Boris Strugatsky - Noon - 22nd Century

“I haven’t lost anything in two months,” said Ryu. “Of course, I keep everything in the dome. And then, I have the cybers. And smoke and noise all the time,”

“Okay,” said Fokin, getting up. “Let’s get to work, Tanya girl. Imagine, a pair of shoes!”

They left, and Komov started gathering up the dishes.

“I’ll post a guard around you this evening,” said Ryu.

“As you like,” Mboga said thoughtfully. “But I’d prefer doing it myself at first. Gennady, I’m going to bed right now, and tonight I’ll set up a little ambush.”

“Very well, Doctor Mboga,” Komov said reluctantly.

“Then I’ll come too,” said Ryu.

“Do that,” Mboga agreed. “But no cybers, please.”

From the next roof came an outburst of indignation. “Good grief, I asked you to put the packs down in order of assembly!”

“I did! That is how I put them!”

“You call this order of assembly? E-7, A-2, B-16… then E again!”

“Tanya my sweet! Honest! Comrades!” Fokin called across the street in a wounded voice. “Who mixed up the packs?”

“Look!” shouted Tanya. “Pack E-9 is gone completely!”

Mboga said quietly, “Messieurs, we’re also missing a sheet.”

“What?” said Komov. He was pale. “Search everywhere!” he shouted, jumping from the roof and running toward Fokin and Tanya. Mboga watched him go and then started looking to the south, across the river. He could hear Komav say on the next roof, “What exactly is missing?”

“The HFG,” Tanya answered.

“So what are you standing there jabbering for? Put together a new one.”

“That will take two days,” Tanya said angrily.

“Then what do you suggest?”

“We’ll have to cut,” said Fokin. Then silence reigned on the roof.

“Ryu, look,” Mboga said suddenly. He stood up and, shading his eyes from the sun, looked across the river.

Ryu turned around. Across the river the green plain was dotted with black spots-hippopotamus backs, and there were very many of them. Ryu had never imagined that there could be so many. The spots were slowly moving south.

“I think they’re going away,” Mboga said.

Komov decided to spend the night under the open sky. He dragged his cot out of the tent and lay down on the roof, his hands behind his head. The sky was blue-black, and a large greenish-orange disk with fuzzy edges—Palmyra, the moon of Leonida—crawled slowly up from the eastern horizon. Muffled drawn-out cries, no doubt those of the birds, came from the dark plain across the river. Brief flashes of sheet lightning appeared over the base, and something gnashed and crackled softly.

We’ll have to put up a fence, thought Komov. Enclose the city with an electric fence, and run through a fairly weak current But then, if it’s the birds, a fence won’t help. And it probably is the birds. A huge critter like that wouldn’t have any trouble at all in dragging off a pack. It could probably even carry off a person. After all, on Pandora once a flying dragon grabbed a man in a heavy-duty spacesuit, and that was maybe one-hundred-fifty kilos. That’s the way things are going. First shoes, then a pack… and the whole expedition has only one carbine. Why was Gorbovsky so set against weapons? Of course we should have opened fire then—at least to scare them away. Why wouldn’t the doctor fire? Because it “seemed” to him… and I wouldn’t have fired myself because it had “seemed” to me too. And just exactly what had it seemed to me? Komov wiped his forehead, wet from nervousness, vigorously with his hand. Enormous birds, beautiful birds, and how they flew! What noiseless, effortless, perfect flight! Well, even hunters sometimes pity the game, and I’m no hunter.

A bright white little spot among the twinkling stars slowly went past the zenith. Komov got up on his elbows and watched it. It was the Sunflower —a kilometer-long super-long-range Assault starship. It was now orbiting Leonida at a distance of two megameters. They had only to send a distress signal, and help would come from there. But should they send a distress signal? They had lost one pair of shoes, a pack, and something had “seemed” to the chief…

The little white spot grew dim and vanished. The Sunflower had gone off into Leonida’s shadow. Komov lay down again and put his hands behind his head. Aren’t there just too many conveniences? he thought. Warm green plains, sweet-scented air, an idyllic river with no crocodiles… Maybe this is only a smokescreen that some sort of unknown forces are operating behind? Or is everything much simpler? Say Tanya lost her shoes somewhere in the grass. And everyone knows Fokin is a muddler—the lost packs could be lying somewhere under a pile of excavator parts. I mean, today he was running around all day from pile to pile, glancing around on the sly.

Komov must have dozed off. When he awoke again, Palmyra was high in the sky. From the tent where Fokin was sleeping came smacking and snoring sounds. There was whispering on the next roof:

“… As soon as the cable broke, off we flew, leaving Saburo below. He chased after us and shouted for us to stop, then named me captain and ordered me to stop. Of course right away I started steering for the relay mast. We tied up to it and hung there for the whole night. And the whole time we shouted at each other, arguing over whether Saburo should go find Teacher or not. Saburo could go, but wouldn’t, and we would, but couldn’t. Finally in the morning they saw us and got us down.”

“Well, I was a quiet girl. And I was always scared of any sort of machinery. I’m still afraid of cybers.”

“There’s no reason to be afraid of cybers, Tanya. Cybers are gentle.”

“I don’t like them. I don’t like the way they’re sort of animate and inanimate at the same time.”

Komov turned over on his side and looked. Tanya and Ryu were sitting crosslegged on the next roof. Ah, the lovebirds, thought Komov. Tomorrow they’ll be yawning all day. “Tanya,” he said in a low voice, “it’s time to go to sleep.”

“I’m not sleepy,” said Tanya. “We were walking along the bank.” Ryu started to move off in embarrassment. “It’s nice by the river. The moonlight, and the fish jumping…”

Ryu said, “Hey, where’s Doctor Mboga?”

“He’s at work,” said Komov.

“Really!” Tanya said happily, “Ryu, let’s go find Doctor Mboga!”

She’s hopeless, Komov thought, and rolled over onto his other side. The whispering on the roof continued. Komov got up decisively, took his cot, and went back into the tent. It was very noisy there—Fokin was sleeping with all his might. You muddler, you muddler, Komov thought as he settled himself in. Such a night for romance. But you grew your mustache and thought it was in the bag. He wrapped himself up in a sheet and fell asleep instantly.

A muffled roar tossed him on the cot. It was dark in the tent. Ka-thwack! Ka-thwack! thundered two more shots. “The devil!” Fokin yelled in the darkness. “Who’s there?” Komov heard a short harelike cry and a triumphant yell, “Ha! Come here, come with me!” Komov tangled himself up in the sheet and could not get up. He heard a muffled blow, Fokin’s “Ow!”, and then something small and dark showed for an instant, and disappeared through the light triangle of the doorway of the tent. Komov darted after it. Fokin did too, and they bumped heads violently. Komov clenched his teeth and at last flung himself outside. The other roof was empty. Looking around, Komov saw Mboga running through the grass down the street toward the river, and Riu and Tanya following on his heels, stumbling. And Komov noticed something else—someone was running far ahead of Mboga, parting the grass before him—was running much faster than Mboga. Mboga stopped, pointed his carbine straight up with one arm, and fired again. The wake in the grass swerved to one side and disappeared around the corner of the last building. After a second a bird, white in the moonlight, gracefully spread wide its enormous wings, and rose up from that spot.