Alice: The Girl From Earth - Булычев Кир. Страница 49

The path was difficult. The tunnel turned out to be slippery water dripped from the ceiling and did not evaporate. To Alice it seemed that she had spent an whole hour in there but the tunnel never came to an end. She had decided to turn back when suddenly the darkness began to lighten up, and it turned out that Alice had almost made it to the exit, she just had not seen the exit in the darkness.

The last meters of crawling were more difficult than anything else; dirt kept falling down from the roof of the tunnel and she had to force her way through the large masses of roots. Alice almost started to cry, deciding that she would never be able to make her way to the surface, to the sun and the clean air. For a moment she almost forgot about us, about the pirates, about everything in the world; all she dreamed of was getting free of the surrounding dirt.

But there was one last jerk and Alice realized she had succeeded the tunnel was behind her. She had left the gloomy cavern with the pirates and their prisoners.

Overhead was the blue sky with its quickly moving yellow star; a second star had already reached its zenith and begun to turn the world hot. Two insects similar to terrestrial beetles had gotten into an argument of some kind right in front of Alice’s face and they were dive bombing each other, beating each other with flashing wings, completely ignoring Alice, who looked at the bugs and thought sadly that it was time to go back down into the cavern. And so she lost far too much time. At the very least she now knew which way to run to get out of the caverns.

Alice looked around for the last time, ran her hand through the thick grass, but then saw, quite close by on the top of a hill, the very same space ship which Doctor Verkhovtseff had flown to the Pegasus before the Zoo ship had lifted off for the pirate’s boobytrapped field.

“Glad I saw where they landed that thing.” Alice thought. “Or we could get out of the cave and end up back in their arms. They’re certain to have left guards at their ship”

Alice was almost ready to go back to the tunnel when she saw the Blabberyap bird sitting on the steps that had descended from the ship and pecking at the closed lock with its beak.

Alice almost shouted: “Blabberyap, come back here!” but did not have time, nor would the Blabberyap bird have heard her.

The airlock rolled open and Alice could see a tall young man, someone Alice had definitely seen before, but where? The Blabberyap Bird flew up and landed on the man’s shoulder.

“Old friend!” The man exclaimed. “How did you find us?”

The moment Alice saw the man with the Blabberyap bird on his shoulder, she understood who he was. This was the First Captain. The Captain had come to their rescue! But how had he learned where to search? Alice jumped down from the end of the tunnel and rushed toward the ship. What mattered was that the Captain was here. Everything was all right now.

Alice was still a few steps from the ship and was trying to shout, but couldn’t because she was out of breath, when the second person emerged from the airlock and stood next to the Captain,

It was Doctor Verkhovtseff. But he was not dressed like the Doctor Verkhovtseff down in the cavern beneath then; this Doctor Verkhovtseff was in a space suit with a pistol in his belt.

Alice stopped, as though she had run into a wall. She did not understand it at all. The traitor had been somehow able to be simultaneously at two places at once. One thing she did understand: the First Captain was also in great danger, yet he knew nothing about it, not even that Doctor Verkhovtseff was really a pirate.

“Captain, be careful! Danger! Verkhovtseff is a traitor!” Alice shouted.

The Captain and Verkhovtseff looked around for her voice, but they could not see her. She was still invisible.

“Who said that?” The Captain asked.

“Verkhovtseff was just in the underground cavern!” Alice shouted. “He’s a pirate. They’ve captured the Second Captain and our crew.”

“What crew?” The Captain was mystified, still trying to determine just where the child’s voice came from.

“The crew of the Pegasus.” Alice said. “Be careful, Captain!”

“And who are you?” The Captain asked.

“Alice.” She answered, not taking her eyes off Verkhovtseff for an instant.

But Verkhovtseff never went for his blaster, he never tried to jump the Captain from behind, and the Captain was also completely at ease in the Doctor’s presence.

“You’re mistaken, little girl.” The Captain said. “Doctor Verkhovtseff hasn’t left our ship for the last three days. The two of us came here to help you and Second. It’s some other person down below in the cave, someone who’s made himself up to look like our friend Doctor Verkhovtseff. You’re not in any danger here.”

“And what if you’re just made up to look like the First Captain?” Alice asked.

“I’m not made up to look like anyone but myself.” The Captain answered. “You know what I look like, and look at the Blabberyap bird. He knows me too. Bird’s aren’t that easy to deceive. Blabby, you know me?”

“‘Hurry, Captain.’“ The Blabberyap bird said. “‘The formula for galaxion is hidden in the cabinet with the samples of industrial materials. If anything happens to me, get the formula and give it to the Galaxy. It’s very important. Third died for it.’“

The Blabberyap bird spoke in the Second Captain’s voice.

“There. Is that proof enough?” The First Captain said. “Do you believe now? You can come o ut. We’re wasting time. How did you get to the surface. And where are you hiding?”

Alice walked right up to the edge of the steps.

“I’m here” Alice said. “I crawled after the Blabberyap bird.”

“I don’t understand this at all.” Doctor Verkhovtseff said. “Where is that girl? What is, she invisible or something?”

“Of course I’m invisible.” Alice said. “Oh, why don’t you understand? How else could I have gotten away from the pirates?”

And then Alice took off the invisible cap, and even the First Captain, one of the most famous people in the entire Galaxy, gasped from surprise.

Alice’s yellow jump suit was covered with dirt and her sleeves were torn, her face was scratched and her hair was a tangled mess.

“‘Alice, do you want Soya-Bix for breakfast tomorrow?’“ The Blabberyap bird spoke in Professor Seleznev’s voice.

“Smart girl!” The First Captain said.

And they ran to the trap door, because there was not a minute to waste.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Fat Man Lies

“The handcuffs fit.” The Second Captain said. “These are such miserable beings that it’s impossible to trust anything they say.”

“I give you my word that I will not attempt flight.” The fat man said cheerfully.

“You will.” The captain answered with certainty.

At the same time Doctor Verkhovtseff briskly walked straight up to his doppleganger. The image was remarkable. If they had asked me I would have said the real Doctor was the one in the hat; that he was the one we met the first time on the Three Captain’s World.

“Well, impostor,” The Doctor in the space suit said, “show us your real face.”

“I don’t understand you at all.” The Doctor in the hat said, backing up.

Zeleny, who had been standing right behind him, pushed him forwards to meet his double.

“It’s because of you we thought the worst of a good man.” Zeleny said. “Because of you we nearly died.”

“That’s right.” Alice said. “We distrusted the real Doctor Verkhovtseff so much that when he flew here together with the First Captain and tried to warn us we got away as fast as we could and fell into your pit.”

“No!” The false Doctor said. “You won’t touch me!”

Veselchak U suddenly started to laugh.

“Someone else’s skin doesn’t fit too well.” He said. “Never fit me fit me pretending to be someone I wasn’t. I’m an honest pirate.”