Alexander Kazantsev - The Destruction of Faena

“You are suggesting a brave deed that is worthy of you, Smel Ven.”

“There is nothing in the world that could frighten me. But I am the ship’s pilot, and an element of return is vital to Um Sat.”

Mada frowned at his pompousness.

“You consider yourself the most valuable?” Smel Ven restrained himself; it was not in his interests to annoy Mada.

“You are a Sister of Health yourself and will feel a need to discard that clothing as soon as you go into the new world.” Mada pulled down her visor.

The sunset on Terr was spreading over the river.

In space, the astronauts had become familiar with Sol and his furious, raging brilliance. But here, in the evening of their first day on Terr, it was possible to stare with the naked eye at the reddish, flattened Sol, shorn of his space corona. Elongated clouds were beginning to gather near its oval disc. Two of them, coming from different directions, joined up and divided Sol into two. And then a miracle happened. Instead of one, two heavenly bodies hung over the horizon one after the other, each of them purple in colour.

Mada could not take her eyes off this spectacle as she watched the two bodies change in size: the lower one touched the sea of forest, the upper one became thinner and thinner, dwindling to a mere segment of a disc and finally disappearing altogether. The lower part of Sol also vanished behind a big cloud. Now the whole sky flickered with fire. And, as if in a crimson ocean spreading above the clouds, there hung lilac waves, and very high up, illumined by the sinking Sol, there floated a solitary white island, its red-hot edges blazing.

The sunset glow was gradually dying away, but the little cloud burned on without going out. Then, as if all of a sudden, darkness came down on Terr. Night had fallen, just as on Faena. And even the stars were the same.

Except that Terr did not have at that time a magnificent nocturnal luminary like Faena’s satellite, Lua, which gave such beauty to the Faetian night and which had appeared near Terr a million years later. The planet Ven, however, was particularly brilliant here. Toni Fae pointed out to Mada the evening star that had begun shining on the horizon like a spark in the flames of dawn. It was still the brightest object in the night sky.

The astronauts continued admiring the sky of Terr for quite some time. Strange nocturnal sounds came from the forest.

Urn Sat suggested spending the night in the rocket.

Mada went back inside reluctantly, although she could take off her heavy space-suit in there.

She could not shake off the unpleasant impression made by Smel Ven’s remarks.

Next morning, the Faetians went for a stroll through the forest in pairs. They were to assemble by the rocket at a prearranged time.

Long shadows lay on the ground. According to the instruments, it had turned cooler. They were about to see Sol set on Terr for the second time.

Ave and Mada were late. Urn Sat was alarmed. Toni Fae painstakingly kept calling the missing pair. Mada and Ave did not reply, as if electromagnetic communications had broken down.

Gor Terr sent up two signal rockets in succession. They soared up into the colourful evening sky, leaving curly trains of smoke behind them. The red and yellow curves floated across the heavens for a long time.

“From red to yellow,” quipped Toni Fae. “From love to wisdom. A hopeless call.”

Gor Terr shook the inflated sleeve of his space-suit at him.

Smel Ven kept apart as if nothing had happened. His helmet concealed tightened lips and downcast eyes.

His hopes were finally fulfilled. Mada ran out of the forest in her skin-tight, wet undergarment. She had taken off her space-suit!

Smel Ven trembled and raised his visor.

This was the Mada whom the sculptors had tried to catch sight of on the Great Shore and whom Smel Ven himself had admired. Head flung back on the slender neck, dark blue, ecstatic eyes. She was holding a golden apple in each hand.

“Ave and I are now the first inhabitants of Terr. It’ll go down in the planet’s history!”

Ave followed behind her, also without his space-suit. They had evidently been enjoying a swim. He was also carrying two golden fruits.

“Maybe we are at fault,” he said in response to the reproach in Dm Sat’s eyes, “but it’s now been proved that Faetians can live on Terr. The planet will feed them. The labours of the colonists will be generously rewarded. This means an end to overpopulation on Faena!”

Dm Sat merely gave Ave a look; the other bowed his head in embarrassment.

“We simply carried out an experiment. Someone had to, otherwise there would have been no point in flying here.”

Smel Ven waited for many days, but in vain. Ave and Mada, Terr’s first inhabitants, enjoyed all the benefits of the paradise they had found and did not succumb to any form of illness.

After a sufficient period of time had elapsed. Dm Sat permitted the other Faetians to take off their space-suits.

They took this alien world of nature at once: the air, filled with strange perfumes, the bright light, unknown on Faena, and the unfamiliar sounds coming from the forest. Something would be walking about in there, hiding, leaping from branch to branch, shrieking, bellowing. Then, suddenly, all the noises would die down and from the depths of the forest Silence itself would seem to be watching the uninvited guests.

Dm Sat was regarding his companions with a kind of strange sadness, trying not to go near them. He made a sign to Smel Ven and climbed up into the rocket. The First Pilot of Quest found the scientist already lying on the couch in the common cabin. His cheeks were hollow and the pouches under his eyes were even more pronounced.

Smel Ven stopped a short distance away. His narrow face with the big bald patches on his head looked even longer because of the straggly little goatee beard.

“I feel a great weakness,” said the Elder. “I have no headache or rash. It might pass off. Let the Sister of Health stay with me; the rest can carry on with their work. However, I still consider it my duty to hand over the leadership of the expedition to you, as the ship’s commander.”

“So be it,” declared Smel Ven solemnly, drawing himself up as if on parade. “I assume all the authority! Henceforth, I shall be in charge of everything. And I order you, my aged friend, to lie down. You know where the provisions are. I forbid all subordinates to come near the rocket.”

“Even the Sister of Health?” asked Um Sat quietly.

“Even her,” snapped Smel Ven. “She will be useful to the others if they fall ill as well.”

Um Sat laughed weakly but said nothing.

“I am leaving now,” Smel Ven hastened to say.

“I am replacing you,” said the old man after him, but the hatch had already slammed shut.

Um Sat wearily closed his eyes. When would he stop making mistakes? Why ever did they think him wise?

Smel Ven assembled all the astronauts.

“Um Sat has ordered me to inform you that the camp is being transferred from the rocket into the forest. As it will be hard for the old man to spend the night there, he has delegated the leadership of the camp to me as his deputy.”

“But the forest’s dangerous at night,” commented Toni Fae.

Smel Ven looked at him contemptuously.

“I don’t know who is more graced with cowardice: the astronomer or the poet.”

Toni Fae flushed. Gor Terr interceded on his behalf.

“Caution is useful, even in a leader.”

“What risk can there be,” said Smel Ven aggressively, “if we’ve come to a world of love and harmony?” And he turned to Mada and Ave.

“Who’s threatening us?” said Mada, backing him up.