Andromeda (A Space-Age Tale) вк-1

by Ivan Yefremov

  A faint, rhythmical tinkle reached his ears. Mven Mass raised his head and saw a girl walking along swiftly, up to her waist in flowers. She turned to one side and Mven Mass looked admiringly at her graceful figure in the midst of that sea of flowers. A feeling of deep regret seized him: that could have been Chara if… if things had turned out differently.

  His scientist’s sharp powers of observation told him at once that the girl was worried. She kept looking back and increased her pace without reason as though she were afraid she were being followed. Mven Mass changed his direction and quickly caught up with the girl.

  The girl stopped. A brightly-coloured shawl was wrapped tightly round her body with the ends crossed and the hem of her red skirt was wet with dew. The thin bracelets on her bare arms tinkled more loudly as she threw back from her face a lock of hair that the wind had tousled. Her sorrowful eyes were looking out in concentration from under short curls that fell carelessly on her cheeks and forehead. The girl was breathing heavily, apparently from her long walk. A few beads of perspiration showed on her pretty, tanned face. She made a few uncertain steps towards Mven Mass.

  “Who are you and where are you hurrying to?” he asked. “Perhaps you are in need of help?”

  The girl stared intently at him and then answered, hurriedly and jerkily:

  “I’m Onar from the 5th Settlement. But I don’t need help.”

  “I think you do! You’re tired and something is bothering you. What can be threatening you? Why do you refuse my help?”

  The girl looked at him and her eyes beamed, pure and profound, like those of a woman of the Great World.

  “I know who you are! You are the big man from there,” and she waved her hand in the direction of Africa and the sea. “You are kind and credulous.”

  “You be the same! Is somebody after you?”

  “Yes!” gasped the girl in despair, “he’s chasing after me!”

  “Who is he that dares to make you fear him and to chase after you?”

  The girl blushed and hesitated.

  “There’s one man who wants me to be his….”

  “But surely you can choose for yourself whether to respond or not, can’t you? How can he compel you to love him? Let him come here and I’ll tell him….”

  “Oh, no! He also came from the Great World, but a long time ago, and he’s strong, only he’s not like you, he’s terrible!”

  Mven Mass laughed a carefree laugh.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To the 5th Settlement. I’ve been to the town and I met….”

  Mven Mass nodded his head and took the girl by the hand. She allowed her fingers to remain in his big hand and together they went along a side path leading to the settlement.

  On the way the girl, from time to time looking back apprehensively, told him that the man who was persecuting her was always accompanied by two other strong and evil men who were in every way obedient to him.

  Her fear to speak frankly made Mven Mass indignant. He had been trained from childhood by history lessons, through books, films and music to hate all those who oppressed people, all the secret organizations that had existed in the past, everything that was hidden from the conscience and judgement of the people, everything that meant bloodshed and unhappiness. He could not tolerate the existence of oppression, even if it were only occasional, on their well-ordered earth!

  “Why don’t your people do something?” exclaimed Mven Mass, “and why doesn’t the Control of Honour and Justice know about it? Don’t your schools teach you history and don’t you know what even tiny centres of brute force may lead to?”

  “We’re taught… we know…” answered Onar, mechanically, looking straight in front of her. The flowery plain had come to an end and the path disappeared among the bushes in a sharp bend. Two men jumped out at the bend, barring the road to them. The girl snatched her hand away frantically, whispering, “I’m afraid for you, go away, man from the Great World!”

  “Seize her!” came an imperative voice from behind the bushes. In the Great Circle Era nobody spoke so roughly. Mven Mass instinctively thrust the girl behind him and began to try his persuasion on these incomprehensibly wild people, but he stopped talking when he realized that his words did not reach them.

  The broad-shouldered young men ran up to him and tried to push him away from the girl but Mven Mass stood as firm as a rock.

  Then one of them gave him a lightning-like blow in the face with his fist. Mven Mass staggered. Never in his life had he seen deliberate, spiteful blows struck for the purpose of causing hurt, to stun and insult a man.

  The other man punched him in the kidneys and through the ringing in his ears Mven Mass heard Onar’s pitiful cry. Fury overcame him and he threw himself on his enemies, trying to crush them. Two deadly blows in the stomach and the jaw brought the African to the ground. Onar dropped to her knees, covering him with her body but her enemies seized her with a howl of triumph. They pulled her elbows bads behind her and she straightened up in pain, her head thrown back. Hands filthy from earth and Mven Mass’ blood squeezed her helplessly writhing body and the girl sobbed, her face purple with anger.

  “Bring her here!” came the loud voice again. An elderly man of tremendous height came out of the bushes. He was naked to the waist and athletic muscles rippled under the grey hair that covered his torso.

  Mven Mass, however, had already recovered. He had had more serious tussles during his youth when he was performing his Labours of Hercules and had fought against sharks and octopuses, beings not bound by human laws. He tried to remember all he had been taught about hand-to-hand fighting with the monsters.

  Mven Mass remained on the ground for a few seconds to get his breath and then with one powerful leap reached the men who were dragging Onar away. One of them turned to meet the attack and Mven punched him exactly on a nerve centre. He fell to the ground with a bestial howl and a moment later was followed by his companion, brought down by a well-placed kick. The girl was free. Mven stood face to face with the third man, the leader of the gang, who was lifting his hand to strike. He cast one glance at his fury-distorted face to note the spot where he would deliver him one crushing blow — and staggered back. He recognized that powerful face that had so long tormented him in his dreams when he was wondering about his right to carry out the Tibetan experiment.

  “Beth Lohn!”

  Lohn stood still, staring at the unknown dark-skinned man who had now lost all his customary good nature.

  The two confederates jumped up, still writhing with pain and wanted to attack again but the mathematician waved them back imperiously.

  “Beth Lohn, I have thought a lot about the possibility of meeting you, believing you to be my companion in misfortune” exclaimed Mven Mass, “but I never expected the meeting would be like this!”

  “Like what?” asked Beth Lohn insolently, hiding the wrath that burned in his eyes.

  Mven Mass waved the question aside. “What is the use of empty words? In that world you did not use them and acted, even if criminally, for the sake of a great idea. For the sake of what are you acting here?”

  “For my own sake, for myself alone!” said Beth Lohn contemptuously, spitting the words through his teeth. “I have considered others and the common good long enough. Now I realize that it is all of no use to a man. Some of the wise men in ancient times knew it, too.”

  “You never did think of others, Beth Lohn,” Mven Mass said, interrupting him. “Giving way to your own desires in everything you have become what you are now — rapist, deceiver, an animal, almost!”

  The mathematician made as if to attack Mven Mass but restrained himself.

  “Is it proper for a man of the Great World to lie? I have never been a deceiver.”

  “What about them?” Mven Mass pointed to the two young men who were listening to the conversation in bewilderment. “Where are you taking them? What are you leading them to — the narcotic bullets of the Destroyer Battalion? You know very well
that brute force, apparent power over other people, is the way to repudiation and death.”

  “I did not deceive them in any way. They came of their own free will….”

  “You, with your powerful intellect and will-power made use of the weakness of the human spirit, of their willingness to submit, a factor that was responsible for many of the calamities of the ancient world. In the old days men could avoid responsibility by laying the blame on the stronger, by submitting blindly and obediently and then laying the blame for their own ignorance, laziness and weak will on to God, an idea, a military or political leader. Was that the same thing as reasonable obedience to a teacher of our world? What you want is to train people who are loyal to you in the same way as oppressors of the past did, you want human robots.”

  “Enough, you talk too much.”

  “I see that you’ve lost too much and I want….”

  “And I don’t want! Get out of my way!”

  Mven Mass did not budge. With his head bent, he stood confidently and threateningly in front of Beth Lohn and could feel the girl’s trembling shoulder against his back. That shiver enraged him far more than the blows he had received.

  The former mathematician stood stock still, staring straight at the African, straight into black eyes that were burning with rage.

  “Go!” he said with a loud gasp, stepping back from the path and ordering his companions to do the same. Mven Mass again took Onar by the hand and led her through the bushes; he could feel Beth Lohn’s stare of hatred following him.

  At a bend in the path Mven Mass stopped so suddenly that Onar bumped into him.

  “Beth Lohn, let’s go back to the Great World together!”

  The mathematician burst out laughing with his former abandon but Mven’s sharp ear caught a note of bitterness behind his bravado.

  “Who are you to suggest such a thing? Do you know?…”

  “Yes, I know. I have also carried out a forbidden experiment and killed people I should have protected…. My path in science was close to yours and we, you and I and others, are already on the eve of victory! People need you, but not such as you are today.”

  The mathematician stepped up to Mven Mass and lowered his eyes, then suddenly turned away and contemptuously spat out coarse words of refusal over his shoulder. Mven Mass continued his way along the path without a word.

  The 5th Settlement was about six miles away. The African learned that the girl lived quite alone and advised her to go to the east coast, to a seaside village where she would not meet the brutal Beth Lohn again.

  Formerly a famous scientist, he had become a tyrant to the quiet little settlements of the mountain district that lived such a secluded life. In order to avoid any evil consequences Mven Mass decided to go into the settlement at once and ask for the three men to be kept under observation.

  Mven Mass said good-bye to Onar on the outskirts of the settlement. The girl told him that there were rumours that tigers had appeared in the forests that covered the round-topped mountain; they had either escaped from the reservation or were still living in the dense jungles that surrounded the island’s highest mountain. She grasped his hand and implored him to take care of himself and not go through the mountains at night. Mven Mass made his way back quickly and as he thought over everything that had happened he could see the girl’s last look, a look that was filled at once with both anxiety and loyalty such as were rarely met with in the Great World. For the first time in his life Mven Mass thought of the true heroes of the distant past, people who had remained good in face of humiliation, wrath and physical suffering, something that required indomitable courage and fortitude. For the first time in his life he realized that the people of ancient times whose life seemed so hard to his contemporaries had also known the meaning of happiness, hope and creative activity, at times, perhaps, even to a greater extent than was the case in the Great Circle Era.

  It was almost with anger that Mven Mass recalled the theoreticians of those days who based their prophecy that mankind would not improve in a million years on a false understanding of the slowness of the mutation of species in nature.

  If they had loved people more and had understood the dialectics of development such ridiculous ideas would never have entered their heads.

  The sunset turned red the clouds that lay on the rounded spur of a gigantic mountain. Mven Mass jumped into a stream to wash off the dirt and blood of battle.

  Refreshed and calm at last he sat down on a flat stone to dry himself and rest. He would not be able to get to the town before nightfall but he expected to be able to cross the mountain when the moon came up. As he sat contemplating the water gurgling over the stones he suddenly felt that somebody’s eyes were fixed on him but could not see anybody. The same feeling that unseen eyes were watching him was still with him when he crossed the stream and began to climb the slope.

  Mven Mass walked quickly along the cart road leading to a plateau about 1,800 metres high, passing from terrace to terrace in order to cross a wooded spur which was the shortest way to the town. The thin crescent of the new moon would light the way for no more than an hour and a half and it would be very difficult to ascend a steep mountain path in the dark.

  Mven Mass, therefore, had to hurry. Occasional low trees cast shadows that made black lines on the dry moonlit earth. Mven Mass kept a sharp look-out in order not to stumble over the countless roots that lay in his way but all the time he was thinking deeply.

  From somewhere far away to the right, where the slope was gentler and lay in deep shadow, came a menacing growl that made the earth tremble as it carried over the ground. It was answered by a low roar from amongst the patches and strips of moonlight in the forest. These sounds had a strength in them that penetrated deep into a man’s soul, arousing a long forgotten feeling of fear and doom in the victim selected by an invincible beast of prey. To counteract the ancient fear, in the African’s heart there burned the no less ancient fury of battle, inherited from countless generations of nameless heroes that had defended the rights of the human race to live amongst mammoths, lions, giant bears, savage bulls and ruthless wolf-packs in exhausting days spent in hunting and nights spent in fear-filled defence.

  Mven Mass stood still, looking round and holding his breath. Nothing moved in the silence of the night but when he walked on a few steps along the path, he was certain that he was being followed. Tigers! — was it possible that Onar’s information was really correct?

  He began to run, trying to decide what to do when the animals, there were clearly two of them, attacked him.

  It was senseless to try to escape up a tall tree that a tiger could climb better than a man. What was there to fight with? There was nothing at hand but stones, lie could not even break a decent club off the branches of trees as hard as iron. When the growls came from behind him and close at hand he realized that he was lost. The dusty branches of the trees that now overshadowed the path stifled him, he wanted to gain courage for the last few moments from the eternal depths of the starry sky, to the study of which all his past life had been devoted. Mven Mass ran on with long strides. Fate favoured him for he came to a place in the forest where there was a big, open glade. In the centre of the glade he noticed a heap of big boulders, ran to it, seized a thirty-kilogram sharp-cornered block of stone and turned towards the forest. He could now see vaguely moving, phantom-like figures. They were striped and were easily lost amongst the shadows of the scanty trees. The moon was already so low that its edge touched the tree-tops. The lengthened shadows lay across the glade like paths and the huge cats were crawling along them towards Mven Mass. He felt approaching death in the same way as he had done in the underground chamber at the Tibetan Observatory. This time it was not coming from inside him but from outside, it gleamed in the green flame of the animals’ phosphorescent eyes. Mven Mass breathed in a puff of wind that came through the heated air, glanced up at the shining glory of the Cosmos, straightened his back and raised the big stone above his head.

&n
bsp; “I’m with you!” A tall shadow spread across the glade from the darkness of the slope threateningly brandishing a knotted branch. For a moment the astounded Mven Mass forgot all about the tigers — he recognized the mathematician. Beth Lohn, out of breath from his headlong race stood beside Mven Mass, gasping spasmodically. The giant cats had at first drawn back but now they began steadily approaching the men. The tiger on his left was no more than thirty paces away and had drawn up its hind legs to spring.

  “Quicker!” a loud shout resounded across the glade. As the pale flashes of grenade-throwers came from three points behind Mven’s back he dropped his stone in his surprise at the suddenness of it. The nearer tiger reared up on its hind legs to full height, the paralyzing grenades burst like the beating of drums and the animal lay stretched out on its bade. The other leaped towards the forest but from there three figures on horseback appeared. A glass bomb with a powerful electric charge struck the tiger on the forehead and he stretched out with his heavy head in the dry grass.

  One of the horsemen rode forward. Never before had the working dress worn by people of the Great World seemed so elegant to Mven Mass — wide shorts and shirt of strong, artificial blue linen open at the neck and with breast pockets.

  ‘“Mven Mass, I felt that you were in danger!”

  Could he fail to recognize that high-pitched voice that was still full of alarm! Chara Nandi! The African forgot to answer her and stood rooted to the spot until the girl sprang from her horse and ran to him. She was followed by her five companions whom Mven Mass could not get a glimpse of because the moon had hidden behind the trees; the wind died down and stifling darkness enveloped the glade and the forest. Chara’s hand found Mven’s elbow. He took her thin wrist and laid her hand on his chest where his heart was beating wildly. Chara’s fingertips stroked a bulging muscle and that gentle caress gave Mven Mass a sense of tranquillity such as he had never known before.