Alice: The Girl From Earth - Булычев Кир. Страница 64

“Listen, my child.” He said in a loud whisper. “I have a special job for you. You’re going to get shots not only against Space Plague but for every communicable sickness known. The doctor’s already been warned.”

“But why, Gromozeka?” Alice said. “I really hate needles.”

“You remember I told you to be ready for a special mission? Without the needles, we can’t even begin to think of it!”

So Alice had to go to the medical tent, bare her arm and let it be turned into a pincushion, swallow seven large tablets and drink down terribly salty drops for Cosa’s Palsy, a remarkable disease from which no one had gotten sick but which all the doctors thought was an immanent threat to her health.

Alice bravely endured all the inoculations because she believed Gromozeka. He would not have asked her to do this for no reason at all.

The last needles and tablets made Alice feel sick. Her body began to shiver, her head hurt and her teeth ached. But the doctor, who resembled a large garden watering can on legs, said that was to be expected and tomorrow the incapacity would pass. Alice was compelled to lay in the tent and there was nothing she could do while all the remaining archaeologists questioned Petrov for the rest of the day and poured over the photos.

9

It was the faithful Purr who brought Alice supper. He found it difficult to drag the tray the plates; the tray was bigger than he was. He had to use a powered wheelbarrow designed for his size to bring her lunch.

“Eat.” He said. “Or it will get cold.”

“I’m not at all hungry, Purr.” Alice said. “I still don’t fell to good.”

“There’s really no reason for you to be so weak.” Purr said reproachfully. “After my shot I felt like nothing at all had happened.”

“But you only had one shot. I was a pin cushion.”

“Why?” The little archaeologist was surprised. It turned out he did not know that Alice had undergone the same series of shots a space explorer who was about to land on an unexplored planet would take.

“I guess Gromozeka must be worried about me. He did promise Daddy to take care of me.”

“I suppose so…” Purr agreed. “I’m really very sorry about it all. I would have taken them all for you with pleasure.”

“Thank you.” Alice said. “What’s new?”

“A lot.” Said the small archaeologist. “And if you eat our soup, I’ll tell you some of it. And if you eat everything, I’ll tell you nearly all.”

“Then I’ll have the fruit salad and you can just tell me what’s most important.” Alice said.

“But the small archaeologist laughed, blinked his enormous single eye, and Alice had to start from nothing. But at the same time Purr told her what was going on.

The archaeologists found the newspapers that Petrov brought from the past most useful of all. From the papers they were able to determine how the murderous virus of the Space Plague had managed to get to the surface of the planet Coleida. It turned out that a week before the town fell ill first space ship, launched by the Coleidans had returned successfully to the surface. It had made several orbits of the planet and then circled around the planet Coleida’s small moon. The flight had been uneventful, and thousands of Coleidans, living in this hemisphere of the planet had gone to the space port to welcome back their first astronauts. On the evening of the same day the astronauts were supposed to speak at an enormous public gathering in the main square of the capitol. But they never made it to the meeting; they had fallen ill with a mysterious disease. The newspaper’s reporting on that day was both short and vague. But after several days, when the families of the astronauts, and everyone who had been a the space port to welcome them home, were reported to be sick as well, it became clear that some terrible infection had fallen on Coleida from space. Three days later, the sickness had spread to the entire planet.

“As you can see, Gromozeka was right from the very beginning. Without a doubt, this is Space Plague.” Purr said at the end of his story. “Our specialists have been pouring over the holos that Petrov took and now there can’t be the slightest doubt of it.”

“That’s terrible.” Alice said. “Isn’t there any way we can help them?”

“How do you help people who died a hundred years ago?” The little archaeologist was surprised. “There’s nothing that can be done. Here, finnish eating your fruit salad and get some sleep. And I’ll look in on you tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” Alice said. “But what are the temporalists going to do now?

“The temporalists are readying their machine for the next flight. They are aiming for the very day when the astronauts returned. They want to determine conclusively that this was indeed how Space Plague infected Coleida. We have to find out as much as we can about the disease to make certain other planets can be protected against it. And so, tomorrow, Richard will make a time jump into the past one week earlier than the one today.”

Purr made a fancy bow and ran off, his padded little feet making almost no sound on the floor of the tent. He was in such a hurry to read his newspapers and magazines that he completely forgot the powerbarrow.

The little steps had hardly managed to die away when the flap of the tent was pulled aside again, and Gromozeka himself entered.

“Who was with you?” He asked. “Why did they bring a barrow?”

“That was little Purr.” Alice said.

Gromozeka had brought a tray with supper.

“And where did you get the fruit salad?” Gromozeka asked strogo.

Alice drank down the last of the sauce from the salad and said:

“Purr brought it, but I also had the soup.”

“Oh, my my my my my!” Gromozeka was flustered. “And here I cornered the cook into getting you the tastiest morsels. Don’t you think you might possibly have a few more bites to eat? Just for your Uncle Gromozeka’s health and peace of mind.”

“No more, please.”

“Alice, you really, really need calories.” Gromozeka said.

“No more than ususal.”

“More.” Gromozeka said. “Far more. I came to have a very serious talk with you, scientist to scientist. How are you feeling now?”

“Better.”

“A lot better, or not a lot better?

“Somewhat better. I could even get up…”

“Don’t get up.”

Gromozeka absent mindedly placed the tray with supper on the floor and used his two freed tentacles to tie the tent flap in place. Then he poured the bowl of soup down into his own maw, and said:

“We must not waste good food. I will leave you the fruit salad.”

“Thanks.”

“Alice,” Gromozeka began festively, “You know that everyone thinks I am a naive and rather direct being.”

“Not everyone.” Alice said.

“Well, there are always bad people everywhere. Well, I am, in fact, honestly, really a naive and rather direct being, but I am also able to look into the future, and not just into the past like so many of our friends. Tell me, why did I bring you on this expedition?”

“To give me a birthday present.” Alice answered, although she knew fully well that was not the only reason.

“Right!” Gromozeka roared. “But not only for you. The present the present is you!

“The present is the flight to this planet. The present is a chance to look over our excavation and have a chance to meet my colleagues. The present is to be there days late for school, because in the final analysis this is not a gift as much as a little crime, although that does not concern me too much. You may, if you want, take your seat on the freight ship the day after tomorrow and go home. And we will remain friends. But I do not think that you will, because I know your father, I know you, and I think that you will want to help me.”

“Of course I do.” Alice said.

“When I was heading for Earth I had a lot of time to think.” Gromozeka said. “And I thought this: here we have a planet, Coleida, which died from the Space Plague. And were we, the archaeologists, who had flown here to look at the bones that were left behind a hundred years later. We look, and that’s all. Then we take the bones and trash to a museum and write on them: