Страна багровых туч / Аркадий и Борис Стругацкие / The Land of Crimson Clouds / Arkady and Boris Strugatsky: БУДНИ / Weekdays

Weekdays

staswiz 05.12.12 в 10:45

The town was small: some hundreds of new cottages stretched into four straight parallel streets along the valley between two ridges of bald flat hills. The red morning sun was softly lightening at the wet asphalt, flat roofs, merry trees in the gardens. In pinkish haze the huge light constructions could be seen behind the hills - those were the launching constructions for interplanetary ships, known from films and photos.

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 07:08

Wrapped in the white robe, Alexey Bykov was standing by the enormous window - half the wall in size, waiting to be called to the doctor and looking to the street. The crew of the "Hius" had arrived to the town last night. Bykov slept in the plane but probably he didn't have enough sleep and that's why he dozed in the car on the way from the airport. From all yesterday impressions of the town, his memory kept only the street lit up with the rose evening sun, the light multistory hotel building and the words from the chambermaid on the floor: "Here's your room, comrade, make yourself comfortable..." Dauge woke him up at seven and told him that everybody is ordered to pass through a medical examination and that due to long sleep the bedsores might occur.

Alex_ander 07.12.12 в 12:01

The medical building was sided with the hotel. Here the cosmonauts were told to take off their clothes, take on the robes and wait.

Alex_ander 07.12.12 в 11:24

There was a little empty in the street outside the window. A low-profile high-speed car with a deer on its radiator was standing still by the house across the street. Two people in light overalls went by, carrying huge drawing folders in their hands. A semi-caterpillar heavy electric car with a van painfully crawled by. А boy aged about twelve went out to the front garden, looked into the sky, whistled using three of his fingers and having jumped over the hedge ran down the street, obviously copying the style of the famous champions.

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 09:53

Bykov stepped aside from the window. Ermakov and Yurkovsky had already left the room, as they had been called to the doctor's office. The rest were unhurriedly taking off their clothes and hanging them within elegant lockers with semi-transparent folds. Alexey Petrovich looked at Spitsin with admiration. The pilot had a mighty slim body of a professional gymnast. On his broad shoulders, under thin goldish skin, the rolling tumours of his muscles could be seen. Dauge, having already thrown over his robe, smiling venomously, was tying up the sleeves of Yurkovsky's silk shirt and kept saying: "Well, and now this way...". Having finished with this very useful activity, he giggled merrily and came up to Bykov:

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 10:54

- Do you like the town, Alexey?

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 10:55

- Nice town, - said Bykov with restraint. - And how far is the launching site?

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 12:41

- Over there, behind the hills. Can you see the launching guides? That's where the famous testing area Seven is, the first ever and so far the only special launching site in the world for testing, launching and landing of photon rockets. The first photon unmanned device, 'Zmei Gorinych' was launched there. 'Hius-One' and 'Hius-Two' landed there. And it's the possible landing place for 'Hius-Three', 'Hius-Four' and 'Hius-Five'...

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 12:58

- Will land or be launched?

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 12:59

- They will be launched from there as well. But first they will land there. You know, they are not built on Earth.

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 13:10

- Oh, yeah... - Bykov thought of the extraterrestrial founding plant in the 'Weidade Youyi' satellite.

Alex_ander 06.12.12 в 13:07

There, 5000 kilometers above the earth, the leviathan hulls of ultraheavy rockets were cast in zero gravity and almost ideal void. 250 scientists, engineers, technicians and workers operated solar-powered furnaces, centrifugal casting mashines, sophisticated automation, turning huge titanium and tungsten pigs into the hulls of interplanetary ships. Obviously, "Hiuses" also were born there...

alexarj 05.02.13 в 20:30

- Krutikov and Spitsyn, please! - pronounced Ermakov's voice behind his back.

alexarj 11.02.13 в 15:52

Friends looked back. Krutikov tossed the newspaper and entered doctor's office after Spitsyn, carefully closing the
door behind him.

alexarj 11.02.13 в 16:03

- Interesting, - thoughtfully said Yurkovsky - what a jerk did it?

ladyann_mango 01.07.13 в 04:48

- Volodya! - shouted Dauge. - That was a mistake. It's not me.

ladyann_mango 01.07.13 в 04:48

Then who it was?

ladyann_mango 01.07.13 в 04:49

- Gentleman's, your turn.

ladyann_mango 01.07.13 в 04:50

- What is it?

ladyann_mango 01.07.13 в 04:50

- For six years now.

ladyann_mango 01.07.13 в 04:50

- Any coincidences?

ladyann_mango 01.07.13 в 04:51

- Move!

ladyann_mango 01.07.13 в 04:51