WRESTLING MATCH
Space history
V. Speys
© V. Speys, 2021
ISBN 978-5-0053-4241-6
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Chapter one
A quick review of the results did not give. The reasons for the sudden cessation of communication with the Earth could not be found. The ship, driven by autopilot, was moving at a calculated rate to the asteroid Patroclus.
– «And maybe the unit of the radio is out of order.» – I thought the astronaut, snapping the toggle switch of a spare radio station. Noise and crackle of the air in the headphones and nothing else. Leonid turned on the emergency communication system with the Earth – unsuccessfully. The link has disappeared for unknown reasons. Anxiety
a cold touch touched the tips of my toes, crawled under the protection of the suit. Cold sweat dripped on his forehead. The astronaut inhaled the full lungs of the air-oxygen mixture and exhaled with a noise. Feel better a little. Thoughts spun around what happened. I checked the autopilot again and again, snapped the seat belt locks and floated over the seat. He was unconsciously attracted to the «window». Yielding entirely to this feeling, Leonid swam to the glass window. Behind the «window» a yellow glow reigned, entirely covered with black dots. The astronaut blinked his eyelashes in surprise. A deep wrinkle on the forehead smoothed for a moment, from what he saw, then re-designated the section of black thick eyebrows. Eyes focused on vision.
– «Scary, something. Is it really a hallucination?»
He raised his hands to the glass of the spacesuit, intending to rub his eyes. Dry blow of gloves on the transparent glass of the spacesuit brought Leonid back to reality. The glow of the space behind the porthole did not disappear, and the black dots remained firmly in their places.
– «All the way around, the stars – darkness, darkness – yellow light. What is it?»
He asked himself the same question a thousand times. The glow of the space behind the porthole did not disappear, and the black dots remained firmly in their places!
– «It’s all the other way around! It’s all the other way around!!! What is it?»
In the meantime, the ship’s systems flawlessly performed their functions. Devices in the normal course deviations no. In place of the fear infused banal anger. And it is necessary for this to happen at the very time when traces of the activity of intelligent beings were revealed.
And now we must return, interrupt the expedition and go home.
– «What to do, the phenomenon is incomprehensible to me, whether it is a deviation of the mental order, which is excluded, or of cosmic origin, the Earth will probably order to return, and the point!!!»
Leonid swam to the chair. With a jerk, he threw the body into a comfortable seat in front of the ship’s control console. With a sharp movement he snapped the seat belt locks, clutching himself to the chair. He sat for a minute, weighing all the pros and cons of what had happened. Then reluctantly, the right hand reached for the handle of the ship’s left hand control.
quick and accurate movement turned off the autopilot. The ship shook slightly – a sure sign of manual control. Leonid began to turn on the brake engine systems one by one, skillfully maneuvering the jet propulsion, changing the direction of flight…
The ship was moving toward Earth. Communication still did not work. Behind the porthole, the space was still burning with a yellow glow.
After orienting the spacecraft in space, the cosmonaut set the course for the autopilot and switched on its systems. Now the spacecraft will land at the cosmotron, from where it took off. After five hours of flight, the Krazimov was looking for a pilot navigation system near-earth station-pier, where the ships were refueled
fuel and went long distances to the stars. But, the locator screen was empty. Leonid irritably turned off the video review. The screen went blank.
– «Apparently all the radio wave equipment does not work. Then how does the ship withstand the course?»
Again an incomprehensible contradiction of the phenomenon. Leonid, utterly exhausted by mental confusion, closed his eyes. The measured buzz of the instruments reassured, gave confidence. The mental equilibrium gradually returned to him. Leonid decided to wait for a meeting with the Earth.
In moments of impatience. In moments of waiting for a speedy resolution, time is especially slow and painful. Seconds turn into hours, minutes into eternity.
In order to somehow divert his impatience, Leonid began to remember the whole a complex of works carried out by him on the study of small planets. Stage by step, he restored in memory a chain of components into a single integrity, from which the outlines of the disappeared planet appeared. And here’s the final touch – was the civilization or not? This question hung in the air unresponsive. The expedition did not take place. Thoughts persistently returned to reality, consciousness fixed the time since the appearance of the phenomenon – six hours.
– «How slowly time flows. Before landing still, the same?».
He remembered Sobinov.
«Leonia, I categorically insist on my participation in the flight.» He said before the start. His gray eyes stared at the relentless commander with persistence. Leonid was firm: «You know that this is dangerous. Well, let me die, you can complete
started by Understand you, stubborn!».
Krazimov hardly persuaded the assistant to stay and, apparently, acted fairly.
A sigh of investment broke out from the mouth of an astronaut. He caught himself thinking that memories took the form of confession in front of his conscience. A bad sign. No, Krazimov was not superstitious, but somewhere in the depths of his heart a treacherous feeling of doom was beating. Trying to get rid of him, he began to recall funny incidents from his life, the history of loved ones and friends…
Time has «sped up» its run. The tired consciousness took memories with a balsam of sedatives, and the cosmonaut imperceptibly fell asleep. He dreamed of blue sky expanses … «Here, high in the sky, he soars on a light hang-glider. Near the stork, far below the Earth. The bird, spread its wings wide, swaying slightly, swims away into the distance. Leonid changed the angle of flight and rushed after. Stork approached. The spread wings are already clearly visible, the wind is lost in them and from this «angry», it whistles in feathers more and more… The hang-glider rushes onto a white lively lump with a huge colored cloth.» The heart turned away with effort, slightly hitting the bird’s wing. The stork glanced in dismay at the saw and -. «Do not worry, silly creature, I will not hurt you!». said the pilot with tenderness. A sudden rush of an oncoming stream threw a stork on a hang glider. In an instant she was frightened, breaking her wings, huddled against the fabric. Leonid was horrified to see how rapidly the Earth was approaching … «He jumped awake. Unusual silence reigned around. His ears were ringing from rapidly circulating blood. The cold blinking of the color scale of the indicator lights on the devices calmed him a little. Reality screwed into the consciousness of this ringing with silence, he finally realized that he had landed, and all the navigation systems of the ship were automatically turned off. In the excitement, he tore off his headset, threw off the tenacious ligature of the seat belts. Now only gravity kept it. he walked toward the porthole as quickly as he could. The bright light of the
