Владислав Крапивин - I am going to meet my brother

The boy looked slowly about him. There was no need to hurry. The forest stretched for hundreds of miles all round. The leaves were quivering in the wind.

Then he heard a voice full of joy and surprise exclaim behind him: "Look! A human being!"

Naal turned at the sound of the voice and was petrified. He saw men in blue space-suits with broad white straps crossing them.

With beating heart he cried: "Are you from the 'Magellan'!"

"Naal," said a swarthy fair-haired airman.

"I spotted him later than the others," said George. "And strangely enough, I seemed to know that boy. Perhaps I recognized myself as I was in my boyhood? There he was, turning eagerly towards us-a little fellow, fair-haired, his shirt torn on one of the shoulders, a bit of dry grass stuck to his cheek, his knee grazed. He stared at me with wide-open deep blue eyes. I think I called him by his name."

Suddenly Kar said in a loud voice, pushing me by the shoulder, 'Alexander, meet your brother.'

"Perhaps I acted selfishly," continued George. "But at that moment I quite forgot Naal was not my brother. You have to understand what it means to meet someone near to you on Earth, when you are not expecting it at all. But gradually the thought has kept recurring more and more frequently: had I the right?"

I did not understand George. Then he said, "Alexander fired the sun, the last one, which made it possible to destroy the ice. Now there are islands, and oceans there. Had I the right to deprive the boy of such brother?"

"A dead one?"

"Even a dead one."

"George," I said. "It's difficult for me to judge. Perhaps Alexander had other reasons for risking his life? Did he want to return? That girl…"

George's lips curled in a slight smile. He obviously thought my question quite stupid.

"He did. He loved Earth. Who doesn't want to return to Earth?"

We were silent for a while.

"He was always whistling some old song," said George suddenly. "I only know a few words of it:

'Though the Earth is only a dot

In the impenetrable darkness of space,

It's good on Earth now, is it not?…'

"If everything remains as it is," he resumed, "it will be even worse, I expect. I haven't just deprived the boy of a brother. I've deprived Alexander of a heroic deed. And nobody will know how the fourth sun was kindled."

"You've deprived yourself of a name as well. George Rogov is thought to have perished, isn't he?"

"My name has no value".

"Now take my advice. You asked for it. Let everything remain as it is. The fourth sun won't go out as a result, will it? You have to think of Naal as well."

"I'm thinking of him all the time. But what about Sneg?"

"One day people will learn the whole truth. By the way, you only remember three lines of that song, I know more: don't forget I'm an historian. It's the song of the explorers of Venus. This is the last verse:

'Let those who follow us take heed-

If we create new stars,

No fame, nor glory do we need:

We kindle them for men.' "

"But Alexander's memory! The memory of his feat! What he did is an example to the living.

Perhaps Naal will have to kindle his own sun one day."

I glanced at George. He was waiting for my objections. He wanted to hear them, because they gave him back his brother. "May be," I said. "But above which planet will he kindle his sun? Teach him to be an explorer-that's your duty as a brother. He'll kindle the sun himself."

The sun had set long ago. A half-moon, bounded on one side by an arc of the Power Ring, hung low above the water.

A clatter of footsteps on the stone steps interrupted our conversation. But in fact, there was nothing more to discuss.

They nodded goodbye, and went off, the astronaut holding his brother's little hand firmly in his own.

Before me, on a page torn from an exercise-book, lies the gold badge, whose history nobody knows. Naal gave it to me before we took off.

We archaeologists are flying to Leda, to the planet whose secret Valentine Amber had not fully succeeded in unravelling. It will be a long time before we return.

Perhaps in eighty years I will be met on Earth by someone in the crowd, someone I don't know as yet-an adult or a child, it does not matter. And he will say to his friends: "I'M GOING TO MEET MY BROTHER!"