Classics fantasy – 6

Some more minutes of flight, and we smoothly fell.

Эа opened a door of our shell, and we left.

Li welcomed us.

– Here, admire – he told, pointing to fragments.

On the seashore in brown sand these fragments of the air ship charred and so crippled lay that it was impossible to define its design. The rostrum probably not less than on three meters buried in sand, having formed in it a wide funnel.

– Judge: whether it was possible to escape at such accident? The American spy died, this time we can be quiet and not continue our searches – Li told.

– Yes, of course – Ale answered and, having climbed up a funnel, began to bypass it, attentively examining. Then he suddenly sat down on sand, sighed and corrected a white helmet on the head.

– Li, you did yourself eye operation?

Li for some reason was confused.

Ale reproachfully shook the head:

– Good eyes, Li, are necessary not only to you personally. Our Union of workers has to have sharp-sighted eyes. Why you did not perform operation?

Having addressed me, Ale continued:

– We, people of the future, stand immeasurably above our ancestors in the intellectual relation. But physical our nature, alas, lost something in new conditions of culture. All of us more lose hair. Эа, remove the headdress…

Эа, smiling, removed a cap and without confusion showed the head on which there was no uniform hair.

– Here you see – continued Ale. – Idea of beauty changed. We find fine the hairless head of the woman and would be horrified by the hairy monster similar the mane on an animal. You do not take offense – he blinked the eyes, looking at me. – Too it is better for you to remove hair not to draw excessive attention to themselves. We will be engaged then in your toilet. And so, hair… Then teeth. You already know that we do not eat some firm food. We do not need teeth. It is natural that they without work become more and more weak. Through several generations people will become absolutely toothless and the lower jaw will turn into a small appendage.

– And it will be beautiful too?

– For the time, of course.

– I represent – I told, smiling – that some Praksitel, the ingenious sculptor of the future, will cut the statue embodying an ideal of female beauty from marble…

– It will have the huge head without hair, a small chin, a mouth without teeth, almost men’s constitution, very thin legs and hands, fingers without nails…

– What disgrace! – involuntarily I exclaimed.

– If the gorilla could speak, then at a view of Venus Meditseyskaya’s statue he probably would also exclaim: “What disgrace!” would also transfer a loving and delighted look to the chetveroruky, heavy-faced, shaggy companion to life – Ale answered. – Everything is conditional in this world, my friend. Stars in the sky change, lands change, the person changes, his concepts about fine change. We lose what to us stops being necessary. We hear worse, than you, and you – it is much worse, than our ancestors of the Stone Age, and it is clear: we are not trapped any more by a predator behind each bush.

– Unfortunately, in the world there were still biped predators – thoughtfully told Ea – they it is more terrible than quadrupeds. And, perhaps, this … – Ea showed on car fragments.

– Yes, this – its Ale interrupted. – I not incidentally asked Li whether he performed eye operation. All of us are short-sighted. Far-sightedness was not necessary to the person of the city. His look rested against walls eternally. We live more freely. Our horizons are wider. We became beings flying. Sharp-sighted sight to us became necessary again. And in the nature so: if the body is necessary if it begins to work strenuously, it develops strenuously. And, I think, our descendants who, perhaps, will live in air more, than on the earth, will find vigilance of eagles again. But we inherited from you, people with a limited outlook of the city, short-sightedness. Also we fight against it. Your points do not satisfy us. With them there are a lot of efforts, they can break. And we simply operate eyes, setting a new crystalline lens. Here Li for some reason does not want to do operation though it is painless and takes only several minutes.

– Tomorrow I will make, at least only to give you pleasure.

– I thank you, Li – Ale answered. – Make and for this purpose and for another. Approach here, Ea what you see?

The girl ascended to an embankment around the fallen shell and looked around. She thought, something is obvious looking for that drew attention of Ale.

– I see that from the center of a funnel to edge there are further deepenings which… um… perhaps, it is possible to take for traces.

– Traces? – Li asked. – Really?

– Whether somebody went here? – asked El.

– No, place absolutely desert. Nobody rose by an embankment.

– And you?

– I ascended only from this party.

Ale passed on sand.

– Here you see – he told – sand very unsteady. It is showered and does not give distinct traces. If to stir sand here so the end of a leg, then just the same hollows turn out.

– What do you assume? – asked confusedly Li.

– I assume, my dear, but short-sighted friend – Ale answered – that our American spy is well.

– But it could not escape in this accident?! Or his bones are stronger than duralumin, and the body and on fire does not burn? – already a little sensitively Li told.

– And who told you that there was an accident? – objected El. – Everything could occur very simply. Mr. spy safely fell on the device, got out, then blew up it.

– But how it then will return back home?

– It or they could arrive on two aircrafts and offer one to cover up tracks.

– And other ship?

– Another can be in other place. However we will continue our survey.

We went on traces, attentively examining them. Traces went on the sandy plain aside and vanished in several meters. On this place in sand there was a small deepening.

– Vanished into thin air? – smiling, I asked.

– On the contrary, rose from the earth on wings. Situation becomes complicated! Locals better us know vicinities. It is necessary to warn them – told Ale.

– I in Mecca have a friend the chess player, to call him? – offered Li.

– Perfectly – Ale answered.

We had put wings behind the back. We turned levers at a belt, wings trembled, and the earth began to crumble under our feet.

– Here once there was a fruitless valley – pointed Ale down to the outspread continuous gardens cut with direct silver lines of channels. Among gardens white roofs of the houses standing far apart were seen. – If you expect to see the Arab city, with its markets, benches, coffee houses, camels and dirt, you will be disappointed. There is no city long ago. I already said to you that we have no cities.

– And here also Vadi, my friend flies, I called him – Li told, pointing to the approaching person with wings.

It was with us soon. We with curiosity examined Each other. And, of course, Vadi was more surprised with my exterior, than I am him. It almost differed in nothing from my satellites, only his clothes were from white fabric yes the person a little more swarty. I, in the heavy suit from Moskvoshvey, with points on a nose and wings behind the back probably had very comical appearance. To me was extraordinary hot, the collar of a shirt became crumpled, hair were disheveled.

– The person from the past, I recommend – told Ale.

– You know about arrival of the American spies?

– Li spoke to me.

– They fell nearby from here and, apparently, departed. It is necessary to find for them by all means.

Radium nodded.

– Report on radio across all Arabia. Look for everywhere. Mobilize youth – children have a sharp eye. Search each fold of mountains, each bush.

Radium once again nodded, looking into the sky. Suddenly he grabbed Ale by a hand.

– You look, Ale, this air ship is not pleasant to me.

All turned eyes towards the sky.

– Yes, it is not our design. Give an alarm signal – told Ale.

The unknown air ship, having drawn a semicircle in the sky, was behind the horizon. Vadi told something in a fist, and in a minute risen as the scared flock of birds, from the earth airplanes departed after the departed air ship.

– More likely, to our “Gun”! – El shouted.

Being dripping with sweat in burning beams of the Arabian sun, I flew behind my satellites to the seashore.

Chapter 6

WHITE LODGE

That evening the American air boat managed to escape prosecution, using quickly come darkness.

– Well, it is necessary to postpone searches. Our Arab companions will watch the enemy. And we fly on the North, to Radiopolis. – And, having looked at the watch, Ale continued: – I have to give a lecture on radio. However you should be arranged on a constant residence – he addressed me.

– We fly to me – offered Li. – I live 56-30-28 on 45-6-2.

– It that, such long name of the street?

– Absolutely not, so we call briefly degrees, minutes and seconds of geographical longitude and width. We have no cities therefore we should give such addresses.

– Where it will be?

– Approximately in those places where there was your Nizhny Novgorod, on Volga. The good place – Ale told.

We flew on our wings to public hangars and took there the small air boat by which rose in an air height.

The dark southern night sky was ispolosovano the shining roads noting a way of air superhighways.

Huge vessels continuously slid on air waves of these shining rivers.

– Where these air giants and where terminal points of their routes move?

– They move on ring lines as celestial bodies, and do not stop anywhere. Each of these air dreadnoughts has the line. It is necessary to us here on that – pointed Li to the second of the crossed lines.

– The more flight ring, the higher it air-line. You see how it is convenient – in air the whole arbor from the crossing air ways!

We dexterously moored to the ship which a little slowed down the movement. Instead of usual (two thousand kilometers per hour) its speed decreased to five hundred in an hour while we caught up with it.

Our boat together with us was entered in the cigar-shaped ship. As if the shark of the atmosphere swallowed a small small fish.

On arrival into place our boat was dumped down. By this boat we reached airfield, left it there, and on “own” wings behind a back flew to Li’s house.

Ale and Ea said goodbye to us and departed to other party.

– You had to fly with changes. This inconvenience should be stood only at long distances. I fly to Radiopolis zhe on the aerobil.

– Collisions do not happen?

– Any opportunity is excluded. At a meeting our aircrafts automatically deviate under the influence of a radio wave aside.

– Here we and houses – Li told, falling by the platform at a white lodge with a continuous window wall on the South.

As soon as Li stepped into the platform, over it the non-transparent light bulb lit up. In the house light also appeared.

– Wait for you?

– No, light is switched on automatically as soon as I fall by the earth. We need to wash and change clothes after the journey. I will lead you at first to a bathroom.

Having bypassed the house, Li opened a door.

– I ask you.

I entered very small room box in which there were no more than four square meters. Naked walls, any situation, only a small case in a corner.

“It is impossible to tell that this lobby was cozy” – I thought.

Li very densely closed behind himself a door, approached a case and took out two antigas masks from there. Giving one of them to me, he told:

– In order to avoid emergence of epidemics – though at us about them it is not heard – each of us, having returned from a long trip, considers a duty to undergo disinfection. Alas, our organism is not adapted for fight against diseases in such measure as our ancestors and therefore all of us focus attention on the prevention of diseases had it. Cold puts us to bed. What to do? It is necessary to be protected.

He put on a mask the person, inviting me to follow its example. Then turned the small crane fixed into the same case where masks were stored, and the room was suddenly filled white as milk, gas. In three minutes also quickly air was purified. Li lit some metal match. It flashed blue fire. He nodded and unmasked.

– Remained gas exactly so much to disinfect our airways. Now we go to a bathroom.

It opened a door, and I was struck. The white bathroom all which is filled in with some special golden light was too huge for the private apartment. In the middle of this room there was such big marble basin that in it it was possible to float freely. On both sides of the pool there was a double number of white columns, and among them there were blossoming plants. In one side of the room there was a black ebonite platform with a chair, and over it something like an umbrella without matter. Near a chair there was a case.

– You sit down – Li told and, having looked at me, continued: – Yes, you should shave and leave your head of hear. Um, we have no hairdressers – at us hair just do not grow, there are no scissors and razors. Let’s put, the razor could be got from the museum. But it is the whole operation. It is possible to be cut. Blood, blood poisoning, br-r… Better I to you to a call a product for destruction of hair.

“I will cause a product for destruction of hair” that for strange expression” – I thought.

Li approached the distributive board hidden in flowers and, having told something, pressed several buttons. Did not pass also minutes as in a wall the door which is not noticed by me earlier opened. There was something like a spray.

– From where it? – I asked.

– Sent from a warehouse on an automatic pipe.

Having taken a spray in hand and having wrapped up me a sheet, he asked:

– Allow?

– Please – I obediently answered and blinked, expecting that I will begin to be spryskivat. But Li only fanned me some pryano smelling current of air. And it appeared enough that my hair fell about the heads as cut, and the person took smoothly shaved form.

Li was satisfied with the work.

– Perfectly. You were quit with hair for the rest of life and, the right, so look much better.

Having looked at the hair lying around me on a floor, Li shuddered all over and even turned pale.

– Hair in general are awful, but dead hair are even more awful. Forgive me, but I cannot force to move away them. Perhaps, to cause nippers, brushes?

– Only brush.

– Here the floor is washed automatically – Li as if justified himself. – But hair, they… they can litter pipes. It is better to burn them. You know that, we will burn also your disgusting suit.

– What? To burn a suit? No, I thank you!

– But why it to you? I to you will cause a fine suit of our breed.

Near me there was one more door. Li opened it and told:

– In this small room there is a waste incineration furnace. I you very much ask to throw hair, a suit into the furnace and…

– You know that, we disinfected it, killed all microbes of the twentieth century, we will leave it as a museum subject – I used cunning, wishing to save the suit from fire of this house crematorium.

– Well, I agree. Let me take of you measurements. Your suit will be whole, but you after all will put on another. Here so. You much above me. What color you prefer?

“I would be good in golubenky, devil take it” – I thought.

– Black, gray, as a last resort olive.

– Well. I will cause a suit. For now undress and swim for a while in the pool. Throw linen into this hatch in a floor.

Li left.

I undressed and began to go down on white steps to water. But hardly fingers of my leg touched water, I screamed from surprise, having felt pricks thousands of needles.

– Forgive – I heard Li’s voice about myself though it was not in the room – I forgot to warn you – water of an elektrizovan. We cannot do without it, electricity is a massage for our nerves. I will reduce current now.

Li entered, turned the lever, undressed and plunged into the water.

Having swum for a while and having dived, we left. Bathing in electric water miraculously refreshed me.

– Now one more electrization – Li told. – Sit down on this chair.

I obediently took seat on the chair standing on the black ebonite platform. And suddenly since the ends of rods of “umbrella” streams of pale lilac light zastruitsya.

– Electric shower. Well?

– Yes… yes… about – it is very good – I told, feeling as the criminal sentenced to death on an electric chair. However everything was safely.

– Now here here – Li continued to dispose of me – pass to this case. This is, so to speak, the automatic doctor-controller. Give your hand. So. It here.

Li applied to my pulse and heart of a plate, attached to cords, and turned off light. On the screen there was a shining curve, it noted blows of my heart.

– Yes, heart at you is a little not as it should be – Li told. – Let’s look at a stomach, lungs.

On the screen the image of my internals appeared.

– Lungs as it should be. But the stomach is strongly reduced. Obviously, on one chemical food pills it is difficult for you to exist – the organism did not get used yet. I will order to you something like porridge and mousse. At us also not still passed to pills. There are fans of more “essential” food though all these dishes very easy and semi-fluid.

Li lit fire.

I sighed, having remembered a good piece of meat. But it was not necessary and to dream of it. They for the sake of me will not kill the last cow of a zoo?

– Well, at you everything is relative as it should be. And I will accept electromassage.

Li, улегшись on a long bench, pressed the button, and suddenly from under a bench some hands cores terminating in spheres, handles, rakes got out. All these “hands” attacked on Li’s body and began to rumple it, to rub, poshlepyvat, drum, iron.

From outside it seemed, perhaps fell into clutches some terrible arachnoid insect. Well, perhaps saved me though from this pleasure. I, probably, would shout for fear, broke joints of these metal paws and fell down from a bench.

But Li felt excellently, turned over with a side sideways and repeated:

– Well, perfectly!

At last this execution came to an end. Li quickly rose and put on in a pure blue tunic.

– And here to you – he told, giving me the same tunic from silvery fabric.

I put on. And when looked in the big mirror fixed into a wall did not recognize himself. At me not only head, but also eyebrow hair disappeared. The suit gave me the strangest look. “To seem on Kuznetsk in such look” – I thought.

– Now five minutes of rest. You lay down on this wicker chair.

We laid down. Light went out again. Suddenly the wall against us as if fell, opening a view of the seashore. The moon lit breaks of waves. Palm trees quietly shook. I admired a show.

– I love this corner of the Mediterranean Sea – Li told. – And often I cause it. Transfer on radio – he added. – Let’s have a rest, and I will acquaint you with my wife.

– You are married?

– Yes, we go.

The screen went out. Light lit up again. We left a bathroom.

Having opened an adjacent door, Li told:

– Ying, here the person from the past with which you wanted to get acquainted.

I entered the room which I took for a lobby, and saw Li’s wife. It stood at an opposite wall. Having hospitably smiled to me, she made welcome gesture a hand.

I went to the young beautiful woman, on a habit giving a hand. But she did not raise the hand, and I remembered that at these new people of handshake are not accepted. I took still a step and hit the head against an invisible barrier. The woman burst out laughing, but immediately constrained the laughter and addressed the husband:

– Li, you unless did not warn our guest?

– I believed that he already got used to our screens – Li told.

Again screen! I was sure that I see the living woman, but not her image.

– I will leave you so far – Ying told – in ten minutes we will have supper.

The screen went out. When the room was lit with usual light, I inspected it and once again was surprised. The room was three times less bathroom and is absolutely deprived of furniture. Naked walls without uniform ledge, ornament. Really it is the only living room?

Li smiled, having noticed my surprise.

– Your dwelling is very modest – I told.

– But it is convenient and hygienic.

Li pressed a leg one checker of a parquet floor, and suddenly from a floor the round table on a round column and two chairs rose.

– You sit down – Li told.

We took seat.

– Ask – with a smile offered Li.

Really, I had to ask endlessly.

– Ale spoke to me – I began – that you have no government, there are no employees, there are no officials. But how you conduct the economy? Here you caused to me a suit. Means, someone has to keep account.

– The account at us is put is exemplary. All this becomes very simply, mechanically now. I cause the necessary thing. Mechanically she moves from a warehouse and is sent on a pneumatic pipe here. At the same time the counter celebrates a holiday of this thing. The same automatic counter sums up the results. And by the end of the year we know what need at us for Tom’ or other subject what annual gain, how many it is necessary to prepare for the future. We have no changing fashion, and some stocks pass from year to year. So in all consumer goods, up to flying cars.

– But there has to be some control? Unless you have no abuses at all?

Li in perplexity raised eyebrows.

– What abuses can be? I will call to myself the excess air boat? Why it to me? Unless I can depart on two at once? I can also sell it to nobody, first, because we have no money, and secondly because everyone can take that it is necessary for it. For the same reason there is no sense to steal or appropriate. We have no crimes of this sort at all. And not that we became more moral, and just crimes lost any purpose. We have everything that it is necessary to us. Here you told that the dwelling is very modest. But what is necessary for healthy life? Light. You see fine lighting for night.

– Electricity?

– No, bacteria.

– Bacteria?!

– Yes, the shining bacteria. And this floor-to-ceiling window for the sun. We have an ideal ventilation and heating in which, however, there is no special need as we made winter-proof all climate of our latitudes. What else?

– But cultural requirements: music, books, pictures?

– You still will get acquainted with our art, our cultural requirements.

– One more question: where there is your wife?

– On Southern Altai. Doctors prescribed it mountain air.

– Long ago?

– Two years. But for us there are no distances. We often visit each other, we meet and we speak also frequently as though we lived in one room. There are spouses and who are very loving who constantly live at distance thousands of kilometers and find it convenient. In general you should understand one thing: never before – at least at us in Europe, Asia and Africa – the mankind did not live such close-knit, solid family in spite of the fact that certain members of this multimillion family physically are more scattered, than earlier. We are in constant communication. I have friends everywhere – from a pole to a pole, and I conduct with them continuous conversations. We often have meetings, “congresses” where we discuss our public affairs. But we do all this if we want, without leaving the room.

Light went out, the screen was lit.

– Well, here and I – told Ying.

It seemed to me that it approached our table and took seat in a chair near the husband.

– Children will be today? – Li asked.

– To told me what he guards in Arabia, by all means wants to find the first for the spy, and Tsal…

– Here and I!. – and one more “ghost” – the young man very similar to Li approached a table.

“It has such big children!” – I thought.

– Today we will feast – Li told, having acquainted me with the son. – It is necessary to show to this antediluvian person, as we are a good judge of a good dish and pleasant drink.

Chapter 7

“I SEE EVERYTHING, I HEAR EVERYTHING, I KNOW EVERYTHING”

Li pressed the button at the table edge, and suddenly on a table there were two devices and extraordinary narrow as chemical flasks, high shot glasses.