  The bulb upstairs was so weak, it couldn''t even be called a light. The guys and Yar stopped at a door, which was upholstered in ragged leatherett.


    They saw a time-darkened doorplate. Yar took a closer look and saw the words:


    GLEB THE WILD


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    WRITER


    ¡°Well, it fits,¡± Yar said, having sinking feeling in his gut. He looked for the call button, but could not find it. Then Yar knocked hard on the door. It was quiet. He raised his fist again....


    A clear, unexpectedly close voice asked, ¡°Who do you need?¡±


    There was probably a speaker in the door. Yar said, feeling terribly stupid, "I need.... Gleb Sergeevich...."


    A very long minute had passed. Ignatik and Al¡¯ka shuffled their feet awkwardly next to Yar. Finally, the voice said unfriendly, "Come in."


    The door moved. Yar pulled the door and it opened. Behind the door was another door, a wooden. The second door opened on its own. Oncoming light hit their eyes. Yar closed his eyes and it took him a while to see where he was. The room was long and narrow. A man was hunched over the table with the green-lighted lamp at the far end of the room. Yar saw his shiny glasses and his beard. The hands of the man were hidden behind a stack of books. Everyone was silent for quite a while. Finally, Yar said, ¡°Well, hello¡­.¡±


    ¡°Damn it.... Hello,¡± the man said in a high but hoarse voice. ¡°Come here, please.¡±


    The upper light faded out. Yar, who was blinking, walked to the table. Tik ??and Al¡¯ka walked on both side of him. They stopped next to the table.


    ¡°You seem to know who I am,¡± the writer said. ¡°Won''t you introduce yourself?¡±


    "I am the principal of a high school in Orekhov. And these are my ... my children."


    Gleb Wild took off his glasses, wiped them and put them on again. He pulled out a large, shiny revolver which was hidden behind the book stack and placed it into drawer.


    Tik ??and Al¡¯ka were craning their necks for a view.


    "This is a Morton gun," Al¡¯ka said.


    ¡°No way, it''s a Fort,¡± Tik said.


    Gleb laughed and rubbed his small gray beard with his palms. He was an old but strong man.  His thin tanned face was covered in deep wrinkles.


    ¡°Have a sit,¡± Gleb said. ¡°Why the hell did you call me Gleb Sergeevich? You probably know who likes this old-fashioned way to address?¡±


    "And what should I call you?" Yar said and grinned. ¡°Writer Gleb the Wild Wild?¡±


    The writer scratched the cloth on the table with his fingernail.


    "Call me just Gleb," the writer said. ¡°Tell me the truth, they sent you, right?¡±


    ¡°Well, of course,¡± Yar said, and settled himself comfortably on a creaky wicker chair. "A man of a very dignified appearance; he¡¯s calling himself Magister. Do you know him?"


    Gleb shook his head and said quietly, ¡°I don''t have any friends among this scum. I prefer to shoot them without much talking."


    ¡°Bullets can''t harm them,¡± Yar said.


    ¡°There were special bullets,¡± Gleb explained. "Ask your friend Magister, he''ll tell you himself."


    Yar laughed, "Gleb! What nonsense are you talking about! He¡¯s not my friend at all! Magister came up without my invitation and had proposed to make an alliance, but I told him where to go. But maybe I should thank him-- he gave me your address."


    "But why did he choose you?"


    ¡°Just because we came from the same world.¡±


    ¡°You and.... Magister?¡±


    ¡°Oh, gee whiz!¡± Yar exclaimed. "I mean, you and I!"


    Gleb whiped his glasses again and looked at Yar questioningly.


    ¡°I''ve only been working as a school principal two months,¡± Yar said. ¡°And before that, I was a math teacher. And long before that I was a dispatcher in the port. I got in this place from planet Earth, like you. You have connection with Starogorsk, and I am a native of Neisk¡ªthey are not far from each other. My name is Yaroslav Igorevich Rodin. I¡¯m a scaderman ¨C an interstellar scaut. Now I¡¯m known as principal Yar.¡±


    Gleb closed and opend his strong fingers and said quietly, ¡°I can''t believe¡­. This is a surprise¡­. How about some tea?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it would be nice,¡± Al¡¯ka said, sitting in the big chair in the dark corner.¡± Look, Tik''s ears are red from the cold¡­.¡±


    Gleb sat back and laughed out loud.


    2


    The room had unpainted wood-panelled walls. Along one wall, there were book shelfs. Framed drawings and engravings hung on another one. A triple-barrel shotgun stood at the head of the bed.


    Gleb removed piles of books from the table and arranged teacups on it.


    ¡°...But why did Magister say that you were a terrorist?"


    "ForThose who command, I was a terrorist." Gleb said. ¡°I appeared here when the war between the left and the right banks of the river was formally over, but it was still turbulent around the cities and in the forests. I was still a boy then. I learned to shoot straight, despite wearing glasses, and earned myself a nickname - Shooter.¡±


    "And.... who were you shooting at?"


    ¡°At Those, of course. They led the so called Pacifying Units.They had no use of the war anymore, and they decided to immediately put things in order on the peninsula. First they pitted armed groups from different banks against each other, and then disarmed those who were weaker. They destroyed weapons, but people.... well, it was a case by case situation¡­ Some people were set free, but those who were starting to suspect something wrong... I''ve seen enough and learned to shoot. We had a man who knew how to cast special bullets. He put a spell on them, as they did in the Middle Ages. But, Yar, we shot not only Those. We also shot those who helped them. We couldn''t change that¡­.¡±


    ¡°What happened next?¡±


    ¡°As the time passed, I realized that it''s pointless to go to war with them. I don¡¯t know where they came from and what is their nature, although I''ve given it a lot of thought. Maybe they are aliens from another planet. One thing I know for certain -- they belong to a race of parasites. They''re like¡­. cockroaches in the kitchen.¡±


    "And you stopped shooting and decided to keep a cleaner space.¡±


    ¡°Honestly, I did it without much success. Well, I was all over the country. I was protesting in public and trying to shake people up. I got nicknamed Gleb the Wild. I''ve written books¡­. By the way, the expression ¡°Those who command¡± is mine. That was the title of one of my books. They soon banned my books and burned it.¡±


    "Listen, Gleb.... This crazy idea of a sentient galaxy they are talking about, what is it? Well, is it like a church or a cult or something?¡± Yar asked.


    ¡°This theory is extremely naive. I had a talk with a clay philosopher before I....¡± Gleb stopped short and looked at the guys. ¡°In general, their theory states that the galaxy is a huge empty brain, not filled with any information so far. They send information into space in the simplest way with the help of explosives to create vibrations. So there is a mess and all these Invasions¡­. In addition, our cute clay friends do not mind closing the time spiral in a circle so that everything spins in an infinite loop!"


    ¡°What would they do that for?¡±


    "I believe that they want to gain time in order to achieve a wider goal,¡± Gleb answered Yar. ¡°Our galaxy is developing and expanding in its own way and will not wait to be filled with their minds.... Those who command are a race of cosmic parasites. They don¡¯t even have their own physical shell so they have to use statues and mannequins as their bodies¡­. Yar, have you ever thought about returning to Earth and bringing a large well-armed landing party to clear the Planet of all the parasites?"


    After a pause, Yar said, "Not at first, but then I did and then again no. Gleb, I realized that the aliens could not change the world. They could probably blow up a planet, but not save.... And what about you, Gleb? Did you try to return home?¡±


    Gleb swiftly answered, ¡°No. I did not try and do not want to. It seemed to me than that I was needed here, and it was enough for me. I have everything I want here.... Anyway, the Planet is just like Earth."


    Yar scratched his chin thoughtfully.


    Gleb continued his explanations, ¡°You see, the dimensions are densely packed together like transparent cubes ... And here our parasites have broke something in this cell structure during their explosions and experiments. The cubes had covered with cracks and moved ... A young novice journalist Gleb Vyatkin tripped on some metal rails and was brought here through one of these cracks....¡±


    ¡°Can we see the gun?¡± Al¡¯ka asked, making puppy-dog eyes at Gleb and pointing to the double-barreled shotgun hanging on the wall.


    ¡°No way!¡± Yar shouted.


    Gleb took the gung off the wall and said to the guys, ¡°Here, take it. It''s not loaded. In fact, the gung¡¯s spring is removed, so even if you want to take a shot, you can¡¯t. Now.... it''s a museum piece now.¡±


    Tik ??and Al¡¯ka came up to Gleb.


    Suddenly, like a gunshot, a mechanical voice came on - a voice that Yar knew.


    "Yar-r! Hello! How are you, scaderman?"


    Yar jumped up and removed the green lampshade.


    In the corner, at the ceiling, was a small funny creature - a tight baggie with wire hands and legs. The creature was clunging to some strained rope under the ceiling as its legs flopped around cheerfully. A face drawn on the baggie was smiling.


    ¡°Blabber!¡± Yar was really surprised. His heart started racing. Yar looked back at Gleb. "Gleb, can I ask him a question? Look, it won¡¯t die because of it, will it?"*


    ¡°I¡¯ll neverrr die,¡± the Blabber screamed joyfully. ¡°Ask me a trrrillion questions! I have Eternal Energy inside of me!¡±


    "Shut up, Mr. Blabbermouth!¡± Gleb said. ¡°Don''t mind him, Yar. He has been living with me for nine years and he hasn¡¯t gotten any smarter."


    "You didn¡¯t get smarter!" the Blabber said. "The only smart thing you ever did was putting the magic Sparky in me!"


    ¡°Is it true?¡± Yar asked Gleb.


    Gleb laughed and nodded, ¡°It''s the safest place to hide. Magister wanted me to give him the Sparky, but now it belongs to Blabber, and he would never part with something so precious."


    "Never!" the Blabber confirmed. "As long as I have Sparky in me, nothing can be done with me. Ha-ha, I''m, like, invincible."


    ¡°You know, I have trouble shutting him up,¡± Gleb said.¡±But sometimes he gives good advice¡­.¡±


    The gun suddenly went off with a loud bang. The Blabber fell to the floor, and the cups flew off the table.§´he room filled with blue-gray smoke and with a faint scent of gunpowder. There was a ringing silence in the room.


    ¡°I thought you said it doesn¡¯t fire,¡± Ignatik said with guilt in his voice.


    ¡°Intolerable scandal!¡± the Blabber screamed from under the table.


    Gleb rushed to the boys and grabbed the gun out of Tik¡¯s hand. He cleared his throat and said, ¡°What the devil! There''s no bullets in there! The trigger isn¡¯t working! How is - how is this even possible?¡±


    ¡°Tik. It''s all him,¡± Alka said smugly. ¡±He can do a lot more than that just by thinking it.¡±**


    ¡°It¡¯s like letting  children get hold of matches¡­.¡± the Blabber screamed, climbing the wall.


    Gleb sat back in the armchair and began to laugh....


    *The Blabber. A man-made intelligent creature that you can create with your own hands from a piece of cloth, several sticks or pieces of wire and sand.  You can do the Blabber only in a quiet place. The sand is poured into a piece of cloth, then the cloth is tied. A face is drawn on it and ¡°hands¡± are attached from the sides, after which the Blabber is hung somewhere on the wire. As a result, he comes to life and can talk, tell stories or just keep conversation. But you need to talk with him carefully. The most important thing is not to ask him any questions. The fact is that the Blabber can answer any question, but only one. If you ask him a second question, he immediately dies and turns into a handful of sand in a piece of cloth.


    **Ignatik (Tik) has the superpower to take some of his fantasies into reality, but sometimes they¡¯re unconscious.


    3


    The old jeep glided over the bumps in the road again. The snowflakes were dancing in the yellow beam of the headlamp. Gleb was sitting next to Yar. The Blabber settled between Tik and Al¡¯ka who were bouncing in the back seat.


    ¡°I have an apartment at school,¡± Yar said to Gleb. ¡°We can discuss our next move over a nice bottle of red wine. I¡¯m so happy to meet someone from Earth¡­.¡±


    ¡°A bottle of red wine, that¡¯s quite something!¡± Gleb said. ¡°The only thing is, Yar, you and I are from one planet, from Earth, but not from the same world¡­.¡±


    Yar looked at Gleb, puzzled, and said, ¡°What do you mean? Well, you told us about your life in Starogorsk.¡±


    ¡°I lived in Starogorsk for a while, about a month. However, I come from a different world. You know, our worlds are similar, though there are differences. My Earth is probably younger and life there is not as comfortable. But now it doesn''t matter anymore. I''ll tell you everything later, all right?¡±


    ¡°But¡­. How did you get here?¡±


    ¡°A train. A strange train going to the Bridge station....¡±


    ¡°This Bridge station comes up once again¡­. we just can''t escape it.¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess you¡¯ve already heard about it.¡±


    ¡°Yes. I think the train is not simple - it goes through several parallel spaces, so if you get on the train and ride for a long time, you can find yourself in another world. You have any idea who''s behind it?¡±


    ¡°Hard to explain. By the way, we tried to find this Bridge and blow it up thirty-five years ago.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°We knew that for some reason ¡®Those who command¡¯ really needed it, which meant it hurt people.... We couldn¡¯t find it.... My wife died during a skirmish on a rail track.¡±


    ¡°Did you have a wife? Oh, sorry for the stupid question.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I was married¡­. but for a short time.¡±


    ¡°What about children?¡±


    ¡°No.... You know, Yar, I still regret that I couldn¡¯t talk my fellow traveler out of returning.¡±


    ¡°What fellow traveler?¡±


    ¡°He was a boy of twelve years. Yurka. Together we left Starogorsk to search for the unknown. He had friends in Starogorsk . He first came with me, and then suddenly he said: ¡°No, I can¡¯t leave Gel¡¯ka.... This happened immediately after the paper dove with the Sparky caught up with us....¡±


    ¡°You know, I don''t get it. Who was that boy? Was he from your world?¡± Yar asked.


    ¡°No. He was from your world, from your hometown Neisk.¡±


    ¡°But why did he go with you?¡±


    ¡°It''s a long and strange story. He grew up without a father and did not know anything about him. And then he suddenly decided that his father was an interstellar scout. He says, "Where is he to be found, if not in this entanglement of space and time." You know,Yar, he may have a point. At least here, on the Planet, there is one scaderman.... Yar! Have you ever had children?¡±


    Yar suddenly felt his palms get sweaty.


    ¡°No, I haven¡¯t¡­. as far as I know. But how did he know that his father was a scaderman?¡±


    ¡°He didn¡¯t know anything. It was his fantasy. His mother once said to him in the heat of the moment: ¡±No one on Earth can say where he is and what¡¯s being done to this drummer....¡±


    ¡°Yar-r, mind your driving!¡± the Blabber said behind. ¡°Keep the jeep quietly along!¡±


    Yar hardly turned the wheel and the jeep swerved from the side of the road onto the snow-covered track.


    ¡°Why the drummer?¡± Yar asked. He felt his heartbeat ringing in his ears.


    ¡°Yurka saw an old picture that his mother had. There was a courtyard, a girl and three boys in the picture. Two of the boys had wooden sabers, but the other boy in the picture had a homemade drum. Yurka noticed that there were similarities between him and the drummer in the picture. He guessed that it was his father the one he never saw.¡±


    ¡°Gleb.... Have you seen that picture?¡± Yar asked.


    ¡°No. Yurka told me¡­.¡±


    ¡°The drum.... Was it made from an old cooking pot?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that''s right. But how did you¡­. Man, I can''t believe it! I think we met for a reason¡­.¡±


    Yar pulled the jeep over. His hands were running out of strength and he felt ashamed of his sudden weakness. He said: ¡°Guys, just give me a minute to get things together, okay?¡±


    ¡°Yar, come on. I''ll take the wheel,¡± Gleb said.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine. I just¡­ just want to ask¡­¡± Yar quickly turned back.¡± ¡°Tik, would you penetrate  space so that I can visit Earth? You can do that, can''t you, Tik?!¡±


    ¡°Sorry, Yar, but I cannot. I was able to move through space and come to your star cruiser  because I knew exactly where to go.... "


    Yar took a deep breath, sat in silence for a few seconds, then put the jeep in gear.


    ¡°Okay then,¡± Yar muttered.


    ¡°Yar, your son must be, like, over fifty wherever he is now,¡± Gleb said gently. ¡°It¡¯s a kind of time-travel paradox.¡±


    ¡°Does any of this matter now?¡± Yar asked.


    ¡°Well, we''ll have to try something else...¡± Gleb said uncertainly.


    Yar smiled sadly and said, ¡°What? Gut Blabber, give the mannequins the Sparky and ask for their help in return?"


    ¡°Fortunately, that''s impossible,¡± Gleb said.


    Yar sighed and said, "Yurka...  I wish I knew more about him. I wish I knew anything ..."


    "The Windies. They fly everywhere. They know everything. This is my advice," the Blabber said from behind in his mechanical little voice.


    ¡°All right, that''s great, but how do we find them? A fat lot of use you are!¡± Gleb said with displeasure.


    "I know where they are," Yar said. " They¡¯re in the Empty City. The school holiday starts soon and we can go there, right, Tik?¡±


    Ignatik was silent for a long time. The jeep pitched from side to side over the icy, snow-covered road. Ignatik finally said, ¡°No, there is no need to go to the Empty City. There is a place much closer. I can show you the way."


    ...After arriving home, they sat beside the cosy open fire, listening to the wood crackle. Ignatik said, ¡°You know, the Windies usually meet together in the forest meadows sometime before the new year and turn into ordinary boys for a short time. They do this to feel like kids again. They play, have fun, and see friends.¡±


    "So do you know where these meadows are?" Gleb asked with disbelief.


    Ignatik nodded and said, "One such meadow is very close, at Black Lake. It is eight kilometers from here... Don¡¯t worry, the Windies are good fellows.You¡¯ll see.¡±


    After the blizzard, the morning was still; only the rustling of his skis on the snow   could be heard. The sun was shining bright, but the cold caused a tingling in Yar¡¯s fingers. The snowy landscape sparkled so brightly that it hurt his eyes.


    They traveled along the gentle hills covered with thin forest. Dasha, Chita and Al¡¯ka ran forward and flickered ahead like colorful specks. Yar, Gleb and Tik slowly followed them. Yar and Gleb were skiing side by side; Ignatik followed slightly behind them. Yar was a little dizzy after a sleepless night, but he was breathing well. However, he felt no joy. His sadness had subsided, giving way to a feeling of loss and uncertainty.


    The skiers stopped at a grove of fir-trees and then they made their way into the full green boughs, but soon they went out into a clearing.


    ¡°Wow. What is this?¡± Dasha said quietly. There were some footprints across the clearing. Someone small and light had run barefoot here, in the fresh fallen snow.


    Dasha shrugged and said, ¡°They''ll freeze to death.¡±


    ¡°They don¡¯t feel any cold,¡± Tik said. ¡°Let''s go. Just don''t make much noise.¡±


    They crossed the clearing and found themselves in the thick forest again. They heard perky, tall voices and laughter. They moved further and soon found themselves in an oval meadow. A couple dozen lightly clothed boys were messing around in the snow-covered meadow. It was just like recess at school. The youngest were eight to nine years old, and the eldest about thirteen. Their hair needed cutting and their skin was brown, as if they had just been camping by the sea in the summer. Many of them ran barefoot. Looking closely, Yar noticed that their shirts, jackets and sailor suits were faded and patched.


    A boy who was no bigger then Ignatik stood in the middle of the meadow. He was knee-deep in snow and threw snowballs. The other guys threw snowballs at him. The boy laughed, leaning his head back. His shirt was yellow, and his hair was sunny yellow, too. The snowballs did not reach the children, but fell in the air to fine sparkling snow dust. Suddenly their laughter and voices had died down. The boys stood motionless and looked at the skiers. The yellow-haired boy smiled and said, "It¡¯s Tik. It''s okay, guys." He ran to Ignatik almost without touching the snow. The other kids followed him. The noise rose again.


    The boys surrounded the guests.


    Yar said with an awkward smile, ¡°Have no fear¡­.¡±


    Those boys who stood closer to him laughed, as is usual for the kids to laugh at adults when they try to play a children''s game with them and do not know how. A curly-haired boy with blue eyes wearing a plaid shirt said to Yar, "You can''t catch the wind in a net. If anything goes wrong, we just fly away."


    ¡°Are you the Windies?¡± Al¡¯ka asked.


    The boys laughed again.


    The skinny kid said, "Of course. Tik said you are his friends. It''s a good thing you''ve come. We do kind of miss people."


    ¡°This is our commander,¡± the boy in the plaid shirt said to Yar cheerfully. ¡°His name is Vovchik... but we call him Peabody."


    Chita asked Vovchik, ¡°Do you mind if we make a bonfire?¡±


    ¡°Fine,¡± Vovchik- Peabody said and looked back at the other Windies. ¡°Hey guys! Bring twigs over here to light a fire!¡±


    ¡­They were all sitting around the bonfire. The flame seemed bright orange in the sunlight. Ignatik came up behind Yar, put his hands with knitted mittens on his shoulders and quietly said, "Don¡¯t worry about anything. I told them everything. They have a plan to help us."


    ¡°Thank you, Tik,¡± said Yar, touching his stepson¡¯s hands.


    The next second, Vovchik came up and said to Gleb and Yar, "Sorry, but you have to go. We have only ten minutes, and we still have to put the fire out. When we fly, we cannot put out the fire, but only make it higher. The sundial showed that our hours in our human form are about to end.¡±


    ¡°Let us help you,¡± Yar said.


    ¡°Thank you, but you have a girl with you¡­. I mean¡­.  You know the way boys put out the fire,¡± Vovchik said and laughed. Then everyone laughed.


    The boy in the orange T-shirt said to Yar, ¡°This way, I''ll walk you out.¡±


    When they made their way through the thicket surrounding the meadow, Yar asked his guide, "Do you have meetings in spring and summer?"


    "Yes, we have it in the fall too. Last time, when we all met together, we wanted to find a way of stopping the cloud if the Invasion starts again...."


    ¡°Did you?¡± Yar asked.


    ¡°No. We don¡¯t have enough strength. Even if we all get together, we can¡¯t stop any cloud.... And the big winds don¡¯t listen to us; they don¡¯t care. They have never been human....¡±


    ¡°What''s it like to be a Windy?¡± Yar asked.


    The boy smiled, but somehow sadly. He said to Yar, "Well, we fly, we rustle with leaves, slam the windows and play. Sometimes we help children fly kites or drive boats through puddles- this is work as well....  I can turn into a kid every day, but not for a lot of time, for about two minutes.... Many of us can do that. "


    "Are there many Windies in the world?"


    ¡°Probably.... Through the forests, along the seashores, in the fields¡­. Nobody §ãounted us," the boy replied.


    ¡°How about the Empty City?¡± Yar asked.


    ¡°There are most of those who became the Windies after the uprising, like me.... But, frankly, I remember almost nothing. I only remember the fire and how we shot. The ruffle kicked back in my shoulder, but the bullets did not fly - they just fell under our feet into the dust like dead wasps. It was so frustrating¡­. It was good that the drum hit. The drum stopped them. But we couldn¡¯t stop the fire.... But none of us were afraid, even those who didn¡¯t have time to cast the spell -- they fell down and... "


    The yellow-haired boy said something quickly to Ignatik. Then he suddenly jumped aside, smiled, raised his hand and immediately disappeared. It was like in the movies. Only a barely noticeable little snow whirlwind ran back to the thickets along the ski track...


    Ignatik skied to Yar and said,


    "Dan said that he could slide through time to get to Starogorsk. All we can do is wait."


    ¡°Well, let''s wait and see,¡± Yar said and jerked up his head. ¡°It''s time to go home, compadres! We have our children''s New Year''s party at four o¡¯clock.... Gleb, what if we give you the part of Santa?¡±


    TO BE CONTINUED...

 PART III: THE AUTUMN IN STAROGORSK II. A special mission (EARTH-2)

    1


    Of course, Gel¡¯ka didn¡¯t know that Yurka wanted to return to Starogorsk, but he could not. When Yurka suddenly felt a longing for Gel¡¯ka, for Yanka and Starogorsk, he said to Gleb, ¡°Gel¡¯ka may think that I just left him there. I guess, I should¡¯t¡­¡± Then he just said goodbye to Gleb and went back along the rails. He walked for a long time, but the lights of Starogorsk, which seemed close, suddenly melted into the air. Yurka looked around. Gleb was no longer behind.Yurka was standing on the railroad tracks in a field, where birds began to whistle in the grass. He was alone. ¡°Should''ve thought of it earlier,¡± Yurka said to himself. ¡°Now just walk forwards.¡± He was going along the rails, whistling a tune. He walked fast and the morning playful breeze blew his drummer aiguillette on his shirt.


    ***


    Gel¡¯ka and Yanka walked home from school. It was late September, but the days were still warm. It was completely calm. Fluffy seeds of snowflake grass seemed to hang motionless in the air. Small daisies bloomed in the wasteland, and butterflies fluttered across them. The sun was still warming their shoulders through their shirts, but not strongly; it was like a gentle touch of a warm hand before it said goodbye. Gel¡¯ka was in a relaxed mood on such days and his anxiety about the fate of Yurka had temporarily  died down. He still hoped that everything was going to be okay.


    Gel¡¯ka said, ¡°Let''s go to the river, Yanka...¡±


    ¡°Why? The water is cold now," Yanka answered.


    ¡°I''m not going to swim. Why can''t we just sit on the cliff?¡±


    "What?" Yanka stopped.


    "Are you all right, Yanka?"


    Yanka wrinkled his face, shook his head and said, ¡°I''m just¡­¡±


    He quickly sat on the edge of the stone pavement and grabbed his knees. Gel''ka sat next to Yanka.  His relaxed mood disappeared. Gel''ka didn''t ask anything. He was waiting for what Yanka had to say.


    Yanka slowly raised his head and whispered, "Now I understand why I felt dizzy recently..."


    "What?"


    ¡°Remember, I became afraid of heights? It happens to all the Windies before they start flying. It''s always like this. We are very afraid of heights at first, but this fear must be overcome.... I remember everything now. Now I know exactly what''s going on. "


    "Yanka, I do not understand..."


    "I''m not Yanka."


    Gel''ka said very gently, trying not to show his fright, "Let''s go home slowly. I think you caught a cold or something when we were in the junkyard last time...."


    "Gel¡¯ka, I''m really not Yanka."


    ¡°Then who are you?¡±


    "My name was Daniel. My mom called me Dan. Then everyone began to call me that...¡±


    "Well, okay. Let''s go to your mom..."


    "No, I''m not talking about my present mom. The mom I am talking about is gone," Yanka said quietly.


    "Look, Twinkle and Vaska are coming over. Let us take you home."


    Yanka quickly got up and pulled back his hair. He now seemed somehow unfamiliar, as if he had grown older. Yanka said to Gel¡¯ka quietly, but firmly, ¡°We¡¯d better go to your place. Let¡¯s climb onto the roof of your house where we won''t be bothered and I can tell you everything.¡±


    They talked for the rest of the day. The dusk arrived early in September, so it was chilly outside, but there was heat coming from the energy collector on the roof. The first stars appeared in the sky.


    Yanka sadly said, ¡°


    Since the very beginning, I felt that Yurka was going to leave and that I had to help him. It was my special mission. Do you think I accidentally sent the wagon down the track using the energy of the Sparky? I didn''t explain it to myself, but I just felt I had to. It all happened ahead of time because Gleb appeared. There was no way of knowing this was going to happen. Well, who would have thought that the journalist Gleb Vjatkin would appear in Starogorsk from nowhere? Just at this moment, everything went wrong.¡±


    ¡°Maybe it''s still not too late,¡± Twinkle said. He and Vaska were silent almost all the time.


    ¡°No, the moment is gone,¡± Yanka said with annoyance. ¡°Right now, in September, I had to take Yurka to his father when I remembered everything. His father asked me to learn something about Yurka, to bring news for him, but all the Windies decided that this wouldn¡¯t be the way. They decided that we should get Yurka out of here, to the Planet before he grows up and send him forty years into the future through all these damn space and time fields. But I failed my mission."


    "But it''s not your fault," Gel¡¯ka said.


    ¡°What does it matter? Yurka will never meet his father," Yanka said with tears in his eyes, and banged his fist on the energy collector. ¡°If he was with us during the uprising at the naval school, then he didn¡¯t find his father Yar, don''t you understand it? Now I know that the boy we knew by the nickname Musician was Yurka....  The uprising was forty years before Yar appeared on the Planet.¡±


    ¡°How is that even possible?¡± Gel¡¯ka asked and shook his head. "Yurka left us a month and a half ago. It''s impossible." This is not the first time he had said this.


    Yanka replied sadly, " That can only mean one thing: Those who command have made time in a closed circle and we''re stuck in an infinite loop."


    ¡°Are these the ones that were the clowns?¡± Twinkle whispered and moved closer to Gel¡¯ka.


    ¡°Yes, they''re the ones,¡± Gel¡¯ka said.


    ¡°How did they do that to time? They don¡¯t teach us this stuff in school.¡± Twinkle said.


    ¡°No one understands this,¡± Yanka-Dan said and sighed. "But now it¡¯s clear that they did, and everything goes like a dizzy merry-go-round."


    Gel¡¯ka frowned as if he was solving a puzzle. "Yanka, but but if you go back in time... When you get there, you could meet Yar and explain to him that Yurka has become a Windy and that he is in the Empty City. Then they can be seen, at least for a while..."


    ¡°I won''t be able to do all this,¡± Yanka said wearily. ¡°I''m trapped in an infinite loo, just like all of you. I''ll be loop back to the starting point and it starts all over again: the Shores War, my mother and I will be on the sinking steamship, then I¡¯ll be getting knocked back by the explosion¡­ Then the naval school and the uprising¡­ Then we, the boys, which have become the Windies, have been flying around for so many years. Finally ¨C the snow-covered meadow, Yar and his friends and I fly here. I become a baby and live in Primorsk city, then here in Starogorsk, and start all over again. It seems to me that we''ve gone over this a thousand times. Over and over and over again.¡±


    Alyosha-Twinkle was very confused by Yanka¡¯s story. He asked Yanka,¡± Why did you have to turn into a baby?¡±


    Yanka said with a sigh, ¡°If a Windy wants to turn into a human for a long time, he first has to turn into a baby. It''s not bad at all. That''s what every Windy really wants deep down. It''s so good when you are a real kid again and you have a house and a family... It''s called ¡®go into foundlings¡¯. Some of the Windies do that.¡±


    "So why don''t all the Windies do that?" Gel¡¯ka asked.


    "Some of us don¡¯t know how, but many are just afraid to..." Yanka answered.


    "Is it dangerous?"


    "No. Nothing can harm the Windies at all. But when the time comes to fly away and when you know that you will never see your family again, it gets unspeakably lonely."


    ¡°But why do you have to fly away?" Twinkle asked.


    ¡°It is a rule of nature. If you are a foundling and if you are as old as you were before you had turned into a Windy, then you have remember everything and it takes you back..."


    ¡°How old were you when you turned into a Windy?¡± Gel¡¯ka asked with a sinking heart.


    "On the day of the uprising I was exactly twelve. And I¡¯ll be twelve in a week..."


    ¡°What are you going to tell your family?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to tell anything to mom and dad. They might not be grieving too much. They know that I¡¯m not their own son...¡±


    ¡°They''ll be grieving anyway,¡± Gel¡¯ka thought.


    "I¡¯ve told my grandfather. He loves me more than anybody else," Yanka said.


    ¡°So how did your grandpa react?¡±


    Yanka lay down on the plastic roof cap and answered, ¡°He hugged me and said:"I thought that might happen. You know, soon I will die, but you fly until the loop of time is be broken..."


    ¡°Do you think that would ever happen?¡± Gel¡¯ka asked.


    ¡°No one knows.We did our best, but we are almost out of time.¡± Yanka said sadly.


    Suddenly, there was a loud metal scraping. Vaska moved down from the roof crest on his hard back along the ribbed plastic surfice. So far he had been sitting up there and hadn¡¯t said a word.


    He turned on his purple photocell eyes and said, ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?" Gel¡¯ka said and frowned.


    "Why don''t we break this infinite loop?" Vaska ansered.


    "Vaska, you are a smart robot, but you still have little knowledge of physics," Gel¡¯ka said in a preaching tone of voice. "This is the loop of time. Where is it? How can you grab it?"


    ¡°There is no need to grab it,¡± Vaska answered in his special robotic voice; in that voice he spoke when he was capricious or was boasting. "There must be a model."


    Yanka jumped up and asked, "What?"


    Vaska got up and turned on a light bulb at the top of the energy collector. He put his rubber palms into the pockets of his sailor suit.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.¡°I know physics five hundred times better than you,¡± Vaska said casually. "The day before yesterday I read the seven-volume book of Doctor of Physical Sciences Laptev, and yesterday the General Theory of Space by Professor Okayama..."


    Vaska started to go back and forth. His pants were torn at the back from his movement along the roof, but this did not bother the robot.


    ¡°I''ve been listening to you for quite a while now,¡± Vaska said. ¡°I shut down my emotional block so as not to worry with you. When everybody else is upset and whimpering, at least one person should to be thinking clearly."


    ¡°Stop pacing like that!¡± Gel¡¯ka said. ¡°Sit down and quit stalling!¡±


    ¡°Got it. In fact, these creatures, the name of which is not precisely defined - ¡°clowns¡±, ¡°mannequins¡±, ¡°Those who order¡± - they cannot work without a model. They needed the Sparky, like a model, to influence our galaxy. Without it, they still can¡¯t do anything. But they are able to curle up time. And I''m sure they have a model of that somewhere - it is something like a ring road. If we break their closed loop model, the time loop breaks by itself."


    "But where can this model be? But where to find it?" Yanka asked.


    ¡°You''ve got to think!¡± Vaska said smugly.


    ¡°Do you have any idea?¡± Gel¡¯ka asked quickly.


    ¡°Of course. A train. A train to Bridge station."


    At first, everyone was silent. Then Alyosha-Twinkle asked Vaska, "What Bridge station?"


    They all stood on the roof around Vaska.


    ¡°The train goes through several parallel spaces, at least three,¡± Yanka said. ¡°What''s interesting is it always goes in one direction. Well, this is definitely the ring road.¡±


    ¡°Doesn''t the train go back when it arrives Bridge station?¡± Gelka asked.


    Yanka shook his head and said, ¡°There is no Bridge station. No one has ever seen it.¡±


    "No, there is," Vaska said sagely. ¡°But the station is extended in time as well as in space, in multiple demensions. The entire railroad is Bridge station. It''s not about the train, but about the rail track itself. It is their time loop model.¡±


    Yanka pulled himself up to his full height and it seemed to Gelka as if the music "Uprising" began to play. Yanka said, ¡°Great, so we¡¯ll blow it up!¡±


    ¡°But where?¡± Gel¡¯ka asked.


    Vaska said, "The station is extended in space, but there is still the Bridge."


    ¡°Oh ...¡± Alyosha-Twinkle muttered. "So this is the bridge near the junkyard?!"


    2


    The first time they saw the Bridge was in August. There was a bright full moon that night. They had been going through the junkyard among old cars, broken refrigerators, rusty pipes and radiators all day long. They found all kinds of fun and weird stuff and different parts for Vaska, who wasn¡¯t built yet. They needed to get home, but Alyosha-Twinkle fell hard and scraped his arm.


    Gelka said, ¡°We need to go to the old women to wash that thoroughly and apply a proper dressing.  Of course, they will gripe, but they will help anyway.¡±


    The old women lived in tin Gypsy carts on the edge of the junkyard. They lived close together, in dust and rust. That¡¯s probably why they were called ¡®the Rusty Witches¡¯ or maybe because they were really able to do magic.


    A tall gray-haired witch who wore a scarf around her neck named Elvira Galaktionovna, indeed, started grouching at the guys, but not for long. She put on     Alyosha¡¯s arm something cold and effervescent, and his skin had healed over right in front of their eyes. Then she slipped melted candies into the kids¡¯ hands and said with a made-up angry look, ¡°Now, young men, go home. We got our own things going on over here. You don¡¯t have to look at our old ladies'' stuff. It''s a full moon, so grannies are going to start dancing. And on that note, au revoir.¡±


    "Thank you, goodbye," the guys said obediently. But when they left the witch¡¯s cart, Gelka whispered, ¡°Let''s go see what they are doing, okay?¡±


    They had never seen rusty witches dance, only heard about it from the robot Jeremy, Vaska¡¯s father. No one knew where the rusty witches came from or why they lived in the world. Rumor had it that a long time ago, there was a gypsy camp at the site of the junckyard and the old women have been here since the dawn of time¡­


    The guys made their way to the "dance floor", hiding behind piles of scrap metal . It was a wasteland on the southern edge of the junkyard. There were weeds growing chin high in that place. Here and there, empty barrels of grease and gasoline stuck out among the weeds.


    They were dug in, waiting.


    The Witches hobbled to empty fuel barrels. The hems of their wide gypsy skirts clung to thorns of weeds. Their plastic beads glittered dimly in the moonlight. There were six witches. Each of them went up to her barrel, stretched wierdly and froze for a while, then, as if they were thrown from below, flew up and landed on the round iron base. The barrel made a hollow sound.


    "What are they doing?" Alyosha-Twinkle whispered. He was in the junckyard for the first time and was a bit scared.


    Gelka answered him quietly, "Do not be afraid... Nothing wrong with that, even though they are witches."


    For a moment the old women froze, standing on the empty barrels. They seemed to be statues in an abandoned park against the moonlit sky.


    Suddenly one of them hit the barrel with her boot heel. Another one answered her. Then several old women stomped at once. Then more and more ... The heels beating on the buzzing barrel iron turned into a roar, but soon a rhythmic stamping was formed. It was a ragged melody of a quick expressive dance such as flamenco. The witches threw up their disheveled heads, moved their arms up intensely, and then bent at their waists. Their wide skirts flutter around them like flames and the iron rhythm caused by their lightning-fast footwork boomed over the wasteland...


    ¡°This is brilliant,¡±Yanka whispered. ¡°To a three-four time signature.¡±


    The rusty witches dance was rattling loudly and spreading across the junkjard under the moonlight sky. Slowly, it began to seem not so loud and the rhythm pattern had become more sophisticated, more beautiful. Through the booming blows, a group of small measures became audible, which were intertwined and overtaking each other... Then a strange hum penetrated into the dance from a distance. It was like the increasing noise of an approaching train. Where could it have come from? There were no railways nearby. Gelka, Yanka and Twinkle looked at each other.


    Meanwhile, a bridge arose in the pale moonlight beyond the wasteland a hundred meters from the dancing rusty witches. The huge black bridge with no beginning and no end that looked like a giant gate. Its blurry edges were dissolved into the air. Then a train had appeared at the far end of the bridge. It was an old-fashioned locomotive with the spotlight. It raced along rails with wooden sleepers and rattled its metal wheels at the junctions. A smoke plume rose above the train firebox. The locomotive pulled black wagons with platforms at the back and front.


    The string of lights flashed past the surprised guys. It wasn¡¯t a mirage. The wobbling sound of the train wheels was so loud that they were deafened. The smell of burning §ãoal hit their noses.But the rusty witches'' dance was throbbing to its own frenetic rhythm as if nothing had happened.


    Sometimes, when adults face an unexplained phenomenon, they get scared and just pretend that nothing happened. Gelka, Yanka and Alyosha-Twinkle couldn¡¯t do that. The following night, they hid in the thickets of weeds and grandmother''s beads grass on the southern edge of the wasteland. The rusty witches danced again, and the bridge materialized out of thin air. This time the bridge was very close to the guys.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Gelka said, although he was scared. They rushed to the bridge, and, as always, the dry berries of the grandma¡¯s beads grass whipped their legs.


    The columns of the bridge were made of rough cubes of rock and the mica flakes in granite sparkled in the moonlight. Gelka touched the stone. The granite was wet and cold. The rusty step irons were driven into the gaps between the bridge stone blocks, so the bridge columns could be used as a ladder, a way up to the railroad track, which was fenced with thin railings. The bridge''s height was great - about thirty meters. And then the train passed on the bridge again with a long rumbling sound.


    "Another mystery of Starogorsk," Gelka said.


    The witches kept their wild dancing.


    Half a minute passed, and the bridge disappeared - instantly, without a sound, as if nothing had happened.


    ...The next day, Gelka casually asked Elvira Galaktionovna, "What''s the bridge, which appears at night? And there''s a train..."


    ¡°What, were you spying on us?¡± the witch Elvira asked angrily.


    "No. On our way back home from the junkyard, we looked back and saw a huge bridge..."


    ¡°How do you like that!¡± another witch named Taisya said. She was fat and good-natured in appearance.¡±Nothing special about it. Well, we are not really sure what it is. As soon as we start dancing on a full moon, the bridge comes out of nowhere. Forget it.¡±


    "Maybe it''s some kind of resonance phenomenon?" Yanka whispered to Gelka.


    ¡°You talk too much.¡± Elvira said. ¡°All right, now get out.¡±


    They understood that breaking the temporal loop meant destroying the Bridge. They also believed that this was the only way things would fall into place: Yurka would find his father, Yanka-Dan would no longer be burning in the fire at the fortress, Gleb would turn up, the friends would meet and the ¡®clowns¡¯ and the ¡®mannequins¡¯ would bite the dust or just run away somewhere. And a lot of good things probably would happen -- exactly what was still unclear to them, but it didn¡¯t matter. The main thing for them was to blow up the Bridge. But with what?


    ¡°This thing''s so big you''d practically need an A-bomb to destroy it," Gelka said hopelessly.


    Vaska let out a small sound like a grunt and said, ¡°We don¡¯t need to blow up the entire bridge. All we have to do is explode the rails. To do that, we need a very small bomb.¡±


    Alyosha-Twinkle snickered and said to Vaska, ¡°Are you going to buy it in a toy store?¡±


    ¡°Just leave it to me,¡± Vaska answered mysteriously.


    The next day, after school, Vaska had dragged an iron ball the size of a small watermelon in Gelka¡¯s backyard. The ball was badly rusted and weighed probably no less than twenty kilograms. Vaska¡¯s duralumin legs bent and gave away when he dragged such a heavy thing. Vaska dropped the ball into the grass near Duplex¡¯s kennel. Old Duplex got out of his kennel, sniffed around an unfamiliar thing and licked Vaska¡¯s belly. The dog loved the robot.


    Gelka looked at the rusty ball suspiciously and asked, ¡°What is this thing? A sinker, ha-ha?¡±


    ¡°Okay, ha ha, very funny. No. It¡¯s a cannonball,¡± Vaska said.


    ¡°Do you want to blow up the rails with this old cannonball?¡± Gelka asked. ¡°Vaska, you dummy. This is not a bomb; it won¡¯t blow up without gunpowder.¡±


    Vaska did not answer. He looked his disdain to Gelka¡¯s words. He scraped rust off the cannonball and put it noisily in a Duplex¡¯s bowl.


    ¡°And what''s that for?¡± Gelka asked.


    ¡°This is a millstone,¡± Vaska said in a matter-of-fact way. ¡°Go and pick snowflake grass seeds.¡±


    ¡°What would I do that for?¡±


    ¡°Less talk, more action,¡± Vaska ordered.¡±I¡¯ll make an explosive composition from the seeds.¡±


    ¡°How many megatons it might it be?¡± Gelka asked mockingly.


    ¡°Don''t get smart with me!¡± Vaska said. ¡°I stole an old book from the rusty grandmas and it says that the explosive power of the earth is inside of the seeds of snowflake grass.¡±


    Gelka suddenly remembered-- if you lay the seed capsule in the fist and wait for a while, so ¡®bang¡¯ -- it opens explosively from the body heat and your fingers open themselves, dispersing fluffy flying seeds.


    Gelka was a little ashamed. He joyfully rushed to the fence; there were oodles and oodles of snowflake grass along it. Yanka and Twinkle came along and started helping Gelka to pick the seeds. Then Vaska rotated the cannonball in the bowl, grinding the seeds into dust. Duplex observed the work with his head bent. Sometimes he sneezed from the fine fluff that flew over the homemade mill.


    Then Vaska brought a rusty thimble from somewhere. He showed it to the guys and explained that this would be around one charge. The ancestors of the rusty witches broke thick chains with such charges as they fled from the cave of the iron dragon.


    ¡°But we are dealing with the ring road. Five charges are needed,¡± Yanka said


    ¡°And what makes you think that?¡± Vaska asked.


    ¡°Believe me. ¡®Those who command¡¯ are afraid of the number five,¡±Yanka answered.


    ¡°Then bring me more seeds,¡± Vaska said.


    By nightfall, the flour from snowflake grass seeds was ready and they mixed it with the grandma¡¯s beads grass juice, following the rusty witches¡¯ recipe book.


    It was too late and Aunt Vika looked out the window and called to have dinner.


    Finally, they filled five checker pieces with the resultant paste.


    Vaska said that the paste should dry for three days.


    ¡°Are you sure we can make it before the full moon end?¡± Gelka asked.


    ¡°If we hurry, we can make it,¡± Yanka said and sighed. He only had five days left.


    TO BE CONTINUED...

 THE SECOND VISIT OF THE MAGISTER (The Planet)

    At the end of March, there was still dirty lumpy snow on the shady sides of the streets, but coltsfoot bloomed along the fences in the sun. While the weather was sunny and calm, then brown butterflies fluttered from time to time upon the blossoms.


    There was no sun that day. The sky had been covered by heavy clouds since the night before, and the feeling of hopelessness hung in the air. The school principal, Yar, just wanted lie down and pull the blanket over his head. He told the kids to go home after the second class. He also announced spring break two days early.


    But Chita didn¡¯t let the third-graders go home. He gathered them in the school gym and gave them a warm-up with jumping jacks and other exercises. Then they started the ball throwing competition.


    About three months had slipped by and still there was no news from the Windies. Yar, frowning, went into the left wing of the school building - there was his apartment. Dasha was in the kitchen jingling plates. Yar had asked her a thousand times to stay out of this, but she kept comming by every now and then and do the dishes after he and Gleb sat and talked late at night. Al¡¯ka was sitting on the windowsill in Yar''s room, just looking at the sky. He smiled slightly and said to Yar, ¡°Gleb has arrived.¡±


    Gleb was sitting on the bed in Yar¡¯s tiny bedroom with a frown and inserted long bullets into the revolver. ¡°Filthy weather, isn''t it?¡± Gleb said. ¡°They''re quiet now, but I think they''re plotting something big.¡±


    Yar shook his head and said, ¡°I''m worried about Tik. He¡¯s out there somewhere, and he''s...¡±


    ¡°I''m here, Yar,¡± Ignatik said. He stood in the doorway.


    ¡°Phew,¡± Yar sat next to Gleb and leaned back against the wall with the map of the peninsula on it. ¡°How are things in town, Tik?¡±


    ¡°There''s no news, nothing,¡± Ignatik said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like this ... calm before the storm,¡± Gleb said.


    Then Dasha entered the room. She said with a sneer, ¡°His lordship the learned Magister is moving down the hallway.¡±


    They met the Magister at the grand room. He was wearing a leather coat and a fashionable hat. He still had a beard, formally styled and he still seemed like a real university professor.


    "Hello, Principal Yar, hello, young people," the Magister said and sat down at the table without invitation. He took off his hat and laid it casually on the edge of the table. If he were a human being, Yar would say that the Magister drank a bit to brave himself up. The Magister crossed his legs and turned to Gleb. "Hello Gleb Sergeevich. Do you remember meeting me before?¡±


    "How did you survive?" Gleb asked, squinting behind thick glasses.


    ¡°You missed last time, Shooter,¡± the Magister said with a smile.


    ¡°I always have a clear shot,¡± Gleb said and sat at the table opposite the mystery guest. Yar also sat down at the table, next to Gleb.


    The Magister drummed his neat fingers on the oilcloth and said, ¡°I would very much like to find common ground on one important point. Honestly, it is in our best interests¡­¡±


    ¡°The Sparky is no longer available. Blabber will not be giving it to you,¡± Yar intoned flatly.


    ¡°But you can create another one,¡± the Magister said, staring at Gleb. ¡°You remember the recipe, don''t you, Shooter?¡±


    ¡°I suppose today''s weather is your doing?¡± Gleb asked.


    ¡°We did it,¡± the Magister answered.


    ¡°Why?¡± Yar asked.


    The Magister stroked his beard and explained, ¡°The tricks with weather are just for show¡­ for now.¡±


    ¡°You won''t get the Sparky or whatever else,¡± Yar said.


    ¡±It''s a pity. You have no idea how deep this is. Come on, Shooter, please stop touching your revolver under your jacket. We have completely changed the structure of our bodies. We are practically bulletproof. Even your special bullets cannot harm us. We''d better have a good talk.¡±


    Yar cocked his wrist, squinting at the dial.


    ¡°Alka, Dasha,¡± Yar called. ¡°Please, go relieve Chita at the gym. He has been training with the guys for two hours.¡±


    Alka snuffled displeased, but went to the door. Dasha followed him.


    ¡°It¡¯s not like we can make an alliance with you,¡± Yar said to the Magister.


    ¡°But, Yaroslav Igorevich!¡± The Magister exclaimed. ¡°Once you''ve considered it more carefully, you''ll realize the mistake you are making.¡±


    ¡°Do you want some good advice, Magister? Run from this planet and don''t look back. Find yourself the most distant planet where there is no intelligent life, and where you can do your tricks as much as you like... Don''t you see that here you are doomed to defeat. You face a seed of resistance so far. And what happens to you if people of several planets team up against you?"


    ¡°If we only lift a finger, there''ll be nothing left - no planets, no people on them," the Magister said acidly.


    ¡°So what happens to you, then? Come on, Magister. You are the race of cosmic parasites, but parasites cannot live outside his host," Gleb said with a grin.


    ¡°And that is why we can not take your advice. Galaxies where life doesn¡¯t exist are useless for us. And for the record, there are no such galaxies,¡± the Magister said with a straight face.


    ¡°You can''t stay here,¡± Chita said, standing in the doorway.


    The Magister looked around.


    "You''re wrong, boy. We have a cause that''s bigger than any one of our own needs.¡±


    ¡°And so have we,¡± Chita said emotionally. "I want you to know that you''re risking a lot, too."


    The Magister was silent for a long time. It seemed that all seven hundred twenty-nine of his brains had been thinking a great deal about the words that Chita said.


    Then he said with a weary sigh, ¡°What can you do? Do you think that stupid incident at the post office scared us? Now we find it even funny. So don''t even hope for throwing drumsticks at us.¡±


    "What? What drumsticks are you talking about?" Yar said in surprise.


    ¡°So you don''t know, do you? Well, the better for us,¡± the Magister said.


    ¡°I guess we''ll find that out, too,¡± Yar said. ¡°But the fact that you are afraid of drummers has long been known. No wonder you could not take down them during the uprising."


    ¡°What do you mean, ¡®the uprising¡¯?" the Magister asked disdainfully.


    ¡°In the naval school,¡± Chita answered.


    ¡°That is totally untrue!¡± the Magister exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. He suddenly morphed from a university professor into an old yeller. ¡°There was no uprising. There was an act of hooliganism of the boys who broke the ban and swam the river to enter the Empty City. They had to be called to order."


    "You call that ¡®§ãall to order¡¯? You wanted to send them to the labor school on the island. This is a closed facility, which has the effect of imprisoning. One of them was no more than six years old," Chita said.


    ¡°That''s right,¡± the Magister said in a calm, confident voice. ¡°And then someone made up an inspiring legend of the uprising. There were not any drummers. I can prove it. I can show you how it all was."


    ¡°But how?¡± Yar asked.


    ¡°I''m going to make this very simple. A mnemofilm. My memory record. It portrays the facts accurately and dispassionately,¡± the Magister said and looked around the room. ¡°Do you have any sheet of metal?"


    "Will the tray fit?" Dasha asked. She and Alka had just entered the room.


    ¡°Fine,¡± the Magister answered.


    Dasha brought a black tray which had a bouquet painted on it.


    ¡°Is it okay it has a painting?¡± Dasha asked.


    ¡°It doesn''t really matter,¡± the Magister answered.


    He laid the tray against the pile of textbooks on the table. Tik, Al¡¯ka, Dasha and Chita stood behind Yar. Gleb drew his chair to the table and put his chin on his fists.


    "Just a moment. I have to focus," the Magister said.


    The black lacquer coat and the bouquet painted on the tray disappeared, melting in the opening depth, and there became something like a window in its space. It mirrored the oval shape of the tray...


    It was like a TV program, but with no sound. The edge of a stone house and a tower with battlements became visible. There was a passage between the tower and the house and boys ran out, looking around.


    ¡°You see,¡± the Magister said. These were the ones who did not want to participate in the outrages. They were not being kept there against their will.¡±


    ¡°Not true. These are the youngest children who were sent away,¡± Ignatik said.


    The image on the screen had a swing and the cobbled fortress courtyard became clearly visible. Yar physically felt the sensation of the stone slabs heated by the sun. Then some boys appeared in two rows. They stood with rifles. The rifles had bayonets, and their tips caught the sunlight.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    A boy, who had a blue rag bandage on his knee, stepped forward, raised his right hand and shouted something. Everyone in the first line knelt down. Both rows readied their rifles. The boys'' faces were not visible. The boy raised his hand and shouted again. The guns flashed silently. Yar closed his eyes for a second. The boys racked heir guns. Then they took a step back and Yar saw the muzzles flash again.


    ¡°So who where they shooting at?¡± Yar asked, trying to stay calm.


    ¡°At us,¡± the Magister answered.


    The boys on the screen fired again. A row of dusty clouds rose above the stone slabs three steps in front of them. The bullets fell on the cobbles before reaching their targets. It was as if they had hit an invisible barrier and bounced down onto the ground. Chita ground his teeth behind Yar''s back.


    ¡°I wish I''d been there,¡± Gleb said.


    ¡°Good thing you weren''t there, believe me,¡± the Magister said. ¡°We wanted to avoid any killing, if at all possible.¡±


    ¡°You''re quite the humanist,¡± Yar said scornfully.


    Meanwhile, a wall of flames appeared in front of the boys on screen. Yar flinched. The line of shooting boys opened and they started to fall back to a stone ledge with an iron staircase on its edge. Yar realized that it was the corner of the tower.


    The fflames flared up again. The boys began to run up the stairs, one by one. Yar could not see them clearly behind the tongues of fire. Then Yar saw the top of the tower with serrated outer edges. He saw it from below, as if he were standing down in the yard. The guys on the tower stopped shooting. They removed their bayonets and rhythmically beat the barrels of their rifles with them. It seemed to Yar that they were beating their rifles to the rhythm of some march. A yellow shirt and sunny blond hair was flashing among them. "That''s Dan!" Yar thought. But than the fire went sky-high, to the battlements of the tower and seemingly sent a few boys flying. The boys flew up and disappeared into the air. Sevral little spiral fire vortexes appeared for a moment just where the boys were.


    ¡°How can I watch at this?, Yar thought. He was horrified, but continued to stare at the screen.


    The Magister said casually, ¡°You see, there were no drummers. Just noise from the frightened kids.¡±


    ¡°Not true!¡±Alka said loudly.¡±That one over there ¨C he has a drum.¡±


    A dark-haired boy stood at the charred edge of the tower and moved his drumsticks rhythmically.


    ¡°Ah, this one... There was just one boy,¡± the Magister said. ¡±But his drum was not real. Look...¡±


    The screen come closer and Yar seemed like the boy with the drum really was in the room. He was beating his drumsticks on the oilcloth, which was tightly stretched over a round cauldron. It was so weird that no sound was heard. A scruffy aiguillette dangled on his dirty blue shirt.


    Gleb leaned forward sharply.


    A yellow fire flashed on the screen.


    The boy slowly turned his tanned face and his large eyes and stared in the faces of the people sitting in the room.


    ¡°Yurka¡­¡± Gleb exhaled.


    (EARTH-2) THE AUTUMN IN STAROGORSK III. A special mission (continuation)


    3


    These last few days with Yanka seemed long to Gelka.


    From the outside, it looked like Windy Dan was the same Yanka that Gelka had known. Yanka even went to school as usual. At recess, he kicked the ball with his classmates in the schoolyard and made a newspaper collage on the classroom wall. But no one, except Gelka and Yanka''s grandfather, had any idea of the sadness Yanka-Dan felt. Not even Alyosha-Twinkle and Vaska were able to understand. For Twinkle, all this probably looked like a game while the robot Vaska turned his emotional unit off.


    It was late summer but the weather was still warm and quiet. However, there was a special slowness in this silence, a hidden time extension inside a temporal loop.


    Now every meeting with Yanka was a special event for Gelka and each of their conversations had a special meaning.


    ¡­After school, Gelka overcame his shyness to ask: ¡°Yanka, play me the Uprising song.¡±


    Yanka would bring his violin from home, and they would go to the railroad station, to the wasteland near the dead end sign, where their wagon had recently stood. This was the same place where the wreckage of the robot Jeremy had been buried under the concrete block.


    Nothing remained of the "Henhouse on wheels" -- the wagon had been dismantled by order of the station master.


    Yanka stood between the tracks and played. Gelka felt like he could see a frantic swirling of autumn leaves, driven by strong wind around Yanka.


    Yanka lowered his bow and smiled sadly. Gelka unhooked a bronze lizard from his collar. " HereYanka, take this... Whenever you decide to fly away, hold it tight. This is to remember me by like a talisman.¡±


    ¡°Okay, but save it for later, Gelka.I¡¯ll take it once I really do fly away.¡±


    ¡°Yanka... How does it feel to fly through time and space? I mean, how long could it be?¡±


    Yanka-Dan said quietly, ¡°It is hard to say. When I''m going through the time loop, I lose all sense of time and distance. It feels falling into into a gray void. All I feel is fear.¡±


    "Why? You told me nothing can harm the Windies.¡±


    ¡°Right. But I''m really afraid won''t be able to break through this time loop, which took me right back to the beginning of the timecycle. The war returns, the uprising, and I don''t remember anything again... If only I could go straight back to the meadow, to our guys! Then I would fly to the Empty City, find Yurka there and bring him to his father Yar, even if only for a short while.¡±


    Both of them understood that the only way possible was somehow to open the infinite time loop.


    Then Gelka thought,"We¡¯ll fixe the temporal loop! Very soon! The magic paste from the snowflake grass seeds ripens in the cache under the Duplex kennel."


    While they walked along the rails, Gelka held the bronze lizard in his palm, and Yanka stroked it with his little finger. Yanka said, "In the fortress where the naval school used to be, there were a lot of lizards. One boy even managed to tame one."


    ¡°Wow. But how did he do that?¡±


    ¡°He tried, and he was finally able to do it. He had a good heart. He looked somewhat like you, but he was a bit younger.¡±


    ¡°Did he become a Windy, too?¡±


    ¡°No, he wanted to, but he didn''t have the time.¡±


    ¡°What happened to him?¡±


    "I don''t know, Gelka. There was fire all around and it¡¯s difficult for me to remember everything. Yurka probably sent him away to the fortress with other boys."


    ¡°Why did he send them away?¡±


    "It suddenly dawned on Yurka that we weren''t going to be able to hold off very long. The main thing was to free the four boys imprisoned in a labor camp on the island. We then had to leave. So he only ordered the Windies to stay in the fortress."


    ¡°So did you free those four?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they got away, but we did not. ¡®Those who command¡¯ appeared. We told them: just let us go and we''ll walk away without a fight. But they continued to pursue us and we had no choice but to go to battle. But there were not only Windies in the fortress, but ordinary boys from the naval school as well. The boys who had access to the rifles did not want to give them away and did not leave while there was still time.¡±


    ¡°So what happened to those ordinary boys?¡± Gelka asked in a whisper.


    Yanka was embarrassed and said nothing.


    Gelka asked, ¡°Yanka, how does one become a Windy? Well, not permanently, but long enough so that I can fly?¡±


    Yanka-Dan walked slowly over the rotten sleepers; his feet, in sandals, touching the heads of the daisies that grew between the rails.


    ¡°Is it a secret?¡± Gelka asked again.


    ¡°It''s no secret. First, you need to swim across the River. Secondly, you need to know the spell. It is written on a black plate found in the Tower of Winds in the Empty City. And then you need to overcome fear and jump from a great height...¡±


    Gelka remembered last year when Yurka and he dived off the old barge.


    ¡°I should be able to do all this,¡± Gelka whispered. ¡°I¡¯ve already swum across the river twice.¡±


    ¡°Gelka!¡± Yanka said with care in his voice. ¡°It''s not the same river, and you don''t know the spell.¡±


    ¡°Won''t you tell it to me?¡±


    ¡°Of course I''ll teach it to you.¡±


    And then Yanka said five words in a low voice; they were so simple that Gelka even laughed.


    ¡°Is that it?¡±


    ¡°Yes. But, Gelka ... In my opinion, everyone should say the spell outloud while on the tower and then swim across the River..."


    ¡°Is it wider than our river?¡±


    ¡°No, not wider...¡±


    ¡°So what difference does it make?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Please don''t risk your life.¡±


    "Okay ..." Gelka said but he had already made up his mind.


    "I''ll just have to wait till this whole thing with the Bridge is over," Gelka thought.


    ***


    They timed it perfectly, right down to the second.


    The Bridge appeared every evening, when the full moon was out and an ¡®iron dance¡¯ rumbled over the wasteland. At 9:23 p.m., the huge, black bridge materialized out of thin air, and two minutes later, the old train passed over it. Another fifty-two seconds later, it would vanish. The Bridge disappeared into another space and time, probably one in which the lives of Yurka, Gleb, scaderman Yaroslav Rodin and the Windies were racing in a closed time loop like a speeding train. The life of an entire planet or maybe many more planets...


    It was quite possible to climb the thirty-meter bridge in less than 2 minutes, using its rusty iron steps. Two seconds for each meter. The main thing was not to be afraid. Then, after the train would pass by, they had to put checker pieces wrapped in foil on the rails. These would have magic paste inside. A long wire with an electric detonator had to be connected to one of the checker pieces. The detonator had to be made by Vaska. After that, one had to climb down the Bridge as quickly as possible, lie down in the ravine and turn the detonator battery on. The train would be long gone and people who were traveling on it would not be hurt.


    ¡°All right, well, we''ve got to move quickly, there and back, because the Bridge will disappear,¡± Gelka said. ¡°I mean, what if it happens before we climb down?¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry. I can make it before it disappeares,¡± Yanka said.


    ¡°Why... why you?¡± Gelka asked. He was §ãonfused by Yanka¡¯s decision.


    ¡®Who else would it be?¡±


    ¡°I thought that I could climb the Bridge...Yanka, you told me you¡¯ve got a fear of heights and get dizzy.¡±


    ¡°I''m over that. Don¡¯t forget I''m about to turn back into a Windy. Well, there''s just one more thing... Since I didn¡¯t take Yurka to his father, I have to blow the Bridge up. You see, Gelka, this is my special mission.¡±


    Gelka sighed with relief to hear it. He was ashamed to admit he was truly afraid of climbing up the Bridge.


    It was just the two of them, chatting away on the edge of the junkyard the day before the explosion had been planned. The Bridge had already appeared and disappeared, and the rumbling of the rusty witches¡¯ dance subsided over the wasteland. The moon was particularly bright.


    ¡°Don''t worry, I''m sure I''ll make it before the Bridge disappears,¡± Yanka said reassuringly. ¡°I won''t even have to come down from the Bridge.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Gelka asked in dismay.


    ¡°Very soon I''m going to be a Windy and then I''ll be able to fly away. It''s only a matter of time. Frankly, it might be for the best. Listen, I don''t want a long goodbye so...¡± Yanka looked at Gelka with his big eyes. They were like mirrors which reflected two small moons. Once again, Gelka felt that last few days had been one long farewell.


    Gelka frowned and asked Yanka, "But all the same, I''d like you to come down and say goodbye to me." He looked worried. ¡°After all, if the temporal loop breaks from the explosion, you may not have to fly away.¡±


    ¡°Well, okay¡­¡± Yanka said obediently.


    They continued talking while they walked home.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to school tomorrow,¡± Yanka said with a smile. ¡°Anyways, they''ll have no time to react. I¡¯ll fly away before they know what happened at home.¡±


    ¡°If you don''t go, I won''t either,¡± Gelka responded.


    ¡°If your aunt finds out, you''re in trouble,¡± Yanka said.


    ¡°Phooey! It''s no big deal,¡± Gelka said.


    Yanka paused before speaking. He became serious. ¡°You know, I want to be alone with my grandpa one last time.¡±


    ¡°Yanka... I''m sorry. I''ve been such a fool.¡±


    ¡°Come on, Gelka. You''ll come and see him sometime, won''t you?¡±


    ¡°Sure, Yanka ... And do your parents know?¡±


    ¡°No. Grandpa will tell them later.¡±


    ¡°Yanka!¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Write me something tomorrow morning in Gleb¡¯s diary, okay?¡±


    ¡°Sure!¡±


    No scientist could possibly invent such a quick way to send mail.


    Gelka was writing something on the back of the pages from Gleb''s diary, and the letters immediately appeared on Yanka''s sheets of paper. Yanka was writing, and Gelka could read it immediately. It had become common practice for them to correspond in this way.


    ¡°Gelka, hello! Any news about Yurka? I dreamt of him and Gleb. Gelka, grab a pen for Vaska to take to school, because he lost his."


    They had written such letters to each other before, but soon they realized that they should save the paper. They began to write in small letters, and no longer did drawings ¨C they were saving the magic pages from Gleb''s diary.


    ¡°What will Yanka write to me today?¡± Gelka woke up with this thought. It was still early morning. Gelka shivered. There was a draught on his neck from an open window.  Real autumn had come.


    The sheet of paper was white and clean. Gelka was waiting for the words to appear on the paper. And then a string of letters began to appear on the paper.  Red words were written in sloppy handwriting. Yanka wrote in a hurry:


    ¡°Gelka, goodbye! We won''t have time to see each other. I''m about to fly away, I can feel it. I¡¯ve turned into a Windy earlier than I expected.  Those two drops of blood that we gave to create the magic Sparkies probably took some of our lifetime, just like Jeremy said. I have not got another minute. Gelka, break the temporal loop...¡±


    TO BE CONTINUED...

 Part V: The Windies

    1


    ¡°¡­Yurka,¡± Gleb whispered.


    When Yar heard the name of his son, he felt like every nerve inside him just caught fire. Suddenly the image on the screen rippled and Yurka disappeared behind the yellow tongue of fire. Gleb leaned over to Yar and whispered, "Quiet, Yar. I¡¯ll explain all of this later."


    ¡°Yes, later on, when the Magister is not around or he''ll suspect something,¡± Yar thought, feeling intense pulsing.


    The image on the screen rippled again and the tower¡¯s base near the coastal rocks became visible. The waves washed upon the rocks. The thin boys¡¯ bodies fell down from the tower, moving sideways like shadows and disappeared without touching the ground.


    The image suddenly winked and disappeared. The mnemofilm was over. It was strange to see the black lacquer tray and flowers painted on it, instead of pictures.


    ¡°And what happened next?¡± Yar asked in a flat voice.


    ¡°That''s all,¡± the Magister answered.


    ¡°Why did you show this to us, Magister?¡± Chita asked in a harsh voice.


    ¡°But you wanted it yourself...¡± the Magister said. ¡°It was simply an illustration.¡±


    ¡°What bastards you are,¡± Dasha said quietly.


    ¡°Are you still hoping for an alliance after what you showed us?¡± Gleb asked seriously.


    ¡°Yes, Gleb Sergeevich. But what did I show you? This is just what happened. After all, it''s their own fault. Adults could be persuaded or frightened, but children are seldom logical. It was a forced response from our side.¡±


    ¡°And that''s why you decided to burn them alive,¡± Yar said. His face turned pale.


    ¡°Oh, really? I mean, it wasn''t pretty, but none of them died. I''m telling you, they turned into, you know, Windies and flew away.¡±


    ¡°They didn¡¯t all turn into Windies, don''t lie,¡± Ignatik said.


    ¡°I''m not lying, boy,¡± the Magister said patiently.¡±Come on, you saw it with your own eyes.¡±


    ¡°Show us your mnemo-record again! I want to see the ending again,¡± Ignatik demanded loudly in a harsh voice. Yar never heard him sound like that.


    ¡°But this is impossible, I assure you,¡± the Magister said. ¡±Sorry, I''m very tired.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s lying,¡± Ignatik said. ¡°Okay, Magister. I know how you do it. Any trick can be duplicated. Actually, I can project your memory directly from your brain.¡±


    ¡°Don''t do it!¡± the Magister shouted and tried to stand up, but he couldn''t. Yar looked back at Ignatik. The boy had turned pale and had sweat on his upper lip. The metal tray rattled and transformed into a screen again. Yar again saw the tower¡¯s basis, the rocky shore, the waves and foam in the raging sea. The images were moving slowly. The mnemo-record was playing at low speed. The boys on the screen fell down from the tower very slowly. Their figures were seen disappearing low near the rocks, and little whirlwinds appeared in the air right there. But not all boys had turned into Windies. Several boys fell down on the ground.


    ¡°Stop it¡­¡± the Magister moaned.


    In slow motion, Yar saw the boys'' bodies tossing amid the small pebbles on the coastal strip and then getting thrown half a meter in the air, and falling to the ground again and lying motionless among the rocks.


    Yar''s teeth were clenched. The whole world shrank to the size of the room. He was preparing to see Yurka among the fallen boys.


    The image of the shore moved towards the audience in the room. A boy lay sprawled with his face down on the shelly gravel, which was covered with blood. He clutched the round pebbles in his fingers. He was wearing a torn green shirt with a square white collar like that of a sailor''s.The wind pulled the collar over the boy''s head, so that only the red hair on the top of his head could be seen. A small and agile lizard crawled out from under the boy''s arm and climbed up on his shoulder. The lizard froze. Only its lively and intelligent eyes glittered.


    The motion of the film slowed down, and then turned into a still frame.


    ¡°They were the boys who did not have time to turn into Windies,¡± Ignatik said in a whisper. The image faded and the tray fell to the floor with a clang. Ignatik laid his head on Yar''s shoulder.


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The Magister was gasping for air. His face looked all contorted. One of his fake eyebrows was slanted a bit. Somehow, he staggered to his feet and fixed his eyebrow back with a slap.


    ¡°I''ve always regretted sparing your life, Tik. It was a mistake,¡± the Magister said in a strange metallic voice.


    Ignatik raised his head over Yar''s shoulder and said in a low voice, ¡°Get out of here, you §ãlay dummy.¡±


    Chita made a chuckle.


    ¡°Of course, I''m going,¡± the Magister said. ¡°But... Yaroslav Igorevich...I still hope for another meeting with you¡­ I''ll see myself out.¡± He went stumbling out of the room.


    Chita followed him out with a free plasticity of a panther before a jump.


    Alka suddenly said loudly, ¡±There is the sun outside.¡±


    They all looked out the window. The sun shined through a break in the clouds like a huge coltsfoot flower.


    Tik ??said, ¡°Yar, there were no Yurka among the rocks... Well, I mean among those guys who fell from the tower.¡±


    Yar bit his lip. His joy turned to shame.


    ¡°My son Yurka survived, but it didn¡¯t make any easier for the fathers and mothers of the boys who smashed on the rocks ... But Yurka had enough time to turn into a Windy and fly away. He¡¯ll stay forever a twelve year old boy. Nothing can touch him¡ªnot time, not pain, not cold or fire. But who will protect him from his longings? Who will protect the Windies?¡± Yar thought about it with a sense of concern and anguish.


    Then the sound of approaching steps emanated from the hallway. Chita entered the room. He seemed very calm to Yar, although there was a blush on his cheeks. Chita said abruptly, "We have a problem with the Magister. He was walking past the gym. The guys were playing there. They have hit the Magister with the ball."


    ¡°So what?¡± Gleb asked.


    ¡°Nothing special,¡± Chita said. ¡°At first they were scared, but I told them that it was some high schoolers¡¯ prank-- they made a movable clay dummy model, but it was too weak and broke into a thousand pieces. I told them to put everything in the dustbin. It is strange that even the Magister¡¯s coat had turned into a plaster crust. Can you believe this? Seven hundred twenty-nine units of intelligence, but one ball was enough.¡±


    ¡°I think, Tik just totally trashed the Magister and the ball finished him off,¡±Alka said sitting on the windowsill.


    ¡°But what if a hundred or a thousand aliens appeared right now, strong and merciless? Like those that were in the coastal fortress," Yar thought without fear. He braced himself. He was still a star scout who would persevere in the face of danger.


    ¡°Oh boy!¡± Alka exclaimed, pressing his face against the window glass.


    ¡°What is it now?¡± Yar turned around.


    ¡°There''s a whole crowd of them and they are running in here,¡± Alka said.


    Chita slid open the door. Gleb took his revolver out.


    "Who?" Yar asked.


    "The Windies!" Alka answered cheerfully.


    The noise of footsteps, a wet thumping, and children''s voices came from the hallway.


    Dan ran into the room first, followed by twenty or thirty other boys. Yar recognized Dan at once, although he did not look the same as he did in the snowy meadow. He was wearing a new short-sleeve shirt with epaulettes. He had pencils in his breast pockets and a violin case under his arm. Dan was shivering and sniffling.


    ¡°Yanka!¡± Gleb exclaimed.


    Yanka-Dan came up to Gleb and said, kind of shyly, ¡°Gleb! You¡¯ve aged¡­ a bit.¡±


    ¡°Yanka ... Damn it. When we were in the meadow last winter, I thought: Dan looks just like Yanka! How the hell did this happen?¡±


    Yanka just shrugged. Vovchik-Peabody answered for him, ¡°We don''t know how it happened. Dan came back three days ago. We all landed into the meadow today. Dan began to talk us and suddenly we felt cold, as before, when we were real boys ... Then Dan said: Go to the school, now! We could no longer fly and ran through the forest."


    Yar resisted an impulse to ask Dan for news from Starogorsk. There were more pressing matters. Yar commanded, "Dasha, remove the desks from the classroom and put the folding beds there. Give them each a blanket. Alka, turn on the water heater! Chita, get the ski suits from the pantry in the gym!"


    Meanwhile, Gleb asked Yanka, ¡±What about Gelka? Wait! Was he here during the uprising?"


    "No! He stayed there, in Starogorsk..."


    ¡°Did it happen only to you guys, or to all the Windies?" Yar asked Vovchik.


    The Windies¡¯ commander lifted his hands in dismay and said, ¡°I don''t know. I can''t understand..."


    ¡°Yar!¡± Gleb barked. ¡°It probably happened with all the Windies, because Gelka broke the time loop.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Look!¡±


    Gleb and Dan were holding some tattered sheets of paper. Yar stepped closer. He saw red lines written on the paper: ¡°Gelka, goodbye! We won''t have time to see each other. I''m about to fly away, I can feel it. I¡¯ve turned into a Windy earlier than I expected. Those two drops of blood that we gave to create the magic Sparkies probably took some of our lifetime, just like Jeremy said. I don¡¯t have another minute. Gelka, break the temporal loop...¡±


    Large green letters were written below, ¡±Yanka, don''t worry! I¡¯ll break it!¡±


    ¡°These words have appeared since I''ve been here,¡± Dan explained. ¡°Then I wrote to Gelka, but there was no answer... It means one thing only: the temporal loop is broken. We got out of it.¡±


    ¡°I don''t understand anything that you''ve said,¡± Yar said.


    There was so much hustle and bustle in the room. The boys were coming and going along. Some of them had put on ski suits, which were too big.


    Yar called out to Chita, ¡°Have the third-graders create a chain around the school. Have them tell any adult who wants to come here that we are in quarantine.¡±


    ¡°Yar, I think there''s no need for that,¡± Ignatik said quietly, tugging on Yar¡¯s sleeve. ¡°The time loop is broken and ¡®Those¡¯ won¡¯t show up here for a long time.¡±


    There was a fuss at the threshold. Dan and Vovchik tried to push someone into the room. Dan said cheerfully, ¡±Well, what are you afraid of? Go ...¡±


    The boys around Yar quickly stepped aside and he saw a glum, dark-haired boy in a baggy ski suit just in front of him. There was an incredibly loud silence.


    The boy wiped his nose with his finger, looking around shyly. He lifted his face and said to Yar in a husky voice, "Are you... my dad?"


    TO BE CONTINUED...

 Part V: THE BRIDGE STATION

    THE BRIDGE STATION


    Gelka was surprised that he did not feel much sadness after Yanka''s disappearance. However, he started to cry and finally broke down. He caught himself thinking, it was good that Yanka-Dan flew away unexpectedly, without a sad farewell. Gelka just felt sorry that Yanka did not have time to take the bronze lizard with him.


    However, he would have to climb the Bridge himself.


    Gelka didn''t go to school that day. He thought to himself, ¡°I won¡¯t be scolded until tomorrow, but who knows what could happen tomorrow? Maybe the explosion of the ring road could allay all fears and misfortunes. Maybe that would cheer my mom up. Maybe Aunt Vika will become kinder and my grandma will become healthy again. Maybe dad and his friends will be allowed to continue exploring the superdeep well in Yarkson and they will reveal all the secrets of parallel spaces ... And maybe we will finally meet all together - Yurka, Gleb, Yanka, and I."


    He suddenly felt a longing for Yanka. The mysteries and secrets of the past summer had gone with him. A rip in the very fabric of space-time. The only connnection between Gelka and other planets and worlds was dead-- the worlds where Windies lived, a dangerous war was going on and fortresses rebelled. It was the only connection between him, Yurka and Gleb.


    Gelka went to the river cliff and sat there for quite some time going, looking at the passing ships. It was a warm day. It was as if autumn had changed back into summer.


    Then Gelka wandered the streets of Starogorsk. He could see some dandelions growing along a ditch on the side of the road -- their yellow flowers were hiding in dry grass. He picked some flowers and brought them to the big concrete block where the robot Jeremy was buried. Gelka thought he hadn''t been to his grandfather''s grave since last spring.


    The cemetery was old. Gelka climbed over the stone fence and pushed his way through the brambles of thistle and ¡®grandma''s beads¡¯ grass. It took him some time to find his grandfather''s grave. On the way to the cemetery, Gelka saw a lilac bush, which bloomed a second time. Gelka took a branch of lilac and put it on the gray slab that covered the grave. The ancient zodiac signs and the spiral of the galaxy were carved into the slab. ¡°The galaxy is just like the Sparky, if you look through a magnifying glass,¡± Gelka thought.


    There was the inscription on the headstone, ¡°Matvey Vasilyevich Travushkin. The Starogorsk Observatory director. You paved the way for the discoverers of the stars. Thank you, Captain."


    Gelka remembered another grave - in the old church, where the Fleet Captain Ratmanov who had traveled around the world three times in his life, was buried.


    ¡°Maybe I''ll be a captain, too,¡± Gelka thought. "But first I have to break the time loop."


    In the evening, he sat on the windowsill waiting for Vaska and Alyosha-Twinkle.


    The moon hung in the sky, but it was dim, pale pink.


    ¡°It seems to me, our Helium is going out somewhere at night,¡± Aunt Vika said.


    ¡°I let him walk while the evenings are warm,¡± Mom stood up for Gelka. She patted Gelka¡¯s reddish bristly hair and he nestled close to his mother.


    ¡°If only you knew what a dangerous adventure I¡¯m having,¡± Gelka thought.


    Twinkle came running by himself. He whispered anxiously, ¡°My mom spanked Vaska and locked him in the closet.¡±


    ¡°Why?


    ¡°We have the lawn opposite our house, remember? In the morning, they planted new bushes there, and then they brought a stone old man with a fish-- It''s like in the fairy tale, the gold fish that grants wishes. This is called landscaping. Vaska looked at such landscaping and pulled out his lucky drumstick. He hit the old man with the fish with it! The statue broke into pieces. They started shouting, ¡°You''re a bully, Vaska, just like your father Jeremy.¡±


    Gelka got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.


    ¡°I see,¡± he said. ¡°Alyosha, where is the detonator?¡±


    ¡°That''s the trouble! Vaska wasn''t able to finish it.¡±


    Gelka got down from the windowsill. An hour was left before the planned explosion. "Today is the last day of the full moon. The next full moon won''t be for three weeks. The sky will most likely be cloudy then and it is not known if the Bridge would appear again," Gelka thought feverishly.


    Gelka knew how to make a detonator, but he needed a soldering iron, wires, a flashlight bulb and, most importantly, time.


    ¡°If only I could get a wick!¡± Gelka said desperately. ¡°The simplest. It¡¯s called a fuse.¡±


    ¡°Is it like the rope we used when we lit the carnival fire?¡± Alyosha asked.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.Gelka immediately remembered Alyosha in his scarlet shirt walking with the torch in his hands in front of the drummers, then running up to the top of the tower and setting fire to the white cord. Then the fire ran along the cord to the patterned bowl and a fiery crown burst into flame!


    ¡°Do you have one, Alyosha?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I have some fuse¡­ Gelka, but it won''t burn for long. Five seconds, no more. You will not have time to go down the Bridge!¡±


    ¡°I don''t have to go down. I will light the fuse and hide under the stone bridge cornice. I can get down after the explosion."


    All this Gelka explained to Twinkle when they were already out on the street, running to Alyosha¡¯s home for the fuse


    ¡°Oh, Gelka ...¡± Alyoshka - Twinkle said on the run.


    ¡°Don''t worry. The explosion will not be big. The rails on the bridge don¡¯t have to have a very big explosion before they burst,¡± Gelka said.


    ***


    Climbing the Bridge was a lot harder than he thought.


    At first it was fine, but then it made him really tired, so his legs hurt.


    The rusty iron handles in the gaps between the bridge stone blocks were harsh. The granite bridge columns were wet and cold. The land was far below - Alyosha-Twinkle, his trusty assistant and only witness of what was happening, remained there. Gelka trembled with fear, but he continued climbing. The rusty witches¡¯ dance rattled in the air.


    "Okay, don¡¯t look down. I am so far up. Even the moon seems closer to me than the land, but the upper edge of the bridge does not seem close. My legs feel like jelly and my arms are aching. Damn it! I have to make it,¡± Gelka thought.


    He pulled himself over the narrow cornice on the top of bridge using his last ounce of strength. He grabbed the thin iron railing, went over it and then fell face down next to the rails. A black rumbling thing with a blinding searchlight §ãame out of the void. The train wheels rattled very close to Gelka. Gelka grabbed the railing so that he would not be sucked into this deadly whirlwind. The roar went on for a long time, it seemed endless. When the roar suddenly died down, Gelka didn''t doubt for a second. He jumped up and whipped out a homemade charge with a magnet from his pocket. He stuck the magnet on the rail track with a swing. Then he unwound the fuse on his waist, but when he wanted to rip the edge of the charge bag with his nails to insert the fuse, his nails slipped on the thick foil and he could not tear the foil. Precious seconds were running out. Then Gelka pulled the lizard out from under his collar and punched a hole in the foil bag with its bronze tail.


    ¡°The lizard came in handy! Maybe it''s good that Yanka didn''t have time to take it!" Gelka thought.


    Gelka stuck the end of the homemade wick into the hole, and then laid the fuse along the rail. He took a lighter from his pocket and clicked it. A yellow light slowly ran along the fuse cord.


    Gelka rushed back, jumped over the railing and felt the upper handle with his sandals.


    "Okay, I have a full five seconds while the fuse burns. One¡­ Two¡­ Three¡­ Four¡­ Five."


    He pressed himself against the rough cold stones.


    "Why is it so quiet? Has the fire gone out?"


    Gelka looked up. A bluish flame flashed over the stone edge of the Bridge. There was no sound. It was like an explosion on the Moon, where there is no atmosphere. The stones shook, and Gelka clung to the rusty handle. The broken rail flew several metres into the air and twisted into a black spiral in the moonlight.


    ¡°Well done, Gelka! You did it! Even Yurka will say that I am a fine fellow ... And now, quickly down! "


    Going down to the bridge was much easier. He no longer felt heaviness in his legs and his hands were not trembling, but his shirt was bent upwards and got caught on the sharp edges of the iron handles. Maybe this was what delayed Gelka or maybe those two drops of blood that he gave to create the magic Sparkies took some of his lifetime. The rusty handle disappeared in Gelka''s fingers. The Bridge vanished into thin air. Gelka was falling into the void and the wind was wailing in his ears. His heart was like stone but he thought, ¡°I can fly. I¡¯m gonna turn into the Windy. I just need to say the magic words.¡±


    He needed to whisper a short spell, which was written on the Tower of Winds in a distant and fantastic city, but he suddenly realized that he did not remember these words. Instead, in the whistling air, someone whispered other words:


    ¡°In the starry fall darkness


    I am flying the nest.


    The blue star - on my helmet,


    The blue blades - on my breast¡­¡±


    The wailing grew louder, the oncoming air tore his hair and shirt.


    ¡°Now now¡­ In the starry fall darkness I am flying the nest¡­ fall darkness¡­ fall¡­ Yanka!¡±


    Alyosha-Twikl closed his eyes and felt when the body hit the ground.


    Then it got quiet... too quiet. The iron barrels did not rattle. The grass did not whisper. The whole world was quiet and seemed to be waiting for a small whirlwind to rise and rush away over the snowflake grass heads, but there was nothing, just silence. And only far, far away, at the edge of the Universe, a new spiral galaxy flashed and rapidly unfolded in the night.


    TO BE CONTINUED...

 Part VII: Final

    * * *


    In this galaxy, far from its center, the planets circled around a dim yellow star. On a planet, which was green with forests, sandy-yellow with deserts, and blue with oceans, it was mid-summer on a peninsula between the mouth of a large river and the sea. It was morning.


    A boy in a green sailor suit with a wide white collar took off from the stone porch into the courtyard of the ancient fortress. The courtyard was quiet, but colorful flags fluttered and flapped with the sea wind over the battlements of the towers. There must had been a hundred flags or more.


    The boy looked at the flags, smiled, and ran to the gray block of coquina rock at the edge of the yard. On the block, a lizard basked in the sun with her legs spread out. She was not scared when the boy covered her with the palm of his hand. He put the lizard in the pocket of his sailor suit and quickly climbed the iron ladder to the upper platform of the tower.


    It was windy at the top of the tower. The boy licked his salty lips and looked out to sea. The waves were bright blue and white-edged. Round multicolored sails flew over the waves. They looked like a flock of holiday balloons over the sea.


    The boy took the lizard out of his pocket and set her on a flat stone of the tower.


    ¡°You see how beautiful it looks to us from here?¡± he said.


    Then he looked down at the courtyard. His mother was on the porch.


    "I''m here!" the boy waved his tanned hand at her. "We are here!"


    "Let''s go to the City!" Mom shouted to him. "The holiday starts soon!"


    ¡°Mom, I''m going with the guys! We will come straight to the square!¡±


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°Fine! See you there later!¡±


    His mom walked around the house and got into an orange bus, which had stopped next to the fort by the overgrown roadside. The boy waved after the bus and looked at the city.


    The city was in the distance. Towers, bridges, and glass roofs rose from a gentle, wooded hill. The towers were white and colorful. The bridges were cobwebs. The roofs were shiny. The wind swung kites and colorful baloons over the rooftops. The city sparkled; it was joyfull - the way all cities in all galaxies should always be. Especially on such a day when the Universal Celebration of Intergalactic Tunnels and Bridges comes.


    Guys ran to the old fortress along the road and even on the grass. They filled the sunny courtyard, where dandelions grew thickly between the stone slabs. A rickety plywood booth with a wire balcony stood there on four tall posts. It was an old dovecote. Boys with big multi-colored drums jumped out of the dovecote onto the slabs. They were cheerful, loud-voiced and in bright shirts.


    The mischievous drum-roll echoed over the yard. The boy heard the roll call of drummers, who were lined up against the bright yellow wall.


    ¡°Yurka Rodin!¡±


    ¡°Me!¡±


    ¡°Valka Runners!¡±


    ¡°Here!¡±


    ¡°The Cornflower Snegirev!¡±


    ¡°Here!¡±


    ¡°Mitka Koshkarev!¡±


    ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°The Terrible Mitka named Mouse!¡±


    ¡°Here I am!¡±


    ¡°The glass drummer Tilka!¡±


    ¡°The same to you with knobs on! Here I am!¡±


    ¡°The Drummers of the Gray Wall!¡±


    ¡°Here!¡±


    ¡°All six?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°The Drummers of the Morning Field!¡±


    ¡°Here! Here! Here!¡±


    ¡°The Drummer Daniel Degar!¡±


    ¡°Here I am, gentlemen!¡±


    ¡°The Drummers of "Caravel"!¡±


    ¡°They are from another galaxy ...¡±


    ¡° Does not matter! We are here!¡±


    ¡°Commander of drummers Vovchik-Peabody!¡±


    ¡° I¡¯m here!¡±


    ¡°The newbie? Where is our newcomer with the lizard?¡±


    ¡°I''m here!¡± the boy shouted from above. ¡°We''re both here! I''m coming!¡±


    He took his lizard in his left hand, and waved his right to the guys.


    They stood with their heads thrown back and waved back at him. They laughed carelessly and boldly, as boys in the entire universe should laugh.


    THE END


    1982-1983


    Translated into English - Invir Lazarev - 2024