Gulf of Mexico, the Guryev trawlers… and ahead of it the unknown country of ices and blizzards which he never saw in life expects…
Jim stirred up the head and looked in a window. Steppe. The shadow of the airship runs on the ground. The infinite chain of support of high-voltage transfer leaves afar. On the horizon the lake shines, the woods become blue. The airship flies several days low above the ground. How many was replaced pictures in these hours of flight! Fields, waterless steppes, woods, deserts and again woods. The farther on the North, the their becomes more. And everywhere – in steppes, deserts, even in the woods among long wide glades – busy tractors, trucks, cranes, derrik, trolleys, engines… Whole regiments and battalions of workers… Day after day, step by step people win desert spaces, carry out channels, construct roads, cut through glades in the woods… What persistence! What tension! Ahead – the primitive nature, a solitude, the woods; behind – roads, settlements, the plants, the cities.
In deserts of Central Asia Jim saw a set of solar and vetrosilovy installations. The hot, drying-up sun began to give water, water gives rise to greens of meadows, gardens, groves, shadows, a cool. There will be nothing surprising and in if from cold they begin to get heat.
And further, on the North – the woods. Continuous Siberian woods. With them, perhaps, fight is more difficult, than with deserts. When you fly over these woods, apparently, all globe is covered with them. To them is not present began, the end. Billions of trees occupied vast spaces and guard the possession.
In the sky the airplane, behind it five gliders on the tow flies. “The air train”. Here one glider was unhooked and decreases on a forest glade. It bears to woodcutters mail, food… Already many such air trains Jim saw.
…Highly in the sky the all-metal Tsiolkovsky airship slowly moves, its motors do not work. It goes down stream of the air river. Bugaev explained: “Motorless air transport”.
Radio music came to an end. Shmeliny hum of ship propellers and fans became more heard. Transfer of “latest news” began. But Jim still badly understands Russian.
It becomes boring for Jolie. It goes to a saloon.
Bugaev sits at a window. The collar of a white shirt will be undone. On a small table paper, pencils. Bugaev holds a radiotelephone tube in hand, looks in a window, asks invisible interlocutors questions, scolds someone, quickly writes down answers.
Bugaev sees Jim, nods and asks:
– You want some coffee? – They already on “you”.
– I thank, I had breakfast – Jim answers.
Bugaev acquainted Jim with the card. There is the southern main line. It goes south from Elba to Chardzhuya directly, then turns on the East – Tashkent, Chirchiq, Naryn, Alma-Ata; then goes on the northeast – to Irtysh, Biysk, Krasnoyarsk, Ilim – and from there on the East – to Zeya, Selendzhu, Bureya, Perm, Sovgavan, coast of the Pacific Ocean…
– And here northern line: Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk. Above, to the north of this line, there are only certain stations. I specify the most northern – Tobolsk, Vilyuysk, Yakutsk, Aldan, Kolyma. And further… The white spot is farther. Undeveloped desert. Tundra. Taiga. The infinite sleeping riches.
– We conduct to the Arctic approach with the South and we storm it ice breakers from the Ledovity ocean. The Arctic is a “workshop of weather”. Meteorologists only then will be able unmistakably to forecast the weather when all Arctic becomes covered by network of radio – and meteorological stations. The Arctic is the country infinite and still almost not experienced riches. We only slightly opened the Arctic chest and already found apatites, iron ore, coal, graphite, oil, non-ferrous metals, peat, slates both other and other, besides in such quantities which change all our ideas of world reserves of minerals. And its infinite woods? And incalculable quantity of a sea animal and fish of the polar seas, rivers, lakes? And fur richness of the woods? And uncountable herds of wild deer?
The Arctic is the country of the future, but not the country of “death and horror” what it was and what else seems to much still.
The Arctic … – Bugaev unexpectedly became silent and crackled fingers. – We did not win up to the end against this country yet – he told more quietly. – You will ask why…
– Cold? Climate?
– No, not cold and not climate – the main obstacle. “Resilience” of the Arctic is in its open spaces, in off road terrain, that she is too great.
In fight against off road terrain we apply all types of “weapon” – the sea and air fleet.
You, likely, read about our last giant ice breakers? To them more ices are not terrible. The great Northern Sea Route is laid.
Our ice breakers blow up icebergs, break ice heavy cases, and sometimes and kindle it. The nose of the ice breaker turns into the heated “electroiron” which melts ice. It is our last invention.
But this iron demands big power consumption.
We have power sources. The Arctic is rich with coal and in particular the wood. But we do not go in the area of the smallest resistance. We protect the wood and coal for more valuable use in chemical industry. But
The Arctic is rich with gratuitous wind power. And all of us more and more use this energy. The deep rivers of Siberia many months in a year are held down by ice. Our scientists work on a problem of year-round use of energy of these rivers. The most interesting experiments of fight against formation of ice, are now conducted by freezing of the rivers.
We began to do in real earnest use of thermal energy of the earth, numerous “furnaces” – hills of Kamchatka. The Kamchatka hills already began to give us energy and will give more and more every year. We could throw a large amount of energy from the South, from our solar stations. But the Arctic has to feed with energy itself. And we decided to use a boundless source of the Arctic energy – cold. I will not speak to you about this idea in detail, you learn on the place.
Look at the card. We are here – to the north of Baikal, not far from the Angarsk hydroelectric power station. There we will leave the airship and we will change on the airplane which will incur us directly on the North through continuous forests. I am called to the new city, Chelyuskin, for consultation.
– There lives also “the snow queen”? – Jim asked.
– There also lives. You already became interested in it? But, I warn, she is already a bride – laughing Bugaev answered.
3. Road adventure
Woods, woods, woods… In a cabin of the plane warmly. Monotonously the motor hoots. Shakes the car. The skilled pilot Semenov heads directly for the North on the hundred third parallel. Armed with the Russian-English dictionary, Jim slowly reads the new Russian novel. Ignat at the next window works with a slide rule, something writes down.
Unexpectedly the pilot switches off motors, rocked the plane.
Ignat looked in a window. It seemed, the earth suddenly rose on end and jumped on the airplane. The plane decreases an abrupt spiral on a small glade.
– Keep! – Ignat to Jim shouted. But the plane without push already concerned the earth, ran
