Исай Лукодьянов - The Black Pillar

The door was flung open with a bang. On the threshold stood William McPherson. His shirt was unbuttoned and his jacket thrown carelessly over his shoulders. His lower jaw was thrust out obstinately and aggressively.

"Hullo!" he said, casting a truculent look round the saloon, his voice unnecessarily loud. "Good evening, gentlemen!"

He went up to the table at which the leaders of the Operation were seated. He leaned his hands on the table and said to Tokunaga, exhaling a strong smell of rum, "How are you, sir?"

The Japanese slowly raised his head. His face was sallow and weary, and covered with a fine network of wrinkles.

"What do you want, please?" Tokunaga's voice was that of a very sick man.

"I want… I want to ask you… Why the devil did you send that laddie to his death?"

There was an instant of dead silence.

"How dare you, Mr. McPherson!" Morozov angrily straightened himself in his armchair. "How dare you…"

"Be quiet!" roared Will, sweeping the radiograms off the table with one movement of his hand.

"Lock him up! He should have been put under lock and key…"

"Calm yourself, McPherson! Pull yourself together and apologize at once to Academician Tokunaga!"

Tokunaga touched Morozov's sleeve.

"No," he said in his high-pitched voice. "Mr. McPherson is right. I should never have agreed. I should have gone myself because… because it is all the same to me…"

His voice died away. He covered his eyes with his hand again.

Norma Hampton burst into the saloon.

"Will! My God! What's the matter with you!" She tore Will's hands from the table and dragged him to the door. "You've simply gone mad. You simply want to kill yourself."

Will fell against the doorpost groaning like a wounded animal, his back heaving convulsively. Norma stood by helplessly, stroking his shoulder.

Ali-Ovsad came over to Will.

"Don't cry, Englishman," he said with deep feeling. "You're not a girl-you're a man. Kravtsov was my friend. He was a friend of us all."

He and Norma took Will under the arms and led him away.

Once again it was quiet in the saloon.

The sharp sound of a telephone buzzer made Tokunaga start nervously. Morozov took up the receiver and listened.

"Moscow on the line," he said, rising to his feet.

Tokunaga rose as well, and left the saloon with Morozov. They were met in the radio cabin by Olovyannikov.

"She's at the offices of 'Izvestia'," he said softly, and handed Morozov the receiver.

"Marina Sergeyevna? Morozov speaking. Can you hear me? Marina Sergeyevna, I know all words of condolence are useless, but let an old man tell you he is proud of your husband."

And that is all.

You may think it strange that in order to cut the black pillar, people had to use such a dangerous antiquated monstrosity as an atom bomb. But don't forget that all these events took place fifty years ago, when there were still no such things as graviquantum rays. In those days indeed they were only just beginning to guess at the existence of the single field.

What happened next? If you have forgotten, switch on your teaching record for the fourth class. It will remind you that the astronauts Myshlyaev and Errera went into an orbit parallel to the severed section of the black pillar, which had been named "Kravtsov's Ring". They adjusted the speed of their spaceship to that of the Ring, walked out into space in protective suits, and attached the first automatic-station data transmitters to the disconnected ends of the Ring.

And now interplanetary space stations for rocket trains, cosmic communication posts, and much else, have been installed on Kravtsov's Ring. You know all that very well.

Now that you know Alexander Kravtsov better, take another look at his picture: you can find it in the geophysics textbook in the section dealing with Kravtsov's Ring. An ordinary-looking chap, isn't he? He had no intention at all of becoming a hero.

It was just that he easily forgot himself when he thought of others.