Kir Bulychev - Alice - The Girl From Earth

“Actually, she’s in my hand.” I said. “So let’s return to the ship and I’ll explain it all.”

Back in the Crew’s Lounge I placed a roundish stone on the table, as well as another five like it that I had picked up on the way back to the ship. The little stones lay peacefully in a row. Quite ordinary stones, each about the size of a small potato, looking in fact like small, hard potatoes.

“Let me present this planet’s inhabitants.” I said.

“They’re living beings?” Zeleny was astonished. “I would never have guessed that.”

“With a very interesting ability. They can generate optical illusions copies of people, objects, not only what they have themselves seen for example the Three Captains or Doctor Verkhovtseff, but what they pick up from the minds and imaginations of visitors. Thus, for example, Alice was reading The Three Musketeers, she saw the book’s illustration and imagined how the Musketeers must have looked, and we in turn saw them. They were, Alice, exactly as you imagined them?”

“Exactly.” Alice said.

“As to whatever these stones might need mirages for, why they evolved the ability, I haven’t a clue.”

“Maybe they are just bored?” Alice asked. “All they do is lay around on the empty ground and get bored. So any visitor, any guest for them is just a marvelous diversion.”

“Anything else might be.” I agreed. “So, do we search here or fly to the third planet?”

“I suspect the third planet will be more interesting.” Poloskov said. “I looked at the long range photos and there was air, water, and vegetation.”

Then one of the stones turned itself into the Second Captain. The Captain looked at us with vast sadness in his eyes, but the Blabberyap bird said in his voice:

“‘Search for me on the third planet. Search on the third planet.’“

“There, you see!” Alice said.

We immediately took off for the third planet in the Medusa system.

Four suns rose and set quickly in the fast spinning planet’s sky, and nights were scarce and short; without some complicated calculations no one could determine at which moment it might suddenly become dark, the short twilight flash past and a short night settle over that part of the planet. Half an hour would pass, sometimes less, and another close star rose above the thorny bushes and temporarily rose into the sky.

The planet was overgrown with forests and underbrush. At the poles the forests were low and huddled close to the ground; in the tropics they rose to unbelievable heights.

The world turned out to be heaven for a biologist. What didn’t this planet have! The oceans overflowed with fish, jelly fish, crustaceans, sea snakes, the forests were filled with every imaginable kind of animal and butterflies with wings a meter long; different kinds of birds flew over our heads, to the jagged crags of the mountains and the endless hills.

“We can stay here a while.” I said when we climbed to the top of a hill overgrown with bushes. “One planet like this could fill fifty zoos.”

“Great.” Poloskov said. “First thing we can do is carry out some repairs to the ship.”

“That’s fine.” Alice said. “But for starters we have to find the Second Captain. I’m certain he’s around here somewhere.”

“Just don’t go off in search of him on your own.” I warned Alice. “There are some very dangerous animals around here.”

“But I’m the Queen of the Natural World.” Alice said.

“The animals here might not know about that.” I said. “It might not be something covered in their educational system.”

“Then how are we going to find the Second Captain?” Alice asked.

“First thing we’ll do is orbit a scanning satellite over the planet.” Poloskov said. “And have it hunt for metal concentrations.”

“Why?”

“As soon as it locates the traces of metals used in space ships it will let us know.”

“How long will that take?”

“To do a thorough job, about two weeks.”

“That long!”

“And in the mean time you can help me.” I said. “I dub thee Feeder of Animals.”

“And Waterer of Bushes.” Alice added. “Except they’ve run all over the place and I can’t find them.”

At that moment the youngest of the wanderbushes pushed his way into the crew’s lounge and timidly stopped in the doorway. He shook his branches and began to sing, trying to make us understand that he wanted fruit juice.

“Here he is now.” Zeleny the engineer aid. “It’s all your fault for spoiling him. Soon he’ll be old enough to bite. Give him his fruit juice, God love ‘im.”

The next day we rose early, at the break of dawn. Poloskov unpacked and programmed the metal detector while I loaded nets and the survey camera into the all terrain vehicle.

We were so occupied with our own work that we missed the moment the Crockadee bird put in its appearance. All I saw was that some sort of shadow had fallen on me and I heard the beating of wings that sounded more like beaten sails.

“Down!” Poloskov shouted.

I fell onto the grass.

The claws snapped shut right over my head and the Crockadee, having missed me, beat its wings to gain altitude in order to make another run.

It was only then that I managed to get a look at it.

It was an enormous monster about the same size as a small passenger flyer. It had very narrow, long wings, a short tail and powerful, clenched claws, like the claw of a steam shovel. The bird made a narrow circle, and, like a dive bomber, headed back down out of the sky towards me.

I tried to crawl away but realized I would never make it.

I closed my eyes shut and clung tightly to the ATV’s wheel. At that moment a shot rang out.

As it happened the engineer Zeleny was able to run to the airlock, grab a pistol and shoot at the bird when it was all of three meters from me.

The bird beat its wings and rose higher and higher into the air. One of its feathers fell and landed beside me. The feather was about a meter long and so hard that its end was driven into the dry ground to stand upright like a knight’s sword.

I pulled the feather out of the ground and showed it to Alice.

“Listen,” I told her, “the owner of this feather is extremely angry and would really like to have one of us over for dinner. You know what I mean?”

“I understand. But it can’t carry away the ATV, can it?”

“No, it can’t/”

So I’ll go with you in the ATV.”

“No, Alice.” I told her. “I’m going out on a reconnaissance now and I’ll be back around supper time. All of us, other than you, are very busy. No one else even to prepare supper and feed the animals. And don’t forget that the Sewing Spider is going to run out of silk.”

“Oh, all right.” Alice agreed.

“How’s it coming with the metal detector?” I asked Poloskov, who was sitting in the ATV.

“I don’t understand it..” He answered. “For some reason its not working. It’s never misbehaved before, now it’s not working.”

The All Terrain Vehicle drove slowly through the mass of bushes, bouncing through the rough spots and easily rolling down the hills. The bushes vanished in front of the ATV and popped up again behind us after we had passed. I was thinking how fine it would be to catch one of those birds. I had learned they were called Crockadees back in Palaputra. I really wanted to get one of those monsters for the Zoo, but I understood we would hardly be able to transport it back to Earth on the Pegasus. On the other hand, if we could find one of their nests, I could obtain a fledgling. The nests must be somewhere off in the high mountains none of the trees could withstand the weight of that bird!.