Fantastic stories about good people. Short fantasy stories

And where are you at modern city Have you generally encountered silence? The noise of the flow of cars on the street, the mumble of footsteps hurrying from left and right... The click of women's heels, apparently on the slenderest legs in this city, and the shuffling steps of an old man who is no longer in a hurry... The sound of the door slamming to the store from the side sidewalk, and - bursting music and the rattling sound from a motorcycle engine - from the side of the roadway.

But when you come home, fall into your favorite sofa, you finally find yourself in the long-awaited silence. Silence. Freedom from all sounds. Or, one might say, not being filled with them. And freedom from all this hellish noise and hubbub, from all this city bustle comes to you. Things go away, and peace reigns in your soul. Peace and grace...

Finally, I escaped from this city merry-go-round, I sit down at my cozy desk and finally I can write something else. For example, something about eagles and snakes. Yes! About these birds of prey and these very dangerous reptiles. Philosophical studies. I really like to philosophize! The noisy and restless city released me from its embrace, the city bustle left me, and now I can travel in my thoughts and on pages covered with text, and I will be glad if it is a real, high flight of thought, and the sketches are truly philosophical. About twenty pages long. No. There are about thirty pages. And to be more precise - at sixty! If you read to the end, you can check it.

But for now I'm empty. Not a single page yet. And not a single thought. Empty. So we have to start from scratch. Blank sheets of paper. Or not. A blank monitor screen with a blinking cursor. I don’t even know yet: will I decide to quickly sketch out a draft on paper or will I start writing sketches on the computer.

But right now I don't have anything yet. Emptiness. Empty place. Nothing. Is it worth talking a lot about this here, about this emptiness? But always at the beginning, in order to put something down, you need emptiness. Unfilled space. Free space. To write anything, you need a blank, blank sheet. For magical music to sound, silence is needed. For something to begin to exist, at the very beginning, there needs to be emptiness. At first it is simply necessary. Therefore, I must start from emptiness.

A friend of mine once said that in the old schools of painting, a real master was distinguished by whether the painter could reflect the presence of air on his canvas, whether he could create the effect of the presence of an air mass in the painting.

Emptiness... No, I certainly wouldn’t try to do this... For is it really possible to convey something that doesn’t exist? Yes. Exactly. What is not there... What is not there? But, if objects can be placed in emptiness, and - if these objects exist, does it not follow clearly that emptiness then, after these objects, exists?

But right now I don't have anything yet. Even emptiness. That is, the image of emptiness. Empties where you could start placing something else. Only blank sheets paper. Or not. Blank monitor screen with a blinking cursor...

Emptiness... Free space. Unfilled volume. Space. It’s even difficult to say right away what kind of emptiness it is. Is it completely transparent, without color, and invisible, so that rays of light can penetrate it... or is it black, like an impenetrable night, so that it can easily swallow everything that falls into it... And it is impossible to immediately say what it brings to people: a feeling of delight, joy and freedom, or boredom, anxiety, burden and fear? And it’s impossible to immediately say when people feel incredibly good, and when they feel so bad that it can’t be worse: when there is too much of it, emptiness, or when there is a catastrophic lack of it?

But in our life this is something that sometimes we have in abundance, sometimes there is too much, and sometimes there is a catastrophic lack. Noise, crowding - on the street; cabinets, chairs, books, the crying of a child, the eternal reproaches of the mother-in-law - at home; and in the kitchen they rattle plates; the neighbors on the right have music playing loudly again; and the neighbors on the left have someone knocking loudly with something. And, in general, the world is becoming more and more complex, and there are more and more unnecessary things in the house every year.

Therefore, perhaps somehow a very, very long time ago, some good wizard took care of everyone. About everyone at once. He created a lot of emptiness. He created so much emptiness that it quickly scattered in all directions and across an unimaginable expanse. And there was so much of it that its size is not yet subject to even the most daring imagination of any of the creatures that have ever existed and huddled in this vast universe.

And then, to avoid boredom, this huge mythical magician scattered the stars with his powerful right hand. Stars that scattered in intricate scatterings of dazzling diamonds, from very tiny to unimaginably huge, from white-blue and white to bright red. He also scattered planets, which were immediately attracted to large stars and started dancing around them. And to make the picture even more interesting, this same unknown sorcerer blew out fantastic enchanting nebulae that encircled and permeated space here and there... Now it remains to add to this world a few living creatures that could fly among all these numerous and dazzling beautiful stars and nebulae, could fly as high... More precisely, as far as this endless emptiness scattered in all directions allows you to fly...

The theme of the universe was his favorite for the fantastic flights of his thoughts. He was from another galaxy. You could say that he was actually from the opposite side of the universe. He was from the distant Tersa System. Tersea was the name of his homeland.

An unknown nebula crossed the field of view like a smoky ribbon, opening up a panorama to the eyes in this corner of the universe. Yes... it was a piece of the universe at a completely different end.

At a completely different end. And so it was a unique piece of her. Unique from the point of view of Tersian scientists. Because he was the opposite piece of space, a place from the other edge, from the other pole. And therefore he could have all possible anomalies at once. Anomalies, again from the point of view of the Tersians, but which could pass for ordinary phenomena of space for local regions...

And now he is here. A completely uninhabited at first glance wild sector of deep space. But now he has changed. A whole armada starships, lined up in battle formations, staked out this sector. Arakua squadron. “Snake squadron” - the Tersians jokingly called it. A great variety of the most incredible ships! Here it is - a majestic, legendary and invincible armada. Placed her ships here and there over several light years.

She lined them up in battle formation at a distance of several tens of light minutes to a light hour between individual ships... And somewhere here, among these mysterious tints and folds of this emission nebula, illuminated by several dozen local stars, several pieces of their world were lost. A world that includes many metropolitan planets in different corners of this galaxy and an even larger number of planets - their colonies... Somewhere in these fantastic luminous patterns of the local nebula, their two main worlds were lost - two neighboring star systems - Deconia and Descartes - it was from here that they began to build their empire, and now - became the sovereign rulers of this entire galaxy. And their ships filled all the inhabited worlds here. All the local cosmic crossroads were simply swarming with them.

Uh-uh! Yes, they have their own “snake” corporation here! – Dan joked.

It is here that the heart of the Arakua empire is located, here where the Deconia and Descartes systems are located in the center of the constellation, and nearby there is a whole garland of their sisters: Denia, Deca, Devona and Cinea. And this is where the Global Corporation has set its sights. It was here that she sent her research ships.

No, the Tersians had no intention of changing the existing order in this sector... No. But they needed this piece space world. It contained too many secrets. Mysteries and secrets of the cosmic device. Here, more than anywhere else in the Universe, it was in this galaxy that various anomalies of space were concentrated. And it was here, according to the assumptions of the learned Tersian minds, that the universe hid all its most important, but not yet revealed, and still lacking in full knowledge secrets. And they were missing a few pieces of this amazing mosaic... A few small fragments of it to create a new world. A world that will be even grander than the one that was already created by the previous sorcerer. Which will finally contain the wildest dreams of all creatures that have ever inhabited this world. A new world, but based on knowledge of the existing world. A world that, despite its grandeur, will be obedient and will fulfill the slightest whim of its inhabitants. And where everything impossible will finally become their reality.

That is why the Tersians appeared in this sector of the universe. They explored this galaxy at the other end of the Universe to finally compile full picture of the universe.

Arakua Galaxy. "Snake Squadron"

It was a very interesting galaxy. She was huge. Its borders extended over a good million light years. And every day it became even bigger. By some inexplicable pattern, it grew in size, capturing larger and larger spaces of the Universe. And the stars located on its outskirts scattered more and more from each other in different directions. In addition, it should be added that it was isolated from other sectors of the universe by an even greater distance. And what’s more, this galaxy was also moving! She moved further and further, according to the same inexplicable pattern, rushing away from the center of the Universe, further and further beyond all its conscious boundaries. There were countless stars and other objects in it. And it was impossible to fly over it with conventional engines. And there, there and there - throughout this sector of the universe - the Arakuan worlds and their colonies were scattered. And five hundred of their metropolises ruled the entire local piece of the universe - the entire local galaxy.

And now - here it is, in the very center of the galaxy, the Arakua squadron. "Snake Squadron" And the name “Snake” suited the Aracuan squadron perfectly: their ships could distort the space in front of them. Because of this distortion, the ship actually ended up not where it should have been - such a peculiar and unexpected zigzag in space. It looked especially impressive when they lined up their spaceships in battle formations. Several lines of ships suddenly began to squirm - quickly and unpredictably change their location. The Aracuans could show the location of their ship here and there, and each of their ships changed its position, all this happened quickly and unexpectedly so that the enemy could somehow orient themselves and use their weapons. They seemed to be nearby, but, on the other hand, they weren’t really there, because their illusion was visible, and they themselves could be anywhere nearby. And they constantly continued to change their location. The results were simply fantastic zigzags! But their ships, despite their fantastic zigzags, remained somehow connected in their battle formations, so that at any moment they could unleash their combat power in a joint strike. Yes, they changed their location perfectly, and ordinary tactical weapons - laser blasters, plasma guns, gravity bombs - were powerless against them. But the Tersians had weapons of a different kind. Weapons of a fundamentally different nature...

And at one fine moment, ships of the Global Corporation simply appeared in this sector of the universe. It was as if they had fallen out of another dimension. Yes, they just fell out in a gas-dust nebula, somewhere in the region of the two systems Deconia and Descartes... They just fell out straight from the opposite end of the universe. For the Tersians figured out how to travel around the world. How to travel without crossing endless space, but simply create your own terminals in the place that would be necessary for them. Therefore, Thersian ships could easily appear in this galaxy. They could suddenly, just like ghosts, appear here and also suddenly disappear from here; they could turn into dust, into a mirage, into a ghostly glow, into an illusory image that only wavered when a formidable Arakuan salvo hit this place. Their ships were invulnerable to the Arakuans. No, they could not distort the space in front of them, like the Arakuans. The operators at the other end simply pulled the ship back, and that’s it: it was already on the other side of the world, and there the Arakuans could no longer reach it... The ship was already on the other side of the world, in another dimension, and at this end instead of it a ghost remained, which gradually dissolved and finally turned into a black void... But after a while this void could again tremble, waver and - again turn into a Thersian ship - this is exactly how Thersian ships fell out of another space.

And they had weapons of a completely different kind. Not some kind of tactical blasters or gravity bombs... With these weapons they could smash their entire numerous snake armada to pieces. Their entire armada, along with their two systems, as well as their entire “Snake” galaxy. Yes, the power of their weapons was a match for the gods themselves. But tearing something to pieces is usually much easier than recreating it... Besides, global weapons always have one problem. A question of control. On such a grand scale, weapons happen and refuse to be controlled. Here and there, it strives to cause even more destruction than was planned by its parameters and required by the situation. And every time it strives to break out of control and live independently, against the will of its creators, not wanting and not intending to pacify its destructive appetite. And the tests of the Tersian infernal machine were successful. Yes, they were successful in terms of destruction. But they were carried out in much smaller volumes compared to what the situation required now... and the consequences of even a small use of these weapons have still not been controlled even by the testers themselves. On the very outskirts of their galaxy, where they carried out these tests, there now existed anomalous zone, the growth of which was now difficult to contain. This zone now very much resembled a hole in the universe... A hole from the universe - straight into the underworld... An entire system with a fifth class B star magnitude and with three gas giants disappeared forever in this hole... The experiment bore the code name - 2251-3. But now there was a gaping hole there, trying to suck in another neighboring system... A real gate to hell. And in order to prevent this monstrous hole from growing, the Tersians were forced to create more and more terminals there, build more and more bases there, and constantly keep their research ships there.

Global corporation.

Corporation. Global. Global means everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. We wake up with her, we fall asleep with her, and we live with her. It has penetrated into every corner, even into the most remote and intimate corners of our existence. The day begins with news from the corporation and ends with the flick of a light switch with its logo on it. back side lids, a lamp with the Corporation logo on its stand that goes out at the command of your voice in the evening. It has penetrated every corner of this universe. To all worlds. To all civilizations. And even there in space, where there are no civilizations, there are objects of the Global Corporation. And where the Corporation needs it, at these sites, new colonies appear. And where it is not necessary, these objects remain simply technical objects. But, in any case, along with these objects, she has eyes, ears and power in all places in the Universe. Things are much simpler with alien civilizations. First, they need to be given all sorts of things with the brand of the Global Corporation. Lots of things. Lots of robots. Lots of mechanisms. Lots of new pleasures and entertainment. A lot of everything. So many. In sufficient quantity. In complete abundance. And after a while they will no longer be able to live without the Global Corporation. And, in any case, she has eyes, ears, subjects, and power in all places in the Universe! In general, this is a corporation that has everything except borders. But every phenomenon has its own main secret. The real main secret, which, if it becomes known to someone to whom it should not be known, can turn into his own - this phenomenon - Achilles' heel. And the corporation had its own main secret. The secret of its globality. He really was.

Well, what do you think it is - this Global Corporation? What it is? This is not an organization, and not a huge commercial company, no. This is not some kind of unified government. And this is not just any group of people. Not at all. It's nothing. How is it - nothing, you say? How can something be nothing if it has a name and if it has almost global power in the universe? Yes indeed?

Well, let's say it could be something that is simply put together by the idea of being something global. Simple: be global, you know? But to be more precise, this something that is collected is still not the corporation itself. This is what was collected and appeared later. So it turns out that a corporation is just nothing, just an idea. In the material sense, it is nothing. Well, the truth is, in fact, the idea is not at all what some people think, it is not nothing at all. And with such an addition we can already get better, we can say that the Global Corporation is just something like an idea - to become global. To control and move everything, even if some of it all think that they are moving themselves. The idea is to become an absolute, something like a deity, to become something so global, to fill the rest of the world with oneself, even despite the fact that there is someone else there who wants to continue to be themselves. Well, now - the final part of the secret, because without it the secret would not have been told to the end and would continue to remain so. This corporation, in order to ensure its prosperity, united all the scientific minds of the Universe, the entire world mind, all the scientific potential!!! And she organized his work and directed it in the right direction and in the right direction. For if it is possible to flourish in the modern boundless world, then how, if not at the expense of science? That is why the Global Corporation burst into our lives. She spread her possessions all over the world. In every home, and everywhere in the universe.

And of course, we can’t help but talk about cars. Car. Friend of human. Work scientific progress, technical genius and... human stupidity. A complete inability to do anything on your own... Well, okay, sorry, it fell through. Let's get back to the topic. Cars. Cars. Cars. There are no limits to the flight of technical thought. How different they can be, cars! And what can they not do, these beasts. And how hardworking they are! How accurate. And how consistent. Yes, you can rely on them. So let's continue...

Global corporation. Harmony. Everything is subject to strict necessity. Nothing extra. People and machines. Everything is very simple. Everything is very effective. Everything is very rational. No effort. Everything is easy. No complications. No intermediate links. People need machines to do their jobs, and machines need people to do their jobs. And the Global Corporation is needed to make these machines and control the order between these people, as well as between people and machines. Everything else should remain outside the colonies, on the same blue planet that burned in the flames of the exploding yellow star, or in outer space, For example.

But what about the Council, you ask, and you will be right. Yes, because she has her own advice. Council of the Global Corporation. And the most worthy, the most intelligent, the most fair and the wisest of people enter there! But a corporation is not a firm, a group of people, or a government. It's nothing. In material terms it is nothing. To be even more precise, in material terms it is nothing, because it is just an idea. The idea and this whole colossus, with all its numerous planets, space objects, various races and civilizations and their countless starships that were collected by this idea. And how can any council move such a colossus and control such an idea, which has gathered all this behind it, move it even a little? Or can this idea move the rest of the world with its advice?

Portrait.

He was from the distant Tersa System. Tersea was the name of his homeland. The entire system of the mighty Thers with its 40 planets, 35 of which (natural and artificially created objects) were in the middle zone and were colonized. And he, of course, was one of the first colonists to set foot on Thersa's first site. Colonists who arrived from Finobia. Yes, he was born on Finobia. His parents... His parents... And then history repeats itself again. His parents were the first settlers to arrive on Finobia and Fiora. They arrived there as part of the first expedition, there they found each other, and there they met. And then their son grew up and conquered Ters. And they say that his great-grandfather... that his great-grandfather was from Ordeus. Yes, from that same Ordeus, who hid in the vicinity of Altair. And that his family line begins with... one very distant relative of his, so distant that Ben could no longer establish the degree of his relationship, and so this relative was from that same Blue Planet, in the Yellow Star system, the same one that was even further beyond Altair, and from which, in fact, the very first wave of colonization of deep space began. And now the race of Zesemeols was scattered in various parts of the Universe. Now the Corporation included Tersea, Eltaka, the Ordeus empire and, of course, the Fire Arfenius. Now the Corporation covered 30 galaxies local group Milky Way!

He was a Class 12 spaceman of the Third Expeditionary Force and was the pride of the Thersian fleet. And it was he who led this expedition... And as a soldier, he understood that if necessary, he must carry out this monstrous order without hesitation. Yes, the local edges are quite distant from his native galaxy... And they were not just remote. They were practically at the opposite end of the universe. It simply cannot go further... But he was very well aware of the results of experiment 2251-3. And an alarming doubt tormented his soul. Will this expedition be new era in the story of Tercea or will it turn into its end?

He stood in the place of the commander of the expeditionary force. In the place of the captain of the flagship. Ben. Tall, slender, brown-haired, with classic regular features - large Blue eyes, impeccably shaped straight nose, a slim body- it seemed that everything about him was correct: his facial features, his posture, his every movement and his every thought. And all this could not have been more successfully combined in one person. It was as if he tried to maintain harmony in everything: to be wise and fair, to adhere to honest principles and correct goals. Soft and smooth in his movements, he seemed to be entirely composed of harmony.

And now he was leading ten Tersian ships. And ten Starfleet war cruisers accompanied them. Because these were unusual ships. Each of them has a diabolical contraption on board. According to the devilish contraption, the likes of which have not yet existed for centuries, because only a devilishly sick imagination could come up with such a thing. Yes. Only a damn diabolical imagination could have come up with this. And one can only guess how these machines came into being. One can only guess that the poor guy who came up with all this was a devilishly mentally ill person... Or not. Perhaps he was healthy, but that poor fellow was simply possessed by a devilish imagination... Imagination or a devilish fantasy. Yes. This guy himself seemed to be a good person, but he was simply possessed by a diabolical fantasy, according to which such a thing could be dropped in some remote sector of the Universe, and it could “gut”, or rather “devour” the space within one - two star systems with all its contents, i.e. with these systems themselves. Or - a whole galaxy, if you collect, say, a dozen of these things and arrange them in a certain way, proportional to the concentration of mass in this galaxy and according to any other such scientific devilry... He thought for a moment, looking straight ahead.

Ten Thersian ships. And now they will all appear right in the Arakuan zone. It's like they're falling out of another dimension. They will all appear at the same time somewhere at a distance of a light hour from each other. From the outside, it may seem as if they will appear out of nowhere, from another dimension. The space will tremble, vibrate, as if it will begin to melt, and ships will begin to appear, straight from the void. And as soon as this happens, this mysterious nebula will flare up again in the panoramic view of the control room. The nebula that once, at the moment of his first appearance here, so shocked his imagination and since then has attracted and called to him.

But then, in the panoramic view of the control room, it flared up again, this mysterious nebula. And in its center appeared holograms depicting Arakuan ships... “As if they were already waiting,” he thought.

Commander, the Arakuans have begun combat formations!

His assistant was his complete opposite. Daniel. Dan. Iron Dan. Once upon a time - the commander of a military cruiser, later - the director of a closed simple eyes secret research facility, and now his assistant. Angular, a little impetuous in his movements, rude in his manners and harsh in his judgments, he was distinguished by complete uncompromisingness and unbending will. Besides, he was very hard. It was as if he consisted entirely of stone muscles, mandibles and tendons. And as soon as he appeared in the expeditionary force, the nickname “Iron Dan” firmly stuck to him. He never reasoned, did not hesitate, and did not allow others to hesitate. And he was a very straightforward person. Philosophical research was not his destiny and left him indifferent.

Commander, the Arakuans have begun their battle formations! - it seemed that his assistant was already separating the annihilators in his thoughts.

Holograms depicting Aberan ships began to jump in space, drawing zigzags in the chains of their formations. And this ominous picture could fascinate any uninitiated viewer, but for the initiated it did not promise anything good...

Navigator, check readiness via the reverse teleportation channel to the Milky Way galaxy!

Colonel Kanoka, Activate space annihilators by 0.5%!

Lieutenant Skye, send intergalactic call signs!

Yes, events inevitably developed in an increasingly unfavorable direction. The Aracuan ships began their combat formations. This means that they noticed us. This means that they meet us as enemies. And at any moment they can attack us with their salvo. This means that there are fewer and fewer opportunities for negotiations. And this means that less and less time is left to launch these infernal machines.

And we just need to pick up the logbook and the container with the “memory” and the database from Aphrodite. A database that ended up in the hands of the Arakuans.

The theme of the universe was a favorite for the fantastic flights of his thoughts... But ironically, it was he who, without hesitation, should have given the order to launch this damn infernal machine... He thought for a moment, looking straight ahead: “Lord, why did I ? And why did these creatures turn out to be humanoids just like us? Where are they even here from? Why shouldn’t there be some reptiles in their place, on this edge of the universe, like on Antharsis, or insect-like creatures, like on Aldezon. Why humanoids? And why are they so similar to us? Common ancestors? Is it possible? Is it possible to have common ancestors and live on different ends of the universe? And why, despite their similar appearance, are they so different from us in their manners and behavior? Why are they so insidious in their behavior? Yes, of course, in this they are very different from us, but by killing them, aren’t we killing ourselves?”

And here it is - a cosmic apocalypse. The topic of many historical writings and religious beliefs. The trump card of many predictors. Will it touch one extreme galaxy or will it eventually “slam” the entire universe? Yes, he was very well aware of the results of experiment 2251-3. And who else, if not him, understood very well that the phenomenon of space annihilation is still not subject to the will of humanoids... And the result of this is the “hole to the underworld” that was already gaping in the place of Antharsis. Ben understood that they could start the process of annihilating space and then not finish it when necessary.

He was one of the twenty scientists who stood at the origins of a new project... A project that could not be more grandiose. A project to create a new universe. "Project of the Gods". And that is why he was one of the first to appear in this sector of the universe. And is it really by a cruel irony of fate that he is now destined to fulfill the prophecy of his ancestors? A prophecy that was so popular even when he was still a child, a prophecy that everyone knew in those years: both young and old. Which has traveled in a thousand novels, and has been tested in a thousand fantastic action films: “And may he who flies over it and recognizes it conquer the universe true dimensions. And may he take complete possession of it and exercise his power over it... And may he who takes possession of the old one become able to create a new universe... But anyone who learns to destroy the emptiness before creating it will destroy it!!!”

He, of course, was related to experiment 2251-3. Yes, the Antarsis system with its three gas giants disappeared into a hole in space. Yes, they folded space into the region of one light hour. And along with this space, Antarsis and its satellites - three gas giants - disappeared. And the process of annihilation at the end of the experiment was not completely stopped - everything seemed to be more than convincing... And, despite this, now, according to the Council’s plan, he had to personally give the command to activate and separate 10 such infernal machines. Thersians had to throw off their annihilators and disappear from this horror through reverse teleportation channels...

"Project of the Gods"

It all started with a discovery that made it possible to create densities. Five scientists learned to create dense masses using various radiation directed towards each other. This was a prototype of matter. Research has caused big interest, and soon their team of authors grew to ten people. They began to explore how the resulting density is located in space and time, and how all this - the density itself, space and time - turns out to be interconnected with each other, and how they could learn to manage it better. And they set their sights on no small task - they decided to learn how to create a lot of matter and space. And after this, one of them, whose name was none other than Ben, suddenly proposed some plan on how to create a new universe. The others, however, could not understand what he meant. And, besides, they could not talk to him for a long time, comprehending what he had just recently offered them... But then they worked a lot again, and they had another breakthrough - they learned to send some objects to some another point in space! The project was immediately taken under the wing of the Global Corporation and a whole system of objects in outer space with several bases, observatories, testing grounds, an entire scientific fleet of spacecraft, and a large army of employees was allocated for it. Now the project had as many as twenty directions, headed by twenty super-genius scientists. And now the meaning of Ben's brilliant proposal began to dawn on them. And they finally began to study his plan and believed in the possibility of it. And they called their project “Project of the Gods.” But now, of course, they were no longer as free to engage in free research as before. Now there was a strict order and order of the Corporation. Now it was necessary to make new starships and special terminals for them. Fundamentally new machines that would allow their compatriots to be anywhere in the universe. Any that could be calculated or calculated, any that could be described mathematically. And this project was implemented. This was a revolution in space navigation. It was a breakthrough in science. And the ships flew to different ends of the world, flying, returning with new victories, for now the humanoids had conquered space and now they could possess everything that was in the universe and even, perhaps, the universe itself. The universe itself... But not other humanoids. And now they received masses of new discoveries, because the goal from the Corporation turned out to be correct - starships...

And the ships flew to different parts of the world, and the scientists returned again to the project itself and to their task - to create a new universe! The next goal was to create space. And they turned their bright gaze to the Universe itself, where there were many strange places. Scientists wanted to find places where space was created.

After all, many remote regions of the universe and entire galaxies were flying away from each other at high, sometimes fantastic, speeds. And scientists have been racking their brains for many millennia to explain why all this is happening. But finally, one of them, of course, none other than the same Ben, slapped himself on the forehead and said: why, they are all flying away at cosmic speeds simply because in those places between them there is some kind of... This creates a lot of space! And there were also places where space disappeared. It disappeared or was drawn into these areas like into a vacuum cleaner... And it was sucked in and disappeared along with everything, of course, that it contained.

And the ships flew to different ends of the world, flew, returning with new victories, because now the humanoids had conquered space and now they could possess all the secrets that were in the universe... And Ben was one of the first astronauts, and he had no equal in art navigation, searching and discovering objects needed for research...

But they could not find the places where this space in the universe was created. These places were completely undefined in the Universe, none of the scientists knew where exactly this was happening, and finding them was not at all easy. But they found a lot of anomalies... After all, with such ships they could reach any of them... And it was much easier, because they were precisely defined in the universe by their position... Black holes...

Black holes. Pillars of the Universe. Maybe this is what she is holding on to? Those same elephants standing on a huge turtle, these energy monsters. Energy inside. Gate to the underworld. Death Guards. And the angels of rebirth. If we say that the world begins at a star, then it definitely ends here...

And then he got an assistant. Daniel. Iron Daniel. A former military space pilot... Also a master of navigation and... A protégé of the Global Corporation... And then he said: “in order to learn how to create space, we first need to learn how to at least destroy it! Guys, especially since we have everything at our fingertips! "

Then more work followed, and they again had a breakthrough. Although they did not learn to create space, they learned to destroy it. Destroy and cause its disappearance. And their curiosity, of course, first of all touched the most anomalous and most mysterious galaxy on the other side of the world - the Arakua Galaxy. That's why the Corporation's ships appeared in this galaxy. And the Tersians now began to visit here regularly. When they needed it, without bothering themselves with long journeys. Their ships could appear here unexpectedly, just like ghosts, and also suddenly disappear from here; they could turn into dust, into a mirage, into a ghostly glow, into an illusory image that would only waver when a formidable Arakuan salvo hit this place.

Aphrodite.

Thersian ships were invulnerable to the Arakuans. No, they could not distort the space in front of them, like the Acaruans. The operators at the other end simply pulled the ship back, and that’s it: it was already on the other side of the world, and there the Acaruans could no longer reach it... The ship was already on the other side of the world, in another dimension, and at this end instead of it a ghost remained, which gradually dissolved and finally turned into a black void... But after a while this void could again tremble, waver and again turn into a Thersian ship: this is exactly how Thersian ships fell out of another space.

Yes, Thersian ships could easily appear here. And they were practically invulnerable. But they were invulnerable as long as they remained at the end of the tunnel. The Thersians could keep a dozen or two tunnels open. These were "passages" in space, if you can call it that, starting from some "starting" places near their scientific base in their galaxy and ending in some places in the Arakuan zone, according to which calculations were made. The spaceship “jumped” to such a place among the Arakuans and then went to the desired object using conventional engines. Therefore, their ships were truly not vulnerable, but not vulnerable - only as long as they remained in these exit points. But as soon as they shifted relative to them, they turned into ordinary ships, vulnerable to weapons.

With their first appearance, the Tersians invited the Arakuans to make contact with them. And what was their surprise when the Arakuans evaded him. And, moreover, when they discovered that the Arakuans were avoiding meeting with them in every possible way. It was an inexplicable phenomenon for an intelligent race. But soon everything became obvious... Nothing foreshadowed the tragedy. The Tersians, having never achieved the hospitality of their brothers, but having not encountered direct resistance from them, decided to act. This was their first mistake... Research work began.

This happened ten days ago. Aphrodite. The crown jewel of the Iberian research fleet. It was simply stuffed with scientific instruments. And each time she delivered from her flights all sorts of research material that brought scientists into fanatical awe. But her crew/commander was a trusting humanoid/human. Instead of being a good predictor. And Aphrodite went to the Arakuan zone, making regular raids along the same corridor. And the Arakuans seemed to continue to avoid contact and did not show any interest in the appearance of Thersian ships. But, as it turned out later, they liked Aphrodite more than other ships. And they quickly figured out the place where Aphrodite appeared. And it most likely became clear to them that the same ship could not leave and come so quickly from some adjacent vicinity. Moreover, by the way the ship disappeared into the void and appeared out of nowhere, ignoring all nearby surroundings, it was clear that it was traveling to some truly remote area in some unusual way. And it became interesting, and they also decided to explore it. And the best thing for them to do was... In one gulp... One day, not far from where Aphrodite appeared, several Arakuan ships found themselves. Somehow they figured out the place and frequency of its occurrence in their zone and unleashed their volley on Aphrodite immediately after its next appearance, instantly breaking it into pieces. And a few days later, one of the transmitting stations installed at the end of one of the communication corridors relayed a fragment of a signal about an attempt to penetrate the on-board computer data bank from a destroyed ship. The Arakuans also began their research papers... Of course, it is clear that they were on the other side of the world, and they did not have such space control technologies, and they could not create such corridors. But now they knew that such technologies exist among the Torsians, and they knew that they already had other people’s corridors right under their noses, and if they opened Aphrodite’s data bank, they now knew where we were from and where our home was!

They had a huge galaxy... An abnormally huge galaxy... And this galaxy was, like no other, saturated with all sorts of objects and filled with all sorts of energy and matter. The Universe has been generous to the Arakuans. But they have not yet been able to reach other galaxies in the Universe. Because their Galaxy was removed from the nearest ones at an even more anomalous distance than its size. And now... Now, following Aphrodite to visit them, other ships followed into their galaxy, but with different names: Cyclops, Cerberus, Lucifer, Gorgon, Elephant, Aida, Vesuvius and Anaconda. And they were led by Zeus and the Admiral. And the commander on Zeus was, of course, Ben. And on the Admiral... Nowhere else but there was the Observer of the Corporation Council, the former commander of the 5th intergalactic corps of Starfleet. And one of his former subordinates, the commander of the Star Cruiser Athena, was, either by chance or deliberately, on neighboring Zeus. And this man was none other than Daniel. Yes! The same "Iron Dan" - Ben's assistant commander! The same Daniel who was the commander of a combat starship in the past, and the director of a secret laboratory until recently...

Yes, it's at stake now big bet. So large that there has never been a bigger game... An entire civilization. And the whole galaxy. Ben felt that circumstances were already moving him forward, and he was unable to resist them. Such awareness sometimes suddenly comes to mind when you suddenly realize that it is no longer you who control them, but they control you. And as happens at such moments, at first Ben felt a slight panic, but then he dealt with it and began to look for a way out of this whole situation: “Yes, Iron Dan is nearby. All these ships that came here with him are also relatively close, they are somewhere here, scattered in the vicinity of the local galaxy within several light years. The other half of the world is far away now, but will meet us when we find ourselves back in our home galaxy.

Yes, the Zeus pilots - the Finobians - will probably support Ben, but the engineering corps... and the entire weapons service - come from Ordeus, in the event of a disagreement between Ben and the Advisor on the Admiral, they will most likely side with Iron Dan. Moreover, among them there are several pilots who in the past flew on Starfleet ships. Everything is against the Arakuans. However, no one forced them to attack Aphrodite! They must be responsible for their actions, after all! We are obliged to reset the annihilators if they once again refuse negotiations and do not give us the fragments of Aphrodite along with her logbook and the entire data bank from her on-board computer. With a bank of data, locked, and also compressed and mixed by the security system into terrible gobbledygook, which, judging by the level of development of Akuan computer science, will remain uncracked for another couple of weeks.

“The second half of the world, represented by the Council, believes that it will be safe if it destroys the first, which refused to give up data from Aphrodite. Allegedly, having destroyed such a dangerous enemy, we will really be safe, because the Arakuans are still isolated in their damn snake galaxy, because they have not yet learned to overcome intergalactic distances on their damn starships, which are so abnormally large to neighboring galaxies, as anomalous and their whole damn galaxy!”

“And in fact, it’s their problem that they refuse to communicate. And they are very unlucky that they live in their own, albeit large, but isolated world. And that their world is so remote from other worlds. And therefore, it is quite acceptable if some demigods from another dimension can drop their terrible divine things that devour the void on them, and that there will not be a single Arakuan left in the entire universe. Such a merciless price to pay for the safety of the demigods..."

“The demigods may consider that - since the Arakuans are so distant from other worlds and isolated in their galaxy by a huge distance - they, along with their entire galaxy, can be transported at once to the underworld through all these annihilators, so that they do not create more for them, these demigods , problems..."

“Or maybe this whole world has gone crazy?”

And, every time Ben thought that right now he had to give the order to launch all these infernal machines, all of them, starting with the one that he had on Zeus... Every time he tried to open his mouth to extract from there this fatal command - the deck of the captain's bridge disappeared from under his feet, and he felt that he seemed to be hanging right in the air, that he seemed to be not him at all, and he was seized with tetanus and the sound could not be extracted from his throat...

And in an instant, unexpectedly for yourself, you may suddenly discover that a lot of forces have already been applied to you and it is no longer you who are moving the course of events, but they, these forces, are moving everything around through you. He once thought that he would change lives, that ships would fly, and that he would conquer the world, and one day he would lay the Universe at the feet of humanity. Yes, he once thought that he would change his life, but one morning he suddenly discovered that life had changed him. And he turned out to be one of the first in the team of military kites of all stripes, mad scientists - adherents of annihilators and - members of the Council.

An image of the Council Observer on the Admiral appeared on the central video, and his voice was heard from the speakers:

Why are you delaying, Captain! The Arakuans are preparing to attack! Do you want to risk another of our ships, Captain? Do you want to sabotage our mission? – his loud voice growled and rumbled in rage throughout the captain’s cabin. It seemed to come directly from a holographic image. Everyone present froze and slightly tensed their muscles, poised and taking up obsequious poses.

We have to get these damn things off if we want to get back home, Captain! You know that only then will the reverse teleportation channels open again and allow our ships to return!

Or don't you want to get back home, Ben?

A slight pause hung in the air. This seemed to increase the tension even more. Ben realized that he was unable to resist this commanding voice coming from the speakers. I wonder how it is, he thought, that a person is within a few light hours of here and puts such pressure on everyone here? How does he create such a strong desire to submit? Iron Dan's cautious voice continued the attack:

Captain, we will create another new galaxy here, just like this one. And it will be even better than this, because it will not be overrun by such vile and treacherous humanoids. And we will destroy this one. This will be just before we create a new universe! This will be our thesis! After all, before you create something, you need to destroy something, Captain!

Like this! You wake up one day and discover that you are just an ordinary cog in this huge mechanism. And many forces are already connected to you and you are in the very center of efforts. And for these last years you never noticed how you turned into an ordinary cog in this big mechanism. And he is already turning you around to reshape the rest of the world. And you no longer decide anything. They decide through you... With your help. Once upon a time, your dream was to change the whole world. But at one moment you suddenly realize that it is the world that has long ago changed you.

And your previous ideas: I am strong, I am powerful, I am fair, I will change this whole world - already an illusion created by you in the past. Apparently you once deviated greatly from your path. And then everything turned into such an illusion. And now it’s not you who presses this button. It is others who press your finger on it, writing your name into history. And they don’t care what the descendants will say, and what letters your name will be written in - black or gold... They press, but you will have to answer... And how is it that you didn’t see how you ended up in this harness, and I didn’t see who was at the other end. They press the button, and you will have to answer... You will have to answer... you... YOU!

Yes, now Ben had no doubt - the world had definitely gone crazy...

Ancient manuscript.

He looked at the box... Flawless surface. Sparkling varnish. Dear tree. Intricate inlays. Scene of an ancient battle. Fight. Some bizarre, ancient, but very warlike creatures. Rarity. A rare rarity. And by some miracle I now have it. Inherited from some distant relative... And this despite the fact that modern society For a long time now, no one attaches importance to any kind of family ties, and they quickly dissolve. The main thing is to have your own means of transportation to “kerosene” around the galaxy. And also - funds to buy fuel, equipment, and then find some kind of mine somewhere on the abandoned outskirts, you know? Relatives have absolutely nothing to do with it. You take some killer super-fast “sharpener” with all possible modifications from the best private specialists. An interceptor that moves contrary to all the rules of official science and contrary to all licenses and checkpoints of the Corporation. Well, not to visit relatives in the same way? Of course not. You take such a “sharpener”, buy the most detailed star maps, fill the ship with all the junk you need for the coming years, gather all your crazy friends just like you and “burn” all over the galaxy here and there. Burn until you come across some planet lost on the outskirts of the galaxy, rich in some very rare rock, absolutely necessary for high technology Corporations hammer, blast, drill it, until finally, after a few years, you have the need to hire a dozen huge cargo trucks. And - it's in the bag! And you wait until these galoshes stick to their destination. Yes, of course, these cargo carriers with your cargo must now fly, and fly all together, exactly to the place that you need and that you indicated. Of course, they should not get confused or dissolve somewhere in the depths of this endless space. In this bottomless void... But this is a question of your personal presence at one of them or several at once, you and your faithful friends, or a question of your personal connections in the intergalactic police, where one of your childhood friends occupied some responsible position. And your family ties have absolutely nothing to do with it. Unless the case concerns relatives who own a cargo transportation company. Moreover, you need to do all this before serving in Starfleet! BEFORE! Because the service may definitely drag on indefinitely! But if now you already have such a mine, then this is a completely different matter! And now the service may no longer take place in Starfleet, and it will not be you who will serve, but they will serve with you in these galoshes of yours, on which you transport your ore and jewelry... And suddenly, in the midst of all this, you have a distant a relative living in one of the colonies of the neighboring system, who for some reason is looking for you! Such a decrepit guy. You see, in pursuit of his fortune, he completely lost his roots. Yes, of course, this box is clearly not from this world. Such materials have not been used in interior items for a very, very long time. Voice distant ancestors or even - a gift from the gods! A box from the ages. Message from ancient ancestors. Also those who still lived in the old world. There is a yellow star on the blue planet. But this relative was clearly not himself. He unearthed which of the colonizers arrived here first and which arrived later. And which of whose relatives were. And then, having nothing to do, he found the distant descendants of these relatives. And after the death of one of them, due to the fact that all family ties were severed from him, and there was not a single heir, after the death of this descendant, he found some property that had some value. This property had value because it was from those ancient times and from the very planet from which all these adventures, and all these colonies began, and which then disappeared in the flames, swollen to the size of a supergiant, previously so affectionate and so warm - yellow star. So, this property was already put up for sale in one of the antique stores. And, perhaps, it had some value, but it was clearly not a spaceship on which it was possible to “burn through” to a mine lost in the depths of space... Therefore, of course, he was very eccentric, this guy. Nostalgic feelings for your lost roots, constant melancholy and all that. And now he had this box, which cost him a lot of money, and one of the family ties was now restored, at least in this way. Of course, the life of homo sapiens does not last forever, and perhaps the less it becomes, the greater the value of all relatives and family roots, but this simply does not apply to me. It just doesn't apply, that's all. Therefore, I patiently listened to the fact that he no longer had anyone, and that only I was now the very last scion from the most ancient dynasty of colonists. And also: how little is left for him, and how valuable this box is, and how he would like me to pass it along with all the contents to my future descendants, so that the tradition, and therefore the family, would not be interrupted.

Yes, there was content. And all this had to be transferred with all its contents, and this was very important, because the descendant from whom she ended up in the antique store, dying, apparently he was also a little abnormal with his family roots, was very worried that the contents would not separated from this box. I remember my disappointment when I opened this box and found some old manuscript there. Perhaps, of course, it was of value for linguists studying the languages of ancient civilizations, or historians, or ethnographers studying their life. But, of course, I was not interested in this manuscript. It was studied and translated for a long time, and there was a lot of ancient philosophy, descriptions of some predatory outlandish living creatures that exterminated each other, and it was even written about those times when people for some reason fought with each other. They fought with each other or were preparing to fight with someone, studying some very exotic types of martial arts. were preparing to fight with someone, not even knowing who yet. And they had some kind of martial arts, and they fought among themselves, often with bare hands, without robots and without weapons, with each other, own initiative, and not even at the will of the Global Corporation! And now how unreal it all was. After all, in the colonies everything has long been subject to strict discipline and strict order. There has long been complete agreement and complete harmony, everyone is happy with everything and no one is fighting with anyone. And there are no longer any strange living creatures there. Nobody but people. Only people and robots. Well, it’s true, there is also different cars. Only people, robots and machines. People are robots and machines. Machines and spaceships. And no animals for you there. Therefore, all this was very incomprehensible, snakes, birds, martial arts and battles and all this was very unreal. But the very first section interested him. He remembered the moment when he read a passage from his translation:

“But sometimes one of these reckless people who can run very fast sits down, scratches the top of his head, dreams about something, studies something, thinks about something, and then some wings or a parachute appear, and then he rises up and flies... flies through the air! And those people who prefer to crawl (because it’s safer) rather than walk, even more so prefer to crawl before, God forbid, running (because you can crash) say: “Here, the damned one, the devil has misled him! Forgive him, Lord of the Kingdom of Heaven...

And this piece of ancient text - well, it just hooked him. And he read the entire manuscript, and he returned to this piece again and again, and re-read it again, and the most daring and unexpected thoughts about the meaning of life came to him. And at one point he unexpectedly decided to become a researcher. Become a researcher and serve in the scientific fleet. "Burn" beyond the galaxy! Beyond its limits!!! Dedicate your entire life to space and the universe. And help people become complete rulers there...

The book by Vladimir SNEG “Essays on martial arts Eagle and Snake” - for the most inquisitive among the most inquisitive, ancient secrets from the very basics! Find a book - join the mystery!

The history lesson in sixth "b" was the last. Inna Ivanovna took the children to the hall, from where they had to move as a class ninety million years ago to the Mesozoic era, at a time when dinosaurs walked the planet like ordinary animals.

In the transfer hall, the students were instructed and seated under a protective transparent hood, under which not even a midge from the past could penetrate. But the boys had long known how to get out from under the hood. To avoid falling under the force field, you just had to cover yourself with your briefcase like an umbrella and jump out. This is exactly what one of the students, Petka Sentsov, was going to do.

Petka was a poor student, if not worse, but he was a very proud person and loved to show off his prowess to his classmates. True, there were no predators or robbers at school, but here he had the opportunity to turn around to the fullest and become the hero of the week, or even the month.

As soon as the class moved into the distant past of the Earth, a one and a half meter dinosaur appeared next to the protective hemisphere. The lizard's mouth was strewn with sharp teeth, its eyes looked at the aliens without blinking, and its front paws with long claws greedily grabbed the air all the time.

“This is a velociraptor,” Inna Ivanovna said calmly and pointed at the dinosaur with a pointer. - Write it down, otherwise you will later call it a bicycle or a bicycle scratch. Pay attention to his claws. With such a weapon, the predator easily deals with its herbivorous victims.

And the velociraptor, you know, was jumping around the protective cap, snapping its jaws and poking its scary muzzle into the force field.

He probably thinks that this is a feeding trough, and we are cutlets,” said Tanya Zueva and took out a notebook.

No one will give anyone a crutch,” Inna Ivanovna said after hearing Petka. - You cannot offend animals, even if they are tyrannosaurs.

Inna Ivanovna continued the lesson, and Sentsov pushed his desk neighbor Pavlik in the side, wiped his nose with his fist and pointed to a stone that lay ten meters from the cap under a huge tree fern.

You bet me three clicks that I'll run out and get that stone over there?

I bet,” Pavlik lit up, but then got scared and said: “What if this auto bite grabs you?”

“We’ve seen such motorcycle adapters,” Petka said boastfully. He went to the transparent wall, covered himself with his briefcase and jumped out.

Outside the hemisphere, Sentsov felt a little scared. Eerie sounds were heard from the dense Mesozoic forest: either the hungry roar of some dinosaurs, or the death cries of others. Because of this, it seemed to Petka that the predators were just waiting for him to move away from the protective cap in order to rush at him. He was about to return, but he saw Pavlik’s mocking grin and made up his mind. Throwing away his briefcase, he rushed headlong towards the stone, grabbed it and at that moment heard the battle cry of the dinosaur. He noticed the student, snapped his jaws carnivorously and rushed towards his victim. In one second, the velociraptor cut Sentsov off the cap. Petka had no time to think, and with a pitiful cry he jumped into the Mesozoic bushes.

Sentsov was lucky. Behind the dense thickets of horsetails, he discovered someone's hole. Her hole was wide enough for him to crawl in on all fours. The dinosaur was late by a moment. He snapped his mouth just before the entrance and roared offendedly.

Meanwhile, real panic arose under the hood. Inna Ivanovna even staggered with horror, and two students had to grab her by the arms. The girls squealed deafeningly and pointed their fingers at the velociraptor, the boys shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. And the culprit of the commotion himself crawled into the hole, but soon stopped because he saw someone’s round burning eyes in front of him.

Mommy! - Petka screamed strangledly and backed away. On shaking knees, he climbed out of the hole and turned around. The predator with his briefcase in his teeth was already rushing towards Sentsov at full speed.

Petka himself didn’t understand how he flew up onto the tree fern. He barely managed to pull his legs up, and the unlucky dinosaur missed again. Huge jaws clicked just a millimeter from the heel.

Daddy! - Sentsov cried out, frantically clinging to the branches. But even here an unpleasant surprise awaited him. Looking up, Petka saw burning round eyes in the thick dark crown and, out of horror, almost fell down right into the mouth of a velociraptor.

Inna Ivanovna quickly came to her senses and immediately began to act. The miniature history teacher covered herself with her daddy and jumped out from under the hood. She bravely rushed to the edge of the forest, while running she tore out of the ground a horsetail as thick as her arm, and the entire Mesozoic forest screamed:

Hold on, Sentsov! I'm coming to help!

The dinosaur was taken aback by such impudence. He looked at little Inna Ivanovna in confusion and roared again, but his roar was immediately drowned in the polyphonic scream of the sixth “b” grade.

Give me a dinosaur! - Tanya Zueva shouted and jumped out.

Hurray! - the girls picked up and all as one followed their friend.

Forward to the assault on Velodricinapoppins! - Pavlik barked and rushed forward together with the boys.

The velociraptor clearly did not expect such a turn of events. Having received a horsetail hit in the face several times from the fragile teacher, he recoiled in fear and shook his head. But when a whole horde of screaming students ran up to him, the dinosaur gave up. The huge predator fled from the battlefield like a hare, and the class followed him for some time, whooping. They waved their briefcases, and the girls squealed so shrilly that all living things for many kilometers around fell respectfully silent.

Petka came down from the tree, pale as a wall. At first he couldn’t even speak, but only mumbled something. It immediately became clear that the predator had thrown Sentsov’s briefcase somewhere, but they did not look for it in such dense thickets.

Everyone march under the hood! - Inna Ivanova ordered, adjusting her glasses with her finger. - The lesson continues.

Since then, Petka began to behave quieter and more modest. And after another month, I even began to study better. This happened after the class was taken on an excursion to the paleontological museum. The lecture was very interesting, and at the end the guide led the children to the display case, pointed to the petrified briefcase and said:

And this is the latest sensational discovery by paleontologists. She changed our understanding of dinosaurs. The briefcase was found in a cave next to the bones of a velociraptor. This means that these dinosaurs were intelligent and attended school. Scientists sawed open a fossilized briefcase and found several notebooks and a school diary there, which are about a hundred million years old. Now we even know the name of this velociraptor. His name was Sentsov Peter. But it must be said that the dinosaur Sentsov was not entirely intelligent. In his fossilized diary and notebooks, we found only two marks. Thanks to this, scientists concluded that dinosaurs became extinct because they did not want to learn.

When the guide finished, the entire sixth “b” was writhing with laughter. Only one boy did not laugh. Hanging his head, red with embarrassment, he slowly left the museum and on the way home made a firm promise to himself to go and really do his homework for the first time in his life.

Adviser

Andrey Salomatov

Fantasy stories

History lesson

And the velociraptor, you know, was jumping around the protective cap, snapping its jaws and poking its scary muzzle into the force field.

He probably thinks that this is a feeding trough, and we are cutlets,” said Tanya Zueva and took out a notebook.

No one will give anyone a crutch,” Inna Ivanovna said after hearing Petka. - You cannot offend animals, even if they are tyrannosaurs.

You bet me three clicks that I'll run out and get that stone over there?

I bet,” Pavlik lit up, but then got scared and said: “What if this auto bite grabs you?”

“We’ve seen such motorcycle adapters,” Petka said boastfully. He went to the transparent wall, covered himself with his briefcase and jumped out.

Petka himself didn’t understand how he flew up onto the tree fern. He barely managed to pull his legs up, and the unlucky dinosaur missed again. Huge jaws clicked just a millimeter from the heel.

Hold on, Sentsov! I'm coming to help!

Give me a dinosaur! - Tanya Zueva shouted and jumped out.

Hurray! - the girls picked up and all as one followed their friend.

Forward to the assault on Velodricinapoppins! - Pavlik barked and rushed forward together with the boys.

Everyone march under the hood! - Inna Ivanova ordered, adjusting her glasses with her finger. - The lesson continues.

Adviser

Witches Castle

1. Fugitive

In the Sudetes, the crystalline Regorn Mountains stretch from south to north with
wide rounded tops, overgrown with coniferous forest. Among these mountains
located almost in the center of Europe, there are such remote corners where
even the thunder of world events can be heard. Like majestic columns
Gothic temple, pine trunks rise to the dark green arches. Their
the crowns are so thick that even on a bright summer day in these mountain forests there is
green twilight, only broken through here and there by a narrow golden ray of sun.
The ground is covered with such a thick carpet of pine needles that your foot can walk here
completely silent. Not a single blade of grass, not a single flower can break through
through this thick layer. Mushrooms and berries do not grow in such places. Few and
forest inhabitants. Occasionally, as it flies by, a silent raven will rest on the bough. A
there are no mushrooms, berries, birds, animals - people don’t look here either. Only forest
glades and swamps, like oases, enliven the gloomy majestic monotony
forests. The mountain wind rustles with pine needles, filling the forest with a sad melody. Below, at
the foothills of the mountains, people live in villages, work in sawmills and mines,
engaged in meager agriculture. But they don’t even come here, to the heights.
poor people for brushwood: the path is too hard and the road is too long.
And the old forester Moritz Veltman himself does not know what and from whom he is guarding.
“I guard the witches in the old castle,” he sometimes says with a grin.
old woman Bertha - that's all the work.
The surrounding population avoided visiting the forest area at the top of the mountain, on
where the ruins of an old castle stood. One of his towers is still good
preserved, but it was also uninhabited for a long time. With this castle, as usual,
there were legends that passed from generation to generation. Population
surrounding villages of this remote region were sure that in the ruins
The old castle is home to witches, ghosts, ghouls, ghouls and other evil spirits.
Rare daredevils who dared to approach the castle, or those who got lost
travelers who accidentally came across the castle claimed that they saw glimpses of
shadows on the windows and heard the heartbreaking screams of innocent babies, whom
witches were kidnapped and killed for their witchcraft purposes. Some even
they claimed that they saw these witches running through the forest to the castle in the form of white
she-wolves with a bloody mouth. All these stories were blindly believed. And the peasants
We tried to stay as far as possible from the terrible, unclean place. But
old Moritz, who saw the world before fate threw him into this wild
corner, did not believe fables, was not afraid of witches and fearlessly walked past the castle in
time for forest walks. Moritz knew well that it was not the children who screamed at night.
scary witches and owls kill; ghosts are created by a fearful mood
imagination from the game of chiaroscuro and moon rays. Bertha didn't really trust
Moritz's explanations and she was afraid for him, but he only laughed at her
fears.