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The girl shrugged. A pleasant warmth spread from the stone through the body. Smiling, Ann… Aria looked at the astronaut.
– And you, Mikkel… also a swan?
– No, I’m an Orion, though not a pureblood. My mother is an Orion and my father is a Lyrian.
– I have so many questions … – the girl tousled her still slightly wet hair, collecting her thoughts. – I’ll start with the main thing. My transformation… is it complete?
– Completely. It remains to be trained.
– I’m ready…
The alien nodded.
– We have contacted the Council. They allowed you and Arthur (when he wakes up) to be trained on Orion. In the end, we have one of the best schools… In the meantime, the flight lasts, they offered to bring you up to date.
– And who will be my mentor?
Mikkel smiled slyly.
– And what do you think? He is in front of you.
– Well, – the girl held out her hand to the man. – We are glad to cooperate. When do we start?
– Tomorrow. True, here, in space, eternal night reigns… But time is the same for everyone.
– I have always loved the night…
– Then it’s decided. By the way, we have already entered the dimensional tunnel. A few more tens of parsecs and we will jump into hyperspace. If everything continues to go well, then in two or three days we will be ready to jump into zero-space. By the way, would you like to take a look at the tunnel itself? It’s pretty interesting.
– Why not?
Moving forward along the corridor, they entered a small round room, in the center of which stood a pair of chairs. The whole wall of the room was occupied by a huge screen. The young people sat in comfortable chairs that instantly took on the shape of their bodies, and Mikkel turned on the surveillance screen. Immediately, the whole room was plunged into darkness, and a spatial window appeared on the screen. The ship moved in such an incredible overflow of colors that the girl could not even imagine. The stars turned into white streaks that instantly swept past, and the tunnel itself shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow…
– Mikkel… It’s so beautiful…
– I knew you’d like…
***
Suddenly, an alarm sounded through the ship. The screen flickered and went out, and a bright light came on all around.
– What’s the matter?
– I don’t know yet, – Mikkel jumped up, but then the ship shook so that he was forced to grab onto the back of his chair. – Hurry, follow me.
They ran out into the corridor and hurried to the control room.
– What happened? – Mikkel went up to his assistant, peering into the instrument readings.
– I have no idea. Fuel is good, but the ship has exited the dimensional tunnel.
– What? – Mikkel pressed the button, causing the shields blocking the view moved aside, and their eyes had an incredible sight. The stars disappeared, and the ship itself moved as if in a light purple mist. Entered at that moment, the Commander froze. – Can’t be!
Approaching the captain, Art took from his hands a tablet with constellation diagrams.
– I’m afraid the testimony is correct, Mikkel…
– What’s the matter? – Aria walked over to the captain, who was staring intently at the purple clouds. Every now and then they seemed to flare up from the inside with bright flashes. – Where are we?
– I’m afraid that the most unforeseen happened – we got into one of the very dangerous nebulae. There’s a strong gravitational field here, which means…
The captain’s mate interrupted him.
– Mikkel, look.
The captain bent over the indicators, but, peering into the play of signals, he abruptly straightened up and, going to the dashboard, pressed several buttons. Immediately, a voice was heard throughout the ship:
– Everyone, take your seats! I repeat, all crew immediately take their seats and buckle up, in case of turbulence!
Mikkel switched off the loudspeaker and, after exchanging glances with Art, sank into a chair next to him. Aria followed suit. Soon, through the fog, the outlines of a huge planet began to be seen.
– Mikkel, what is it?
– A planet of spectral type F. In other words, a supergiant with an incredible power of gravity.
But can we bypass it? – girl excitedly looked at Commander Art. The Commander shook his head.
– Not. In addition, our engines have not yet recovered after leaving the space tunnel… Deg Lennart…
– Yes captain!
– On the left, I noticed a small satellite. We’ll be in orbit around the planet for about an hour. Send a scout robot to its surface.
– Do you offer boarding? Deg looked questioningly at the Commander.
– Yes. We have no other choice. It will take several days for our engines to restart. But, fortunately, we have enough fuel.
A few minutes later, the capsule with the robot was lowered, and the team could only wait. However, the voice of astronavigator Kama Tar was soon heard, reporting a safe landing. Everyone hurried to the observatory.
An image of a desert gorge with sharp rock ledges appeared on the screen. The robot itself, by a lucky chance, landed on a large flat area. Some time later, soil and water samples showed the absence of harmful impurities.
– The air is very rarefied, – Commander Art turned off the screen. – I think we’ll still have to use spacesuits. Let’s go.
– Are we going to land on the planet? – Aria looked at Mikkel in amazement.
– Yes, this is a common practice, we must see with our own eyes the world where we fall by the will of fate and leave a beacon there, putting the planet on a map of the constellations, this is part of our work. But I think you’re better off…
– I’m with you.
Fortunately, the spacesuits turned out to be not the bulky suits in which the people of the Earth went into space. They were made of a thin synthetic material that was like a second skin and hardly felt on the body. But, according to Sa-Ira, the ship’s engineer, they could easily withstand a hundred degrees of frost, and not just thirty degrees, which was on the planet. Putting it on, I looked in the mirror. Silver in color, it tightly fitted her slender body and, in combination with the snow-white waterproof raincoat attached to it, perfectly completed her image. Finally, making sure that the suit fit perfectly, she went up to the control room, where Mikkel and Art were waiting for her, also already dressed in similar suits, which suited them very well. Sitting in a chair next to the Commander, the girl buckled up, the captain nodded to his assistant, and he pressed the landing lever.
Aria felt an unknown force lightly push her into a chair. The ship rushed from its place and, breaking through the dense atmosphere, began to describe circles, looking for a profitable landing site. Finally, she was found – in a small gorge among the rocks. As the ship softly touched down, Mikkel unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned back in his chair, breathing a sigh of relief.
– We are in place. Well, it’s time to find out what we’re dealing with…
Rising to her feet, Aria felt how strong the gravity field of this planet was. Her whole body was constrained, and movements were difficult, but deciding not to lose her face in front of the crew, she gathered her strength and followed. As Art had predicted, the planet was freezing cold, fortunately barely perceptible through the spacesuit’s heating layer, and a strong wind was blowing, and dark cumulus clouds were crawling across the light purple sky. All together it looked like a picture of a science fiction movie. The commander turned to the people accompanying him.
– So, we’re here. But let’s agree – never go anywhere alone. And do not lose vigilance. Aria!
The girl, who thoughtfully fixed her gaze on the mountains in the distance, turned to the Commander.
– Yes?
– I say we should be careful. Do not forget – this world is not familiar to us and we should be very careful.
– Okay, – Aria nodded with a shrug.
Commander Art sighed and shook his head.
– Just be on the alert… Let’s go.
They slowly began to climb up the big hill. To everyone’s surprise, even with such a frost, flowers grew on the planet, but due to the lack of sunlight, they were completely colorless and, moreover, huge (at least two meters in height) in size. Under the gusts of wind, they bent to the ground, making it difficult to climb. Having risen to the top, the friends were finally able to look around. The entire area was completely empty. There were no trees, they were replaced by white thorn bushes. In combination with the dark brown soil and purple sky, the whole surrounding picture evoked a strange feeling of unreality of what was happening on the travelers.
Aria suddenly froze as she listened.
– What happened? Art looked at her warily.
– I do not know. I thought I heard some kind of noise…
Here everyone really heard something similar to the clatter of soft paws. Aria looked around anxiously.
– Mikkel, be careful!
The astronaut turned sharply, having managed to see a huge beast rushing towards him. But at that moment, Aria pushed him away and the beast, having missed, rushed towards her. Mikkel pulled out a stunner attached to his thigh, essentially releasing a couple of electric waves. However, the beast turned out to be completely insensitive to the action of the weapon, which only angered him even more. In a rage, he attacked the girl, knocking her to the ground. The astronauts froze in horror – the monster was pushing Aria to the edge of the cliff…
– Aria…
– Mikkel, stop!
Not listening to the Commander, the captain, pushing him away, rushed to the girl, as a bright flash of light illuminated the surrounding area. The mysterious creature, howling, rushed away and disappeared into the darkness.
– Aria! Are you okay?
– Sort of. What was it?
– An incredibly strong lightning strike, and this “something” was extremely like a big wolf, – Mikkel held out his hand, helping the girl up. – Of course, I could deal with this… beast myself. But thanks anyway.
– Don’t, I couldn’t have done otherwise.
She swayed. Despite the fact that the strong material from which the suit was made protected her from the claws of an alien creature, the fall made itself felt with severe dizziness. Art shook his head.
– Mikkel, Aria needs Saima’s help. We return to the ship.
– Yes, of course, – the young man held out his hand to Aria, and she shook it tightly. – Let’s go…
Chapter 6 New World
Finally, minor breakdowns were eliminated, the engines were restored, and the ship, having overcome the gravity of the planet, broke out of the purple nebula at a powerful speed and re-entered the spatial tunnel. Fortunately, Aria escaped with only a small concussion and a couple of bruises, and, thanks to enhanced regeneration and the efforts of Saima, she soon recovered so much that the doctor no longer considered it necessary for her to stay in bed any longer, and the girl happily returned to normal life. And she’s not alone. On the first day, after leaving the infirmary, the girl, walking around the ship, wandered into a huge room, all filled with luminous plates, standing on shelves rising to the ceiling of racks. It looks like a library. Aria took out one of the plates, which looked like a thin 3D computer. But as soon as she touched the flower depicted on its surface,
– Beautiful … – the girl turned to the voice behind her. Arthur chuckled at her surprise. – Not expected?
– You woke up, – Aria looked down in confusion, not knowing whether to be happy or not. The unexpected appearance of a man stirred up a whole storm of feelings in her chest, from almost extinguished resentment to delight. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to smile. – How do you feel?
– Very good, – going up to the girl, Arthur looked at the plate. – Can?
– Of course, – the girl handed him the plate. Scrolling through the images, he clicked on one of them, and immediately the room was transformed into an underwater world. Glowing jellyfish swam around them, somewhere in the distance the singing of whale-like creatures was heard. Yes, here they are. The girl staggered back, grabbing onto the young man as the huge creature passed within an inch of them. The picture disappeared and she met Arthur’s smiling eyes. – Sorry I…
– Nothing. Pretty realistic, right? Arthur chuckled. – Scared?
– No… although it was unexpected, – Aria put the plate back in place. – What?
– Nothing, it’s just… It seemed to me that you couldn’t be frightened so easily, – Arthur looked meaningfully at the girl, but she just shrugged her shoulders.
Arthur, you know. We couldn’t do otherwise…
– Indeed? – from his glance, the girl again became uneasy.
– I… – the girl shrugged her shoulders. – Arthur… Please don’t do this.
– Anna, I don’t understand you. You let me in, then you push me away, like I’m a leper. What’s the matter?
– Arthur, I’m sorry… It’s hard to explain. Although you do understand. Sarah, Boris. I don’t want to hurt anyone and ruin your life.
– Anna, – Arthur stepped closer, and Anna felt a hand rest on her shoulder. Turning around sharply, the girl found herself in the ring of his arms. “We are many thousands of light-years from Earth. And if you think logically, then during this time the Earth that we knew simply does not exist…
– Not quite, you did not take into account the speed of the ship. Getting into a hyperspace tunnel, time is reduced. And we will arrive at Virdu just a month after leaving the Earth. So that…
The girl tried to pull away, but the man’s grip did not loosen.
– Did the captain tell you? Yes of course. How can I compete with an alien in the form of an Elven Knight, – Arthur smiled bitterly. – Princess…
– Arthur… Actually, it was your idea. So what’s my fault? I don’t need this title, I’m ready to change.
– Well, – Arthur smiled arrogantly and bowed in an exaggeratedly polite way. – I understand you. Who am I to argue with the future queen of Daaria. Rest easy, I won’t bother you anymore.
Ignoring the upset look of the girl, Arthur disappeared through the door. Aria thoughtfully moved to a large stained-glass window, behind which a starry abyss shone. Arthur… It’s a pity that they met so untimely. Well, it has always been that way, from the moment they met. Anna was working in the archives when a new employee came to their university. Artur Dalivin… Tall, stately (like Don Juan), the young man immediately won the attention of the entire female part of the team. But their communication somehow did not work out right away – they were too different. Always collected, with cold blue eyes and a slightly mocking smile, the young man who immediately received the favor of the leadership was her complete opposite. But something in him attracted her… And she realized that she was unable to cope with it.
***
