Kir Bulychev - Alice - The Girl From Earth

“This is a very serious violation of space discipline.” Poloskov said over breakfast when he heard of Zeleny’s blunder. “But I am guilty of it to

o, as is the Professor. We both were required to check the airlocks for the night.”

“But nothing really happened.” Alice said. “ Zeleny and I can fill a dozen buckets with fish. You can’t imagine how many fish there are in that lake!”

“That is not the point.” Poloskov sighed. “If such an incident happens again we might as well turn around and go back home, because it means we are all far too thoughtless to be running around in space.”

“I’m sorry, Captain.” Zeleny said. He understood, of course, that he had made a mess of things, but thoughts of fishing had so overcome him that a moment later he was off for the lake.

I prepared the nets for catching birds and pulled out the air powered rifles with the anaesthetic darts. Then I steeled myself for hunting birds. Zeleny sat on the shore of the lake, and I watched him out of the corners of my eyes. I was surprised that he appeared so downcast. “Now why would he be upset?” I wondered.

Then the weather unexpectedly grew worse. A strong wind came up; it drove the birds from the sky and raised whitecaps on the lake. In a few minutes there wasn’t a single bird left in the sky. They had gone and taken refuge elsewhere.

Zeleny got to his feet and headed back to the ship.

I decided to return the nets to the ship out the bad weather and the return of the birds.

“How did it go?” I asked Zeleny. “Care to show me your catch?”

“There is no catch.” Zeleny answered. “Not a bite.”

“How come? Didn’t you yourself say the lake was literally overflowing with fish?”

“Yesterday it was. But now, evidently, all the fish have gone to the bottom.”

“And my birds have dispersed.” I said. “So it looks like both of us are out of luck. We can wait a while until the weather clears. Care to drop by the lake in the evening? Maybe that’s the only time they bite.”

“I don’t know. I don’t believe in this planet.” Zeleny said mournfully. “They certainly didn’t call it the Empty Planet without reason. There were fish, but they’re not here now. There were birds, but the birds have flown.”

“Look!” Alice called; she had been standing close by and listening to our conversation. “It’s a rabbit. See!”

Some sort of small animal was jumping through the grass. Another animal, a little larger, was chasing the first. We weren’t able to get a very good look at them, and then both vanished; only the grass rustled in the wind.

“There you are!” I said. “This is not an ‘empty planet.’ There are animals here.”

“And the animals will vanish too in their turn.” Zeleny said. “Remember what Verkhovtseff said? Of course I don’t believe anything Verkhovtseff says but…”

“Zeleny,” I said, “Let’s a check to see where your fish have gone. I’ll send a bioscout into the lake. I’ll program it to search for fish; as soon as it catches sight of one it will signal us.”

“Whatever you want.” Zeleny said. “Only there are no fish in that lake now. I’m a fisherman from way back; I know when a lake is empty.”

I carted a bioscout from the Pegasus and released it into the lake. The bioscout had a waterproof casing and its own engine and power supplies. I put on the earphones and waited for a signal. The instruments showed that the bioscout had reached the very bottom of then lake, then went further from shore toward the middle. But no signal came. After half an hour I was forced to end the search. The bioscout would not err, and there was not a single fish in the lake.

If I had not dragged fish from the water yesterday with my own hands I would never have believed that such a thing could happen, I had to admit. Verkhovtseff was right; this planet was strange.

“I’d say the same.” Zeleny added, folded up his fishing rod, and went into the ship.

“There’s an enormous herd of antelope like critters on the horizon.” The loudspeaker said.

That was Poloskov from up top in the command section

But even without him scouting I already knew that the plains were flooded with animals. Things like field mice ran through the grass, a suslik was crawling all over a bush not far from where I stood, and some sort of creature very similar to a little bear was walking along the shore of the lake.

“Nothing all that terrible.” I said. “Let’s ready the ATV and catch some critters.”

But as soon as we had gotten the All Terrain Vehicle from the Pegasus it began to pour. The rain pounded down from the heavens far fiercer than it had the day before; it struck without warning and pounded the ATV’s roof like a mad drummer. Alice and I crawled inside and, ignoring the drumbeat of the rain, headed off for the plains where Poloskov had spotted the herd of antelope.

There were no antelope to be seen. Nor did we find any other animals. And when I exited the ATV and went down on my hands and knees to find the mice that had been running in the grass not all that long before, it turned out that there were no mice either. This time I released a bioscout over the plain. The bioscout came back after flying to the horizon; there was no doubt here was not a single animal on this planet.

“What are we going to do now? I asked Poloskov in desperation when we had loaded the ATV back onto the Pegasus and were seated in the crew’s lounge. “This really is an empty planet, and I really don’t want to leave here until we discover its secret.”

“There is no way we can remain here forever.” Poloskov said. “And we’re not the first who’ve come face to face with this mystery. Perhaps the secret of the empty planet is going to remain unresolved for a while longer.

“It’s too bad Zeleny forgot to close the lock.” Alice said suddenly “If we just had one of those fish left.”

“It’s too bad he was so excited.” I cut off Alice. “Something really is surprising here; we landed yesterday, it was raining and the lake was full of fish. In the morning the sky was filled with birds, but as soon as the wind picked up the birds vanished and the animals came out…” “Papa,” Alice said suddenly. “But I just guessed the secret to this planet.”

“O course!” The gloomy Zeleny said. “No one has determined it, but a Sherlock Holmes named Alice has!”

“Be a little bit more careful, there.” Poloskov said. “I’ve already lost one wish to Alice when we were searching for the tadprowlers.”

“Correct!” Alice agreed. “My way of thinking is not entirely scientific.”

“Well daughter, tell us then.” I said.

“With your permission I’d rather demonstrate than tell.”

“Whatever you prefer.”

“Then I’d like you to sit here for a few minutes; I’ll be right back.”

“You’re going outside? But it’s raining.”

“There is nothing to fear. I won’t even get wet. If you are afraid that something might happen to me look out the ports.. I’ll just be to the lake and back.”

I went over to the port and watched Alice, her head covered with her plash, run toward the lake and dip a bucket into the water. Once. Twice. A third time. Then she ran back to the ship.

Alice came into the crew lounge running and placed the bucket on the table.

“Take a look.” She said.

A small fish was slowly swimming around in the bucket.

“Oh-ho!” Zeleny said. “I completely forgot that here samyj klev in the evening. Where is the fishing rod?”

“Wait a moment.” Alice plunged her hand into the bucket, pulled out the fish, and threw it onto the table.

“What are you doing?”

“If I’m right….” Alice began, and immediately our eyes beheld a remarkable transfiguration. The fish turned itself over once or twice with powerful smacks from its tail, then the fins began to turn into wings, the scales into feathers, and a minute later a small bird sat preening and smoothing his feathers on the table.