The future - it always seems far away, that it is simply impossible to imagine what will happen next. But when it does, it still seems like nothing has changed.
This is the future that many envision. Earth - our planet Earth is in calm and peace, therefore everything is good and harmonious. Spaceships fly into space itself - distant and mysterious. Although in the future it is no longer as mysterious as when it seemed to us as children. Once, the unexpected happened. Spaceship disappeared, so he did not return in due time, and even lost contact with the world on Earth.
That is why scientists and professors, as well as pilots, became worried. That is why a new ship is sent into space to a hitherto unknown planet, which is delayed for some time to find the missing ships there. Everything is mysterious and foggy, until the ship descends to the earth of that planet. It is there that everything is revealed. The history of the unknown planet is very interesting and mysterious.
And on Earth there lives an ordinary, but not an ordinary person. He is an archaeologist by profession. His character and suits his profession. So this young man likes to delve into the past.
Picture or drawing Andromeda Nebula
Other retellings for the reader's diary
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There was no devilry in this play. It's enough what the characters themselves do.
- Summary of Andersen's Snow Queen
Kai and Gerda became close friends. But, the Snow Queen made her way into their cloudless world, who kidnapped the boy and left him to live in the kingdom of cold and ice. Kai is bewitched
- Summary of Leskov Odnodum
The protagonist of Leskov's story "Odnodum", Alexander Afanasyevich Ryzhov, was born into a poor bourgeois family. The boy's father died almost immediately after the birth of his son.
- Summary of Gorky Konovalov
Maxim, on behalf of whom the story is being told, once read an article in a newspaper about a man who committed suicide in a prison cell. Maxim talks about meeting this man.
- Summary Leskov Cadet Monastery
The narrator writes that he intends to prove the existence of the righteous in Rus'. Moreover, in his opinion, such people are found even in places that are not conducive to honesty and integrity.
"The Andromeda Nebula" by Efremov. I got acquainted with a lot of enthusiastic and not very reviews about the work, most often they talked about it in comparison with another novel by Ivan Antonovich - "The Bull's Hour", which I read a little over a year ago. In order to keep up with others, I also decided to compare and realized that I could hardly give preference to any of the books.
The plot of the novel "The Andromeda Nebula" consists of several storylines that can be conditionally divided into "cosmic" and "terrestrial", and if for the sake of the adventures of the Tantra starship team, many (especially in their youth) ruthlessly flipped through dozens of pages, then to the events on The earth was looked at later. But all the salt is in them!
I'm already talking about how carefully Efremov traced the path traversed by mankind from the "Era of the Disunited World" (our time) to the "Era of the Great Ring" (the time of the novel). He paid no less attention to the description of the communist future of mankind, which overcame internal contradictions and defeated the age-old problems of hunger, epidemics, and exploitation that had gone hand in hand with them for thousands of years.
For "Efremov's humanity" there are no barriers. What was impossible yesterday has been achieved today. What will be achieved tomorrow borders on the wildest fantasies. The "Nebula of Andromeda" incredibly clearly shows the image of a man of the future - a creator, creator, discoverer, traveler, inspired by the feat of his distant ancestors.
"I see through the dark features of the dead past those who fought for the future. Their future is our present. I see many women and men who sought light in a narrow, poor life, kind enough to help others, and strong enough not to become hardened in the moral stuffiness of the surrounding world. And the brave, insanely brave!"
One of the heroines of the novel "The Andromeda Nebula" - the historian Veda Kong
The "Hour of the Ox" reveals in detail the man of the future, as a noble warrior and protector, extending a helping hand through unimaginable distances to his brothers in trouble. It is no coincidence that the era in which the novel takes place is called the "Era of Met Hands" (following the "Era of the Great Ring" from "The Andromeda Nebula").
The continuation of Efremov's "space dilogy" is a battle for people who find themselves between the blades of the collapsed anthropocentric scissors, the danger of which was already mentioned in the Andromeda Nebula.
"They boasted of technology, ignoring the growing moral and emotional savagery. They treated the past with contempt and did not see the future!"
Miiko Eigorō is one of the heroines of the Andromeda Nebula novel.
Now I regret a little that when I read "The Hour of the Ox", I did not yet conduct LiveJournal and therefore did not share my impressions, which are now tightly intertwined with the freshly read book and it is already difficult to separate them. Although, maybe it's for the best.
The novels of Ivan Antonovich perfectly complement and develop each other, create a complete picture of the future and, most importantly, the image of a new person. An image in which you want to believe and to which you want to strive.
If you haven't read The Andromeda Nebula and The Hour of the Ox yet, I highly recommend that you fill in those annoying gaps. In a series of dystopias that fantasy has finally fallen into, this is a real breath of fresh air.
Ivan Efremov
The first publication of this novel in the magazine had not yet been completed, and artificial satellites had already begun a rapid flight around our planet.
In the face of this irrefutable fact, one is glad to know that the ideas underlying the novel are correct.
The scope of fantasy about the technical progress of mankind, faith in continuous improvement and a bright future for a rationally arranged society - all this is so weighty and visibly confirmed by the signals of small moons. The miraculously quick fulfillment of a dream from The Nebula of Andromeda raises the question for me: how correctly is the historical perspective of the future unfolded in the novel? Even in the process of writing, I changed the time of the action in the direction of its approximation to our era. At first it seemed to me that the gigantic transformations of the planet and life described in the novel could not be carried out earlier than in three thousand years. I started my calculations from common history mankind, but did not take into account the rate of acceleration of technological progress.
In finalizing the novel, I shortened the target date by a millennium. But running artificial satellites Earth tells me that the events of the novel could have taken place even earlier. Therefore, all certain dates in the Andromeda Nebula are changed to those in which the reader himself will put his understanding and presentiment of time.
A feature of the novel, which may not be immediately clear to the reader, is the richness of scientific information, concepts and terms. This is not an oversight or an unwillingness to clarify complex language. Only in this way it seemed possible to me to give the color of the future to the conversations and actions of the people of the time, in which science must be deeply embedded in all concepts, ideas and language.
I. Efremov
Chapter first
iron star
In the dim light reflected from the ceiling, the instrument dials looked like a gallery of portraits. The round ones were sly, the transverse oval ones blurred in insolent self-satisfaction, the square ones froze in dull confidence. Blue, blue, orange, green lights flickering inside them emphasized the impression.
In the center of the curved console stood out a wide and crimson dial. A girl leaned in front of him in an uncomfortable position. She forgot about the chair next to her and put her head close to the glass. The red glow made the youthful face older and more severe, outlined sharp shadows around the protruding plump lips, sharpened the slightly upturned nose. His wide, furrowed brows turned deep black, giving his eyes a grim, doomed look.
The thin singing of the counters was interrupted by a low metallic clang. The girl shuddered, straightened up and twisted her thin arms, arching her tired back.
A door clicked behind him, a large shadow appeared, turned into a man with jerky and precise movements. A golden light flashed, and the girl's thick dark red hair seemed to sparkle. Her eyes also lit up, turning with alarm and love to the newcomer.
Haven't you fallen asleep? Hundred hours without sleep!
Bad example? - not smiling, but cheerfully asked the newcomer. High metallic notes slipped through his voice, as if riveting his speech.
All the others are asleep, - the girl said timidly, - and ... they don’t know anything, - she added in an undertone.
Don't be afraid to speak up. Comrades are sleeping, and now there are only two of us awake in space, and fifty billion kilometers to the Earth - only one and a half parsecs!
And anamezon only for one overclocking! Horror and delight sounded in the exclamation of the girl.
With two swift steps, the head of the thirty-seventh stellar expedition, Erg Noor, reached the crimson dial.
Fifth round!
Yes, we entered the fifth. And nothing. - The girl cast an eloquent glance at the sound horn of the automatic receiver.
See, you can't sleep. We need to think through all the options, all the possibilities. By the end of the fifth round there should be a decision.
But it's still a hundred and ten hours...
All right, I'll sleep here in the chair when the sporamine wears off. I took it a day ago.
The girl thought about something with concentration and finally decided:
Maybe reduce the radius of the circle? What if they have a transmitter failure?
It is forbidden! Reduce the radius without slowing down - the instant destruction of the ship. Slow down and… then without the anameson… one and a half parsecs at the speed of the oldest lunar rockets? In a hundred thousand years, we will approach our solar system.
I understand... But they couldn't...
Could not. In time immemorial, people could commit negligence or deceive each other and themselves. But not now!
I'm not talking about that, - resentment sounded in the sharp answer of the girl. - I wanted to say that "Algrab" may also be looking for us, deviating from the course.
He couldn't dodge that much. I could not help but leave at the calculated and appointed time. If the unbelievable happened and both transmitters went out of order, then the starship, no doubt, would begin to cross the circle diametrically and we would hear it at the planetary reception. You can't make a mistake - here it is, a conditional planet!
Erg Noor pointed to the mirror screens in the deep niches on all four sides of the control room. In the deepest blackness countless stars burned. On the left front screen, a small gray disk quickly flew by, barely lit by its luminary, very distant from here, from the edge of the B-7336-C+87-A system.
Our bomb beacons are working distinctly, although we dropped them four independent years ago. - Erg Noor pointed to a clear strip of light along the long glass in the left wall. - "Algrab" should have been here three months ago. This means, - Noor hesitated, as if not daring to pronounce the verdict, - "Algrab" is dead!
And if he didn’t die, but was damaged by a meteorite and cannot develop speed? .. - objected the red-haired girl.
Can't develop speed! repeated Erg Noor. “Isn’t it the same if there are millennia of travel between the ship and the target?” Only worse - death will not come immediately, years of doomed hopelessness will pass. Maybe they will call - then we'll find out ... in six years ... on Earth.
With a swift movement, Erg Noor pulled out a folding chair from under the table of the electronic calculating machine. It was a small model MNU-11. Until now, due to the large weight, size and fragility, it was impossible to install an electronic brain-machine of the ITU type on starships for comprehensive operations and completely entrust him with the control of the starship. The presence of a duty navigator was required in the control post, especially since the exact orientation of the ship's course over such long distances was impossible.
© Ivan Efremov, heirs, text, 2016
© AST Publishing House LLC, 2016
Ivan Efremov
Ivan Efremov was born on April 9 (April 22), 1908 in Vyritsa, in the family of the timber merchant Antip Kharitonovich Efremov (later, after 1917, to hide his origin, he changed his middle name to Antonovich). His father's factory was located on the land of the Wittgenstein princes, which is reflected in the novel "The Razor's Edge": among his actors a certain Prince Wittgenstein is listed.
Already at the age of four, Efremov learned to read, and at six he became interested in the novels of Jules Verne and fell in love with books about explorers, navigators and scientists. In 1914, the family moved to Berdyansk, where Ivan studied at the gymnasium. During the revolution, the parents divorced, the mother married a red commander and in 1919 left with him for Kherson. Efremov ended up in the Red Army, reached Perekop, was shell-shocked during the bombardment of Ochakov, which is why he began to stutter. In 1921 he was demobilized and went to Petrograd to study. Efremov combined his studies with work: a loader, a woodcutter, an assistant driver, then a driver on the night shift. In 1923, he passed the exams for the navigator of coastal navigation at the Petrograd nautical classes and, after graduating from school, in the spring of 1924 he left for the Far East.
But even before that, Efremov became interested in paleontology, and after four years of swimming in pacific ocean returned to Leningrad as a sailor and entered the university. Since the mid-1920s, his life has been spent on expeditions. In 1937, Efremov graduated from the Leningrad Mining Institute as an external student. Two years before that, he became a candidate, and in March 1941 - a doctor of biological sciences. By this time, Efremov was already living in Moscow, since the Paleontological Institute moved here in 1935.
At the beginning of the war, Efremov was evacuated to Alma-Ata, and from there to Frunze (now Bishkek). It was here that he began writing his first “stories about the extraordinary,” which combined science fiction and adventure. In them, he predicted the discovery of diamond deposits in Yakutia and the appearance of holography. At the same time, he created his first large-scale works - historical adventure stories with elements of fantasy "Bourdzhed's Journey" (1949) and "On the Edge of the Oikumene" (1953), united by the common title "The Great Arc".
On an expedition to the Gobi Desert, Efremov conceived the idea of creating a work about the cosmic future - civilizations inhabited star worlds, united by the Great Ring - a system of interstellar connections through directed rays. The Andromeda Nebula was published in 1957.
The second novel was The Razor's Edge (1963).
In 1970, the sequel to The Andromeda Nebula, Hour of the Ox, was released. The oligarchy-controlled planet Tormans described in it was considered a caricature of the USSR, and the novel was banned until the late 1980s.
In 1972, the last novel of the writer was published - "Thais of Athens", which takes place in the era of Alexander the Great.
Ivan Efremov can be called the most successful visionary of Soviet science fiction writers.
In the story "Diamond Ore" he predicted the discovery of a diamond deposit in Yakutia, and in the story "The Lake of Mountain Spirits" he predicted the discovery of mercury ores in the Southern Altai. In Fakaofo Atoll he described the behavior of liquid crystals, and in Andromeda Nebula he described three-dimensional television with a parabolic concave screen. In the same novel, an exoskeleton suit appeared, eBook and skin rejuvenation through laser and radio wave therapy. Describing the ideal future, Ivan Efremov predicted the current present, and perhaps this is precisely why his work attracts the modern reader.
Andromeda's nebula
Chapter first
iron star
In the dim light reflected from the ceiling, the instrument dials looked like a gallery of portraits. The round ones were sly, the transverse oval ones blurred in insolent self-satisfaction, the square ones froze in dull confidence. Flickering inside them, blue, blue, orange, green lights emphasized the impression.
In the center of the curved console stood out a wide and crimson dial. A girl leaned in front of him in an uncomfortable position. She forgot about the chair next to her and put her head close to the glass. The red glow made the youthful face older and sterner, outlined sharp shadows around the protruding plump lips, sharpened the slightly upturned nose. His wide, furrowed brows turned deep black, giving his eyes a grim, doomed expression.
The thin singing of the counters was interrupted by a low metallic clang. The girl shuddered, straightened up and twisted her thin arms, arching her tired back.
A door clicked behind him, a large shadow appeared, turned into a man with jerky and precise movements. A golden light flashed, and the girl's thick dark red hair seemed to sparkle. Her eyes also lit up, turning with alarm and love to the newcomer.
- Haven't you fallen asleep? Hundred hours without sleep!
- Bad example? - Not smiling, but cheerfully asked the newcomer. High metallic notes slipped through his voice, as if riveting his speech.
“All the others are sleeping,” the girl said timidly, “and… they don’t know anything,” she added in an undertone.
- Don't be afraid to speak. Comrades are asleep, and now there are only two of us awake in space, and fifty billion kilometers to the Earth - only one and a half parsecs!
– And anamezon only for one overclocking! Horror and delight sounded in the exclamation of the girl.
With two swift steps, the head of the thirty-seventh stellar expedition, Erg Noop, reached the crimson dial.
- Fifth circle!
- Yes, we entered the fifth. And nothing. - The girl threw an eloquent glance at the sound horn of the automatic receiver.
See, you can't sleep. We need to think through all the options, all the possibilities. By the end of the fifth round there should be a decision.
“But it’s still a hundred and ten hours…”
“Okay, I’ll sleep here in the chair when the effect of the sporamine is over. I took it a day ago.
The girl thought about something with concentration and finally decided:
– Maybe reduce the radius of the circle? What if they have a transmitter failure?
- It is forbidden! Decrease the radius without slowing down - instant destruction of the ship. Slow down and… then without the anameson… one and a half parsecs at the speed of the oldest lunar rockets? In a hundred thousand years we will approach our solar system.
- I understand ... But they could not ...
- Could not. In time immemorial, people could commit negligence or deceive each other and themselves. But not now!
“I’m not talking about that,” resentment sounded in the girl’s sharp answer. - I wanted to say that the Algrab may also be looking for us, deviating from the course.
He couldn't dodge that much. I could not help but leave at the calculated and appointed time. If the unbelievable happened and both transmitters went out of order, then the starship, no doubt, would begin to cross the circle diametrically, and we would hear it at the planetary reception. You can’t make a mistake - here it is, a conditional planet!
Erg Noop pointed to the mirrored screens in the deep niches on all four sides of the helm station. In the deepest blackness countless stars burned. On the left front screen, a small gray disk passed quickly, barely illuminated by its luminary, very distant from here, from the edge of the B-7336-C+87-A system.
“Our bomb beacons work distinctly, although we dropped them four independent years ago. - Erg Noop pointed to a clear strip of light along the long glass in the left wall. “Algrab should have been here three months ago. This means, - Hoop hesitated, as if not daring to pronounce the verdict - "Algrab" died!
– And if he didn’t die, but was damaged by a meteorite and cannot develop speed? .. – objected the red-haired girl.
- Can't develop speed! repeated Erg Noop. “Isn’t it the same if there are millennia of travel between the ship and the target?” Only worse - death will not come immediately, years of doomed hopelessness will pass. Maybe they will call - then we'll find out ... in six years ... on Earth.
With a swift movement, Erg Noop pulled a folding chair out from under the table of the electronic calculating machine. It was a small model MNU-11. Until now, due to the large weight, size and fragility, it was impossible to install an electronic brain machine of the ITU type on spaceships for comprehensive operations and completely entrust him with the control of the spaceship. The presence of an on-duty navigator was required in the control post, especially since the exact orientation of the ship's course over such long distances was impossible.
The hands of the head of the expedition flashed with the speed of a pianist over the handles and buttons of the calculating machine. A pale, sharp-featured face froze in stone immobility, a high forehead, stubbornly inclined over the console, seemed to defy the forces of elemental fate that threatened the living world that had climbed into the forbidden depths of space.
Nisa Krit, a young astronavigator who first got on a stellar expedition, fell silent, not breathing, watching the withdrawn Noor. What a calm, full of energy and mind, beloved person he is! .. Beloved for a long time already, all five years. There is no point in hiding it from him... And he knows Nisa feels it... Now, when this misfortune happened, she had the joy of being on duty with him. Three months alone while the rest of the starship's crew is in a sweet hypnotic slumber. There are still thirteen days left, then they will fall asleep - for half a year, until two more shifts on duty pass: navigators, astronomers and mechanics. Others - biologists, geologists, whose work begins only at the place of arrival - can sleep longer, while the astronomer ... oh, they have the most intense work!
Erg Noop got up, and Nisa's thoughts broke off.
- I'm going to the cockpit. star charts. Your rest in…” he glanced at the dial of the dependent watch, “nine hours. I'll get some sleep before I take over.
- I'm not tired, I'll be here as long as it takes, if only you could rest!
Erg Noop frowned, wanting to protest, but yielded to the tenderness of the words and the golden-brown eyes, trustingly turned to him, smiled and silently left.
Niza sat down in an armchair, glanced at the instruments with her habitual glance, and thought deeply.
Above it were black reflective screens, through which the central control station surveyed the abyss that surrounded the ship. The multicolored lights of the stars seemed like needles of light piercing through the eye.
The starship overtook the planet, and its gravity caused the ship to oscillate along the changing tension of the gravitational field. And the unkind majestic stars in the reflective screens made wild leaps. The patterns of the constellations changed with unmemorable speed.
The planet K2-2H-88, far from its star, cold, lifeless, was known as a convenient place for a starship rendezvous ... for a meeting that did not take place. Fifth circle... And Nisa imagined her ship, rushing at a reduced speed in a monstrous circle, a billion kilometers in radius, continuously overtaking the planet crawling like a turtle. In one hundred and ten hours, the ship will complete the fifth circle ... And then what? The mighty mind of Erg Noor now gathered all his strength in search of the best way out. The head of the expedition and the commander of the ship cannot be wrong - otherwise the first-class spaceship "Tantra" with a crew of the best scientists will never return from the abyss of space! But Erg Hoop will not be mistaken...
Nisa Krit suddenly felt a hideous, dizzy state that meant that the starship was off course by a tiny fraction of a degree, only permissible at a reduced speed, otherwise its fragile living cargo would not have survived. As soon as the gray fog in the eyes of the girl dissipated, the faintness came again - the ship returned to its course. These incredibly sensitive radars have groped in the black abyss ahead of the meteorite - the main danger of starships. The electronic machines that control the ship (for only they can do all the manipulations with the necessary speed - human nerves are not suitable for cosmic speeds), in a millionth of a second they rejected the Tantra and, when the danger was over, just as quickly returned to their previous course.
“What prevented the same machines from saving the Algrab? thought Niza, who had come to her senses. “It must have been damaged by a meteorite encounter. Erg Noop said that so far every tenth starship is killed by meteorites, despite the invention of such sensitive locators as the Voll Hod device, and protective energy blankets that discard small particles. The death of the Algrab put them themselves in a perilous position, when it seemed that everything was well thought out and provided for. The girl began to remember everything that had happened since the departure.
The thirty-seventh stellar expedition was sent to the planetary system of a nearby star in the constellation Ophiuchus, whose only inhabited planet - Zirda - had long spoken to the Earth and other worlds through the Great Ring. Suddenly she stopped talking. For more than seventy years there has not been a single message. It was Earth's duty, as the nearest Ringworld to Zirda, to find out what had happened. Therefore, the expedition ship took a lot of instruments and several eminent scientists, nervous system which, after numerous tests, was able to endure years of imprisonment in a starship. The supply of fuel for engines - anameson, that is, a substance with destroyed meson bonds of nuclei, which had the speed of light of expiration, was cut short not because of the weight of the anameson, but due to the huge volume of storage containers. The supply of anameson was expected to be replenished on Zirda. In case something serious happened to the planet, the second-class starship Algrab was supposed to meet the Tantra near the orbit of the planet K2-2N-88.
With a sensitive ear, Nisa caught the changed tone of the artificial gravity field. The disks of the three instruments on the right blinked unevenly, the starboard electronic probe turned on. An angular, shiny piece appeared on the illuminated screen. It moved like a projectile straight at the Tantra and was therefore far away. It was a gigantic fragment of matter, such as were unusually rare in outer space, and Nisa hastened to determine its volume, mass, speed and direction of flight. Only when the automatic reel of the observation log clicked did Nisa return to her memories.
The sharpest of these was the gloomy, blood-red sun that rose in the field of view of the screens in the last months of the fourth year of the journey. The fourth for all the inhabitants of the starship, rushing at a speed of 5/6 of the absolute unit - the speed of light. About seven years have passed on Earth, which were called independent.
Screen filters, sparing human eyes, changed the color and strength of the rays of any luminary. It became what it was seen through the thick earth's atmosphere with its ozone and water protective screens. The indescribable ghostly violet light of high-temperature luminaries seemed blue or white, gloomy gray-pink stars became cheerful, golden yellow, like our Sun. Here, the luminary, burning with a victorious bright scarlet fire, took on a deep bloody tone, in which the earthly observer is accustomed to seeing stars of the spectral class. 1
Spectral type (stars)- the spectral types of stars are designated alphabetically in this order O, B, A, F, G, K, M - from very hot blue stars with a surface temperature of 100,000° to red with a temperature of 3000°. Each class has ten descending degrees, indicated by a number, for example A7. Special classes of stars N, P, R, S - with an increased content of carbon, cyan, titanium, zirconium in their spectra.
M5. The planet was much closer to its sun than our Earth is to its own. As it approached Zirda, its luminary became a huge scarlet disk, sending out a mass of heat rays.
Two months before approaching Zirda, Tantra began trying to contact the planet's outer station. There was only one station here, on a small, atmosphereless natural satellite closer to Zirda than the Moon is to Earth.
The starship continued to call even when thirty million kilometers remained to the planet and the monstrous speed of the Tantra slowed down to three thousand kilometers per second. Nisa was on duty, but the entire crew was awake, waiting in front of the screens in the central control room.
Nisa called, increasing the transmission power and throwing fan beams forward.
Finally, they saw a tiny, shiny dot of the satellite. The starship began to describe the orbit around the planet, gradually approaching it in a spiral and equalizing its speed with the speed of the satellite. "Tantra" and the satellite, as it were, grappled with an invisible rope, and the spaceship hung over a small planet rapidly running in its orbit. The ship's electronic stereo telescopes were now probing the moon's surface. And suddenly, an unforgettable sight appeared before the crew of the Tantra.
The huge flat glass building burned in the reflections of the bloody sun. Directly under the roof was what looked like a large assembly hall. There, frozen in immobility, are many creatures, unlike earthlings, but, undoubtedly, people. Expeditionary astronomer Poor Hiss, a newcomer to space who had replaced a seasoned worker just before leaving, continued to deepen the focus of the instrument, anxiously. The rows of people vaguely visible under the glass remained completely motionless. Pur Hiss upped the magnification. It became visible a platform, framed by instrument panels, with a long table on which, cross-legged, in front of the audience sat a man with a wild, distant gaze of frightening eyes.
They are dead, frozen! exclaimed Erg Noop.
The starship continued to hover over Zirda's satellite, and fourteen pairs of eyes were fixed on the glass grave - it really was a grave. How many years have these dead men been sitting here? Seventy years ago, the planet fell silent, if we add six years of the flight of rays - three quarters of a century ...
All eyes turned to the chief. Erg Noop, pale, peered into the pale haze of the planet's atmosphere. Barely noticeable strokes of mountains, reflections of the seas dimly shone through it, but nothing gave the answer for which they had come here.
- The station was lost and not restored for seventy-five years! This means a catastrophe on the planet. We need to descend, break through the atmosphere, maybe sit down. Everyone is gathered here - I ask the opinion of the Council ...
Only the astronomer Pur Hiss objected. Niza indignantly examined his large predatory nose and low-set, ugly ears.
“If there is a catastrophe on the planet, then we have no chance of obtaining an anameson. Flying around the planet at a low altitude, and even more so landing, will reduce our reserve of planetary fuel. In addition, it is not known what happened. There may be powerful radiations that will destroy us.
The rest of the expedition supported the chief.
- No planetary radiation is dangerous to a ship with space protection. Find out what happened - isn't that why we were sent here? What will the Earth answer to the Great Ring? To establish a fact is still very little, it is necessary to explain it. Forgive me for these student reasoning! said Erg Noop, and the usual metallic notes in his voice rang with mockery. - It is unlikely that we will be able to evade our direct duty ...
– The temperature of the upper layers of the atmosphere is normal! Nisa exclaimed happily.
Erg Noop smiled and began to descend cautiously, circuit after circuit, slowing down the spiral run of the starship as it approached the surface of the planet. Zirda was slightly smaller than the Earth, and did not require very high speed in a low flyby. Astronomers and geologists compared maps of the planet with what was observed by the optical instruments of Tantra. The continents retained exactly their former outlines, the seas shone calmly in the red sun. The mountain ranges known from previous photographs did not change their forms either, only the planet was silent.
For thirty-five hours the people did not leave their observation posts.
The composition of the atmosphere, the radiation of the red star - everything coincided with the previous data on Zird. Erg Noop opened the guide to Zirda and found a column of data on her stratosphere. Ionization was higher than usual. A vague and disturbing thought began to ripen in Noor's mind.
On the sixth turn of the trigger spiral, the outlines of large cities became visible. As before, not a single signal sounded in the starship's receivers.
Nisa Crete has changed to eat and seems to have dozed off. It seemed to her that she slept for only a few minutes. The starship passed over the night side of Zirda no faster than an ordinary terrestrial spiroplane. Here, below, cities, factories, ports were to be spread out. Not a single light flickered in the pitch darkness below, no matter how powerful optical stereo telescopes tracked them down. The shaking thunder of the atmosphere dissected by the starship should have been heard for tens of kilometers.
An hour has passed. Not a single fire broke out. The agonizing wait was becoming unbearable. Hoop turned on the warning sirens. A terrible howl rushed over the black abyss below, and the people of the Earth hoped that, merging with the roar of the air, it would be heard by the mysteriously silent inhabitants of Zirda.
A wing of fiery light swept away the ominous darkness. "Tantra" came out on the illuminated side of the planet. The velvety blackness continued to spread below. Quickly zoomed in showed it to be a solid carpet of flowers, like the velvet-black poppies of Earth. Thickets of black poppies stretched for thousands of kilometers, replacing everything - forests, shrubs, reeds, grasses. Like the ribs of huge skeletons, the streets of cities could be seen among the black carpet, iron structures rusted with red wounds. No living creature, no tree anywhere - only one and only black poppies!
The Tantra abandoned the bomb observation station and re-entered the night. Six hours later, the robot station reported the composition of the air, temperature, pressure and other conditions on the soil surface. Everything was normal for the planet, except for increased radioactivity.
- A monstrous tragedy! Eon Tal, the biologist of the expedition, muttered in a choked voice as he wrote down the station's latest data. “They killed themselves and their entire planet!”
– Really? Niza asked hiding her tears. - So terrible! After all, ionization is not at all so strong.
Andromeda's nebula
In a nutshell: The socio-philosophical novel "The Nebula of Andromeda" is recognized as one of the most significant works of domestic and world science fiction literature of the twentieth century. Combining scientific, technical and socio-historical foresight in it, I. Efremov paints pictures of the distant future on an epic scale: interstellar flights, grandiose scientific experiments, the beautiful Earth transformed by the common labor of mankind, which entered the Great Ring of the inhabited worlds of the Galaxy. There are several main characters in the center of the novel, whose images are designed to artistically embody and reveal the ideal of a person claimed by the author in a perfect communist society.
The action of the novel takes place in the distant future, at a time when the Earth is a single world with a highly developed and intellectual, communist form of society. This time is characterized by the extraordinary development of science and art, the conquest of space, the artificial improvement of the earth's landscape and climate, and a change in human psychology.
The novel consists of several storylines designed to show the man of the future in all the diversity of his interests.
The first line tells about the flight of the starship "Tantra" and about the members of its crew. Having completed all the tasks of its expedition, the starship flies back to Earth, but by chance, at a distance of only 2 light years from the Sun, it finds itself in a dangerous gravitational proximity to the previously unknown dark star, shining only in the infrared range (for the heroes of the novel, such stars are known as iron stars, which does not quite coincide with the modern understanding of this term). The crew is trying to prevent a disaster. The commander of the starship, Erg Noor, is landing on a planet in the system of this dark star. Scanning the surface of the planet reveals two more starships there. The first of them is the terrestrial starship "Sail" that disappeared many years ago, the second is the "spiralodisk" unknown civilization. Also, the Tantra crew encounters a mysterious enemy - a local and hostile life form. An attempt to study the "spiral disk" ends dramatically - astronavigator Nisa Krit is seriously injured, saving the life of Erg Noor, who was attacked by another representative of the local fauna.
Other storylines are set on Earth. Darr Veter, head of the Outer Stations, has a serious psychological illness- indifference to work and life (depression). Unable to cope with his duties, he accepts the invitation of his friend, the historian Veda Kong (Erg Noor's lover), to participate in archaeological excavations. Hard physical labor saves Dara Vetra from illness, and friendly feelings for Veda develop into love. Finding no way out of this situation (his beloved woman is waiting for the return of Erg Noor), Darr Veter goes to the titanium mines in South America.
Physicist Ren Bose made an outstanding discovery, but to verify it, it is necessary to conduct a dangerous and energy-consuming experiment on a planetary scale. Due to the high degree of risk, he was officially denied the implementation of the experiment. Despite the ban, Mven Mass, who replaced Darr Vetra as head of the Outer Stations, helps Ren Bose, thus committing a malfeasance. The experiment ends in disaster: Ren Bose is seriously injured, the orbital installation is destroyed; the volunteers who participated in the experiment died. Mven Mass repents of his act and voluntarily retires into exile on the Island of Oblivion - a refuge for those who wish to hide from society or live as in the old days.
Veda Kong and her friend Evda Nal, a psychiatrist, visit Evda's daughter at school. Along the way, the author talks about the successes of the pedagogy of the future.
Artist Kart San paints portraits of the best representatives of different racial types. It should be noted that in the world of the novel, the differences between the races are almost erased (although the author explains that Darr Veter retained the phenotype of his Slavic ancestors, and Mven Mass is a Negro African), that is, the artist wants to capture the passing.
At the meeting of the Council of Astronomy, almost all the main characters who are on Earth meet, including Darr Veter, Mven Mass (who was persuaded to return from the Island of Oblivion), Evda Nal. The Ren Bose experiment is discussed (both scientifically and morally) and important proposals are made. As a result, Ren Bose is completely acquitted, and Mven Mass is deprived of the right to hold responsible positions, but is not exiled to the Island of Oblivion.
Veda Kong discovers underground item storage ancient culture: samples of machines, technical documentation. In the same place, she finds a locked steel door, but does not have time to open it - a collapse begins.
At the end of the novel, the characters escort Erg Noor and Nisa Crete on a new space expedition, from which (due to the very large distance to the planetary system supposed to be explored) they are no longer destined to return. Before this, the previously outlined love contradictions are finally resolved: Darr Veter remains with Veda Kong, and Erg Noor with Niza Krit. Already after the departure of the expedition on Earth, they receive a message from the Andromeda Nebula from a civilization that is not part of the Great Ring: most likely, the starship of an unknown civilization, found by Erg Noor, flew from there.
