Alice: The Girl From Earth - Булычев Кир - Страница 65

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“‘DEAD CIVILIZATION.’“

“And then you decided to go to the Time Institute.”

“Consider, that I had already come to a decision. Consider I had already decided to turn to the Time Institute. To turn to them, but nothing yet had been decided.

“We would only know where the bones were and where to search. That was all. Something would have to be done, but what, I hadn’t yet decided. And then I arrived at your house as a guest and sat and talked with you. And then I went to the Time Institute and came to a convinced them to bring their machine here to our dig. And then I made my decision and therefore bought vast quantities of flowers and returned home with them. I knew what would have to be done.”

“About what?”

“Remember, Alice; weren’t you surprised at the size of the houses and beds and tables when you entered the town for the first time?”

“They’re small.”

“Not just small! They are your size.. And remember what Petrov said when he described carrying the newspaper kiosk attendant to the hospital.”

“I don’t remember.”

“He said that everyone looked on him with suspicion because he was twice as tall as any other inhabitant of the city. What are we to do with this datum?”

Alice kept silent. She hadn’t the faintest idea of what conclusion to draw.

“My first step was to get the time machine.” Gromozeka continued. The second step was to determine if they had, in fact, died of Space Plague. The third step was to convince the temporalists to visit the very day when the space plague landed on the planet Coleida. And the forth step?”

“Of course!”

“A-ha! You have already guessed! The fourth step is to send Alice there. If, naturally, the machine is working properly and there is no real danger for Alice. And why would I send Alice there?

“So I can…”

“Correct! So you can get to the place and time when the Space Plague landed on the planet and find the means to kill the plague before it gets started. What will then happen? There will be no plague. The planet will live. And archaeologists will have no work to do here. The authorities will literally howl with anger, and at least a billion people will be saved by a single little girl.”

“Oh, how interesting!” Alice clapped her hands in delight.

“Sh-sh-sh-sh!” Gromozeka covered her mouth with the end of a tentacle. “They’ll hear us before they should.”

“And why me?” Alice asked in a whisper.

“Why because you are exactly the same height as the inhabitants of this planet. Why, because neither Petrov, or Richard, nor least of all me, stands the slightest chance of getting to the space port and the returning ship. But you, no one will even notice you. You are exactly as small as the Coleidans themselves.”

“And why is it a secret?”

“No. I see, you haven’t enough experience in the ways of the world. Imagine that I am talking with your beloved father. What would your father answer?”

Alice thought a very brief while and said:

“In general, my father is understanding, but I fear that he would say: “No way!’“

“Correct. ‘No way!’ Because you are still for him a very little girl, an innocent for whom he cares deeply, because your father has paternal instincts. You know what they are?”

“I know. Grandparents have grandpaternal instincts, and mothers have maternal instincts. And all of these instincts tell them that I have to dress warmly and not forget to carry my umbrella in case it rains.”

“Marvelous!” Gromozeka said. “We understand each other perfectly. I chose not to tell you this earlier because I was still unsure if the machine would work properly and what excactly we would find in the past. But now everything has turned out precisely as I had susspected.”

“So I’ll be the one to make the time jump into the past tomorrow?”

“No way! That would be far too dangerous. Tomorrow it will be Richard’s turn to go back a hundred years. He has to scout out the day when the space ship returned to Coleida for its landing. He will get all of the facts. Then it will be Petrov’s turn. Remember: neither of them as yet knows anything about what I’ve told you. It will take considerable work on my part to turn them to my plan. They don’t even know if it is possible to stop a plague at its very start. They have simply never tried to change the past; they even have a law: it is impossible to change the past. On the other hand, Coleida is a distant planet and its past does not affect the pasts or presents of any other planets. This means the first difficulty will be in convincing them to interfere in Coleida’s development. And then we shall face our second hurdle and that is you.”

“But they might say that they’ll go to the space port themselves and disinfect the ship of Space Plague themselves,” Alice said, “And then everyone will die.”

“No, why should they? If they can do it themselves it will be perfect. I won’t have to bother you.”

“That’s not fair!” Alice grew angry. “At first you promised I’d go back in time and save the planet, and now you think it would be perfect if you can do it without me!”

Gromozeka laughed so loud the tent shook.

“We shall see.” He said. “We shall see. I am happy that you are not frightened. Today, this evening before supper, you must go to the doctor and take the hypnopedia course in the Coleidan language. He has been warned. But until the time comes, not a word to anyone, not even to your friend Purr. And listen: if you do go into the past, then one of the temporalists will be going along to follow and protect you. Just so you won’t find yourself completely alone. Now get some rest.”

But when Gromozeka exited the tent Alice could get no rest. She forced herself to crawl out of bed and ran off to watch them prepare to time machine for tomorrow’s jump.

The temporalists did not pay any attention to Alice. They had no time. They, in essence, had to deconstruct and reconstruct the Time Cabinet so that it would send the traveler a week further into the past than it had the first time. Or, more precisely one week and twenty hours earlier. Petrov had explained to Alice that they were going to make the train that went from the city which the archaeologists had been digging to the capitol. They had gotten the train schedules from the newspapers, and they had gotten the money needed for the tickets from the newspaper kiosk and excavations. All that remained was to sit on the train and get to the space port at the same moment the Coleidan space ship landed, and get a close look at the returning astronauts, to determine if indeed it was Space Plague.

Alice had forgotten about everything, but suddenly Gromozeka’s voice could be heard:

“Aaa-lisss!”

Gromozeka’s voice penetrated the time station’s thin walls, and the lights on the control panels trembled.

“You’d better run.” Petrov said. “Otherwise, his voice will pull the walls down.”

Alice suddenly remembered what the head archaeologist had told her. It was time to go to the doctor to learn the local language.

The doctor, who resembled a giant garden watering can on legs, bobbed his head up and down on his long, unbelievably thin neck, as though he were about to begin a long speech for what seemed to be forever. But all he said was:

“Sit here, young being.” And motioned to a chair that had numerous leads and instruments attached to it.

Alice sat down obediently. The chair changed its form to enclose Alice on all sides and the doctor began to apply various leads to Alice’s forehead. They were held in place by tiny suckers.

“Do not be afraid.” The doctor said, when Alice squirmed a little.

“I’m not afraid.” Alice answered. “It’s just ticklish.”

In fact, she really was a little bit frightened.

“Close this…” The doctor said.

“What?”

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