Bulychev's story of Alice's journey and others. Encyclopedia of fairy-tale heroes: "Alice's Journey". Retelling of the story Alice's Journey or The Girl from Earth

Kir Bulychev

Alice's Journey

CRIMINAL ALICE

I promised Alice: “When you finish second grade, I’ll take you with me on a summer expedition. We’ll fly on the Pegasus ship to collect rare animals for our zoo.”

I said this back in the winter, right after the New Year. And at the same time he set several conditions: study well, don’t do stupid things and don’t engage in adventures.

Alice honestly fulfilled the conditions, and nothing seemed to threaten our plans. But in May, a month before departure, an incident occurred that almost ruined everything.

That day I was working at home, writing an article for the Bulletin of Cosmozoology. Through the open door of the office, I saw that Alice had come home from school looking gloomy, throwing her bag with a voice recorder and microfilms onto the table, refusing lunch, and instead of her favorite book in recent months, Beasts of Distant Planets, she took up The Three Musketeers.

Are you in trouble? - I asked.

“Nothing like that,” answered Alice. - Why do you think so?

So, it seemed.

Alice thought for a moment, put the book aside and asked:

Dad, do you happen to have a gold nugget?

Do you need a big nugget?

One and a half kilograms.

How about a smaller one?

To be honest, there is nothing less. I don’t have any nugget. Why do I need it?

“I don’t know,” said Alice. - I just needed a nugget.

I left the office, sat down next to her on the sofa and said:

Tell me what happened there.

Nothing special. Just need a nugget.

And if we are completely honest?

Alice took a deep breath, looked out the window, and finally decided:

Dad, I'm a criminal.

Criminal?

I committed a robbery, and now I'll probably get kicked out of school.

It's a shame, I said. - Well, continue. I hope that everything is not as scary as it seems at first glance.

In general, Alyosha Naumov and I decided to catch a giant pike. She lives in the Ikshinsky reservoir and devours fry. One fisherman told us about it, you don’t know him.

What does this have to do with the nugget?

For the spinner.

We discussed it in class and decided that we should catch pike with a spoon. A simple pike is caught with a simple spoon, but a giant pike must be caught with a special spoon. And then Leva Zvansky said about the nugget. And we have a nugget in the school museum. Or rather, there was a nugget. Weighing one and a half kilograms. One graduate gave it to his school. He brought it from the asteroid belt.

And you stole a gold nugget weighing one and a half kilograms?

That's not entirely true, Dad. We borrowed it. Leva Zvansky said that his father is a geologist and he will bring a new one. In the meantime, we decided to make a spinner out of gold. Pike will probably bite on such a spoon.

The lot has fallen on you.

Well, yes, the lot fell on me, and I could not retreat in front of all the guys. Moreover, no one would have missed this nugget.

And then?

And then we went to Alyosha Naumov, took a laser and sawed this damn nugget. And we went to the Ikshinskoye reservoir. And the pike bit off our spoon.

Or maybe not a pike. Maybe a snag. The spoon was very heavy. We looked for her and didn't find her. We dived in turns.

And your crime was discovered?

Yes, because Zvansky is a deceiver. He brought a handful of diamonds from home and says that there is not a piece of gold. We sent him home with diamonds. We need his diamonds! And then Elena Alexandrovna comes and says: “Young people, clean the museum, I’ll bring the first-graders here on an excursion.” There are such unfortunate coincidences! And everything was revealed immediately. She ran to the director. “Danger,” he says (we listened at the door), “someone’s past has awakened in their blood!” Alyoshka Naumov, however, said that he would take all the blame on himself, but I did not agree. If the lot has fallen, let them execute me. That's all.

That's all? - I was surprised. - So you confessed?

“I didn’t have time,” said Alice. - We were given until tomorrow. Elena said that either tomorrow the nugget will be in place, or a big conversation will take place. This means that tomorrow we will be removed from the competition, and maybe even kicked out of school.

From what competitions?

Tomorrow we have bubble races. For the school championship. And our team from the class is just Alyoshka, me and Egovrov. Yegovrov can’t fly alone.

“You forgot about one more complication,” I said.

You broke our agreement.

“I did,” Alice agreed. - But I hoped that the violation was not very strong.

Yes? Steal a nugget weighing one and a half kilos, cut it into spoons, drown it in the Ikshinsky reservoir and not even confess! I'm afraid that you will have to stay, the Pegasus will leave without you.

Oh, dad! - Alice said quietly. - What are we going to do now?

Think,” I said and returned to the office to finish writing the article.

But it was poorly written. It turned out to be a very nonsense story. Like little kids! They sawed up a museum exhibit.

An hour later I looked out of the office. Alice was not there. She ran away somewhere. Then I called Friedman at the Mineralogical Museum, whom I had once met in the Pamirs.

A round face with a black mustache appeared on the videophone screen.

Lenya,” I said, “do you have an extra nugget weighing about one and a half kilograms in your storage rooms?”

There are also five kilograms. And why do you need it? For work?

No, I need it at home.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Lenya answered, twirling his mustache. - They are all capitalized.

“I’d like the best one,” I said. My daughter needed it for school.

Then you know what,” Friedman said, “I’ll give you a nugget.” Or rather, not for you, but for Alice. But you will pay me good for good.

With pleasure.

Give me a blue leopard for one day.

Sinebarsa. We have mice.

In the stones?

I don’t know what they eat, but they are busy. And cats are not afraid. And the mousetrap is ignored. And from the smell and sight of the blue leopard, mice, as everyone knows, run away as fast as they can.

What was I supposed to do? The blue leopard is a rare animal, and I myself will have to go with it to the museum and look there so that the blue leopard does not bite anyone.

Okay, I said. - The nugget just arrived by tomorrow morning, by pneumatic mail.

I turned off the videophone, and the doorbell immediately rang. I opened. Behind the door stood a little white boy in an orange Venusian scout suit, with the emblem of the pioneer of the Sirian system on his sleeve.

Sorry,” said the boy. -Are you Alisa’s father?

Hello. My last name is Egovrov. Is Alice at home?

No. She went somewhere.

It's a pity. Can you be trusted?

To me? Can.

Then I have a manly conversation for you.

Like an astronaut with an astronaut?

Don’t laugh,” Yegovrov blushed. - In time, I will rightfully wear this suit.

“I have no doubt,” I said. - So what kind of manly talk is this?

Alisa and I competed, but then one circumstance happened that could cause her to be removed from the competition. In general, she needs to return to school alone lost item. I'm giving it to you, but not a word to anyone. Clear?

“I see, a mysterious stranger,” I said.

Hold it.

He handed me the bag. The bag was heavy.

Nugget? - I asked.

Do you know?

Nugget.

I hope it's not stolen?

No, no! They gave it to me at the tourist club. Well, goodbye.

Before I could return to the office, the doorbell rang again. Two girls were found behind the door.

“Hello,” they said in unison. - We are from first class. Take it for Alice.

They handed me two identical wallets and ran away. One wallet contained four gold coins, ancient coins from someone's collection. The other contains three teaspoons. The spoons turned out to be platinum, not gold, but I couldn’t catch up with the girls.

Another nugget was dropped by an unknown well-wisher into the mailbox. Then Leva Zvansky came and tried to hand me a small box of diamonds. Then one high school student came and brought three nuggets at once.

“I collected stones as a child,” he said.

Alice returned in the evening. From the door she said solemnly:

Dad, don't be upset, everything turned out okay. You and I are flying on an expedition.

Why such a change? - I asked.

Because I found a nugget.

Alice barely pulled the nugget out of her bag. It looked like it weighed about six or seven kilograms.

I went to Poloskov. To our captain. He called all his friends when he found out what was going on. And he also fed me lunch, so I wasn’t hungry.

Then Alice saw nuggets and other gold things that had accumulated in our house during the day, laid out on the table.

Oh oh oh! - she said. - Our museum will get rich.

Listen, criminal,” I said then, “I would never have taken you on the expedition if it weren’t for your friends.”

What does this have to do with my friends?

Yes, because they would hardly run around Moscow and look for gold things for a very bad person.

That's not who I am bad person, - said Alice without undue modesty.

I frowned, but at that moment the pneumatic mail receiving device rang in the wall. I opened the hatch and took out a bag with a nugget from the Mineralogical Museum. Friedman kept his promise.

“This is from me,” I said.

“You see,” said Alice. - So you are my friend too.

It turns out like this,” I answered. - But I ask you not to be arrogant.

The next morning I had to walk Alice to school, because the total weight of the gold reserves in our apartment had reached eighteen kilograms.

Handing her the bag at the entrance to the school, I said:

I completely forgot about the punishment.

Which one?

On Sunday you will have to take the blue leopard from the zoo and go with him to the Mineralogical Museum.

With a blue leopard - to a museum? He's stupid.

Yes, he will be there to scare the mice, and you will make sure that he doesn’t scare anyone else.

Agreed,” said Alice. - But we are still flying on the expedition.

FORTY-THREE HARRIES

The last two weeks before departure were spent in haste, excitement and not always necessary running around. I hardly saw Alice.

Firstly, it was necessary to prepare, check, transport and place in the Pegasus cages, traps, ultrasonic baits, traps, nets, power plants and a thousand other things that are needed to catch animals. Secondly, it was necessary to stock up on medicines, food, films, blank film, apparatus, voice recorders, spotlights, microscopes, herbarium folders, notebooks, rubber boots, calculating machines, sun and rain umbrellas, lemonade, raincoats, Panama hats, dry ice cream, airplanes and a million other things that may or may not be needed on an expedition. Thirdly, since we will be descending on scientific bases, stations and different planets, you need to take cargo and parcels with you: oranges for astronomers on Mars, herring in jars for the scouts of Arcturus Minor, cherry juice, mascara and rubber glue for archaeologists in the 2-BC system, brocade robes and electrocardiographs for the inhabitants of the planet Fix, walnut wood set , won by a resident of the planet Zamora in the quiz “Do you know the Solar System?”, quince jam (vitaminized) for the Labucilians and many more gifts and parcels that were brought to us until the last minute by grandmothers, grandfathers, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, children and grandchildren of those people and aliens with whom we will have to meet. In the end, our “Pegasus” began to look like Noah’s Ark, a floating fair, a “Supermarket” store, and even a trading base warehouse.

I lost six kilograms in two weeks, and the captain of the Pegasus, the famous cosmonaut Poloskov, aged six years.

Since the Pegasus is a small ship, its crew is small. On Earth and other planets, I, Professor Seleznev from the Moscow Zoo, command the expedition. The fact that I am a professor does not mean at all that I am already an old, gray-haired and important person. It so happened that since childhood I have loved all kinds of animals and have never exchanged them for stones, stamps, radios and other interesting things. When I was ten years old, I joined the youth circle at the zoo, then I graduated from school and went to university to study as a biologist. While I was studying, I continued to spend every free day in the zoo and biological laboratories. When I graduated from university, I knew so much about animals that I was able to write my first book about them. At that time there were no high-speed ships that flew to any end of the Galaxy, and therefore there were few space zoologists. Twenty years have passed since then, and there are a lot of space zoologists. But I was one of the first. I flew around many planets and stars and, unnoticed by myself, became a professor.

When “Pegasus” takes off from solid ground, Gennady Poloskov, a famous cosmonaut and commander of the ship, becomes the master on it and the main boss over all of us. We met him before, on distant planets and scientific bases. He often comes to our house and is especially friendly with Alice. Poloskov does not at all look like a brave cosmonaut, and when he takes off his spaceship captain’s uniform, he can be mistaken for a teacher in kindergarten or a librarian. Poloskov is short, white, silent and very delicate. But when he sits in his chair on the bridge spaceship, he changes - and his voice becomes different, and even his face acquires firmness and determination. Poloskov never loses his presence of mind, and he is highly respected in the space fleet.

I had a hard time persuading him to fly as a captain on the Pegasus, because Jack O'Koniola was trying to persuade him to accept a new passenger airliner on the Earth-Fix line. And if it weren't for Alice, I would never have persuaded Poloskov.

The third member of the Pegasus crew is mechanic Zeleny. This is a tall man with a bushy red beard. He is a good mechanic and flew with Poloskov on other ships five times. His main pleasure is digging into the engine and fixing something in the engine room. This is generally an excellent quality, but sometimes Zeleny gets carried away, and then some very important machine or device ends up being dismantled at the very moment when it is really needed. And Green is also a big pessimist. He thinks that “this” will not end well. What is this"? Yes all. For example, he read in some old book that one merchant cut himself with a razor and died from blood poisoning. Although now on the whole Earth there is no such razor to cut yourself, and all men smear their faces with paste in the morning instead of shaving, he grew a beard just in case. When we find ourselves on an unknown planet, he immediately advises us to fly away from here, because there are no animals here anyway, and if there are, then they are those that the zoo doesn’t need, and if they are needed, then we still can’t bring them to Earth, and so on Further. But we are all accustomed to Green and don’t pay attention to his grumbling. But he is not offended by us.

The fourth member of our crew, not counting the kitchen robot, which always breaks down, and the automatic all-terrain vehicles, was Alice. She, as you know, is my daughter, she graduated from the second grade, something always happens to her, but all her adventures have ended happily so far. Alice is a useful person on the expedition - she knows how to care for animals and is almost not afraid of anything.

The night before my flight, I slept poorly: it seemed to me that someone was walking around the house and slamming doors. When I got up, Alice was already dressed, as if she had never gone to bed. We went down to the airplane. We had no belongings with us, except for my black folder and Alisa’s bag over her shoulder, to which fins and a harpoon for spearfishing were tied. The morning was cold, chilly and fresh. Meteorologists promised to give rain in the afternoon, but, as always, they were a little mistaken, and their rain poured out at night. The streets were empty, we said goodbye to our families and promised to write letters from all planets.

The plane slowly rose above the street and easily flew west, towards the cosmodrome. I handed over control to Alice and took out the long lists, corrected and crossed out a thousand times, and began to study them, because Captain Poloskov swore to me that if we do not throw out at least three tons of cargo, we will never be able to tear ourselves away from the Earth.

I didn’t notice how we reached the cosmodrome. Alice was concentrated and seemed to be constantly thinking about something. She was so distracted that she lowered the plane near someone else's ship, which was loading piglets to Venus.

At the sight of the car descending from the sky, the piglets jumped in different directions, the robots accompanying them rushed to catch the fugitives, and the loading manager scolded me for trusting the landing to a small child.

“She’s not that small,” I answered the boss. - She finished second grade.

It’s even more shameful,” said the boss, clutching the newly caught piglet to his chest. - Now we won’t collect them until evening!

I looked at Alice reproachfully, took the steering wheel and drove the car to the white Pegasus. "Pegasus" in the days of its naval youth was a high-speed mail vessel. Then, when faster and more spacious ships appeared, the Pegasus was converted for expeditions. It had spacious holds, and it had already served both geologists and archaeologists, and now it was useful to the zoo. Poloskov was waiting for us, and before we had time to say hello, he asked:

Have you figured out where to put three tons?

I came up with something,” I said.

Tell us!

At that moment, a modest grandmother in a blue shawl approached us and asked:

Would you take a small parcel with you to send my son to Aldebaran?

Well,” Poloskov waved his hand, “this was still not enough!”

“Very little,” said the grandmother. - Two hundred grams, no more. Can you imagine what it will be like for him not to receive any birthday present?

We had no idea.

What's in the package? - asked the delicate Poloskov, surrendering to the mercy of the winner.

Nothing special. Cake. Kolya loves cakes so much! And a stereo film depicting his son and my granddaughter learning to walk.

“Drag,” Poloskov said gloomily.

I looked where Alice was. Alice has disappeared somewhere. The sun was rising over the cosmodrome, and the long shadow from the Pegasus reached the spaceport building.

Listen, I told Poloskov, we will transport part of the cargo to the Moon on a regular ship. And it will be easier to launch from the Moon.

“I thought so too,” Poloskov said. - Just in case, we will remove four tons so that there is a reserve.

Where should I send the parcel? - asked the grandmother.

The robot will accept it at the entrance,” Poloskov said, and he and I began to check what to unload before the Moon.

Out of the corner of my eye I looked to see where Alice had gone, and therefore paid attention to the grandmother with the parcel. Grandma stood in the shadow of the ship and quietly argued with the loader robot. Behind the grandmother stood a heavily overloaded cart.

Poloskov,” I said, “pay attention.”

“Oh,” said the brave captain. - I won’t survive this!

With a tiger's leap he jumped up to his grandmother.

“A parcel,” said the grandmother timidly.

Cake. - Grandma has already recovered from her fright.

So big?

Sorry, captain,” the grandmother said sternly. - Do you want my son to eat the cake I sent him alone, without sharing with his one hundred and thirty workmates? Do you want that?

I don't want anything else! - said the driven Poloskov. - I stay at home and don’t fly anywhere. Clear? I'm not flying anywhere!

The fight with the grandmother lasted half an hour and ended in Poloskov’s victory. Meanwhile, I went into the ship and ordered the robots to remove the oranges and walnut wood from the side.

I met Alice in the far passage of the cargo hold and was very surprised by the meeting.

What are you doing here? - I asked.

Alice hid a bunch of bagels behind her back and replied:

Getting acquainted with the ship.

Finally, by twelve o'clock we had completed the reloading. Everything was ready. We once again checked the weight of the cargo with Poloskov - we had a reserve of two hundred kilograms, so we could safely ascend into space.

Poloskov called mechanic Zeleny over the intercom. The mechanic was sitting at the control panel, combing his red beard. Poloskov leaned towards the videophone screen and asked:

Can we start?

“At any moment,” said Zeleny. - Although I don't like the weather.

Control room,” Poloskov said into the microphone. - “Pegasus” asks to take off.

Just a minute,” the dispatcher replied. - Do you have any free space?

“Not a single one,” Poloskov said firmly. - We don't take passengers.

But maybe you can take at least five people? - said the dispatcher.

What for? Are there really no regular ships?

Everyone is overloaded.

Don't you know? On the moon today Soccer game for the Galactic Sector Cup: Earth - Planet Fix.

Why on the Moon? - Poloskov, who was not interested in football and generally fell behind reality during the days of preparation for the flight, was surprised.

Naive man! - said the dispatcher. - How will the Fixians play under the gravity of the earth? It won't be easy for them on the Moon either.

So we'll beat them? - asked Poloskov.

“I doubt it,” the dispatcher replied. - They lured three defenders and Simon Brown from Mars.

“I would like your concerns,” said Poloskov. - When are you going to take off?

“And yet we will win,” Alice intervened in the conversation, sneaking onto the bridge unnoticed.

That’s right, girl,” the dispatcher rejoiced. - Maybe you can take the fans? To send everyone who wants to, I need eight ships. I have no idea what to do. And the applications are still coming in.

No,” Poloskov snapped.

Well, it's up to you. Start the engines.

Poloskov switched to the engine room.

Green,” he said, “turn on the planetary ones.” Just a little. Let's check if there is an overload.

Where does the overload come from? - I was indignant. - We have counted everything.

The ship trembled slightly as it gained power.

Five-four-three-two-one - launch,” said the captain.

The ship shuddered and remained in place.

What's happened? - asked Poloskov.

What happened to you? - asked the dispatcher who watched our launch.

“It doesn’t work,” said Zeleny. “I told you: nothing good will come of this.”

Alice sat fastened to the chair and did not look in my direction.

Let’s try again,” said Poloskov.

There’s no need to try,” Zeleny answered. - Significant overload. I have instruments in front of my eyes.

Poloskov tried to raise the Pegasus again, but the ship stood still as if chained. Then Poloskov said:

We have some errors in our calculations.

No, we checked it on a calculating machine,” I answered. - We have a reserve of two hundred kilograms.

But what happens then?

You'll have to throw the cargo overboard. We have no time to waste. Which hold should we start with?

From the first, I said. - There are parcels there. Let's wait for them on the Moon.

“Not from the first,” said Alice suddenly.

“Okay,” I answered her automatically. - Then let's start with the third - there are cells and networks.

“Not from the third,” said Alice.

What else is this? - Poloskov asked sternly.

And at that moment the dispatcher got in touch again.

“Pegasus,” he said, “a complaint has been received against you.”

What complaint?

I turn on the information desk.

The waiting room appeared on the screen. There was a crowd of people at the information desk. Among them I recognized several familiar faces. How do I know them?

The woman standing closest to the information desk said, looking at me:

It's still a shame. You can't indulge in pranks like that.

What pranks? - I was surprised.

I told Alyosha: you’re not going to the moon, you got five C’s in the fourth quarter.

And I forbade Leva from flying to this match,” another woman supported her. - It would be great to watch it on TV.

Yeah,” I said slowly. I finally recognized the people who had gathered at the information desk: these were the parents of the children from Alisa’s class.

“Everything is clear,” said Poloskov. - And how many “hares” do we have on board?

“I didn’t think we were overloaded,” said Alice. - The guys couldn’t miss the match of the century! What happens - I look, but they don’t?

And how many “hares” do we have? - Poloskov repeated in a steely voice.

Our class and two parallel ones,” Alice said quietly. - While dad was sleeping at night, we flew to the cosmodrome and climbed onto the ship.

“You’re not flying anywhere,” I said. - We cannot take irresponsible people on the expedition.

Dad, I won't do it again! - Alice begged. - But understand, I have a highly developed sense of duty!

“We could have crashed because of your sense of duty,” Poloskov replied.

Actually, he forgives Alice everything, but now he is very angry.

We removed the last “hare” from the hold after twenty-three minutes. After another six, they were all already standing, terribly upset and sad, by the ship, and mothers, fathers and grandmothers were running towards them from the cosmodrome building.

In total, there were forty-three “hares” on the Pegasus. I still don’t understand how Alice managed to place them on board, and we didn’t notice any of them.

Happy Alice! - Alyosha Naumov shouted from below when we finally climbed to the hatch. - Cheer for us! And come back soon!

The earth will win!.. - Alice answered him. “It didn’t turn out well, dad,” she told me when we had already risen above the Earth and headed for the Moon.

Not good,” I agreed. - I'm ashamed of you.

That’s not what I mean,” said Alice. - After all, the third “B” flew away in full force at night in potato sacks on a cargo barge. They will be at the stadium, but our second graders will not. I did not live up to the trust of my comrades.

Where do you put the potatoes from the bags? - asked Poloskov, surprised.

HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE THREE CAPTAINS?

When Pegasus landed on the lunar cosmodrome, I asked my companions:

What are your plans? We're leaving tomorrow at six o'clock.

Captain Poloskov said that he remained on the ship to prepare it for departure.

Mechanic Zeleny asked permission to go to the football game.

Alice also said that she would go to football, although without any pleasure.

Why? - I asked.

Have you forgotten? The entire third grade “B” will be at the stadium, and I’m the only one from the second grades. It's all your fault.

And who dropped off my guys from the Pegasus?

We couldn't get up! And what would their parents say about me? What if something happens?

Where? - Alice was indignant. - In the solar system? At the end of the twenty-first century?

When Alice and Zeleny left, I decided to last time have a cup of coffee in a real restaurant and go to Selena.

The huge hall of the restaurant was almost full. I stopped not far from the entrance, looking for a place, and heard a familiar thunderous voice:

Who do I see!

My old friend Gromozeka was sitting at the far table. I didn’t see him for five years, but I didn’t forget about him for a minute. We were once very friendly, and our acquaintance began with the fact that I managed to save Gromozeka in the Eurydice jungle. Gromozeka fought off the archaeological party, got lost in the forest and almost fell into the teeth of the Little Dragon, an evil creature sixteen meters long.

When he saw me, Gromozeka lowered his tentacles, folded for convenience, to the floor, opened his half-meter-long mouth in a charming smile, reached out in a friendly manner towards me with sharp claws and, picking up speed, rushed towards me.

Some tourist, who had never seen the inhabitants of the planet Chumarosa before, squealed and fainted. But Gromozeka was not offended by him. He grabbed me tightly with his tentacles and pressed me to the sharp plates on his chest.

Old man! - he roared like a lion. - Long time no see! I was already getting ready to fly to Moscow to see you, and suddenly - I can’t believe my eyes... What fate?

“We’re going on an expedition,” I said. - Free search across the Galaxy.

This is amazing! - Gromozeka said with feeling. “I’m happy that you managed to overcome the machinations of your ill-wishers and go on an expedition.”

But I have no ill-wishers.

“You won’t deceive me,” said Gromozeka, shaking his sharp, curved claws reproachfully in front of my nose.

I didn’t object because I knew how suspicious my friend was.

Sit down! - ordered Gromozeka. - Robot, a bottle of Georgian wine for me best friend and three liters of valerian for me personally.

Yes, yes,” the robot waiter answered and drove off to the kitchen to fulfill the order.

What's up? - Gromozeka interrogated me. - As a wife? Like a daughter? Have you already learned to walk?

“He’s studying at school,” I said. - Finished second grade.

Fabulous! - Gromozeka exclaimed. - How quickly time flies...

Then a sad thought came to my friend, and, being a very impressionable person, Gromozeka groaned deafeningly, and smoking caustic tears rolled from eight eyes.

What happened to you? - I was alarmed.

Just think how quickly time flies! - said Gromozeka through tears. - The children are growing up, and you and I are getting old.

He became emotional and released four streams of acrid yellow smoke from his nostrils that enveloped the restaurant, but immediately pulled himself together and announced:

Excuse me, noble patrons of the restaurant, I will try not to cause you any more trouble.

Smoke billowed between the tables, people coughed, and some even left the room.

“Let’s go too,” I said, breathless, “otherwise you’ll do something else.”

“You’re right,” Gromozeka obediently agreed.

We went out into the hall, where Gromozeka occupied the entire sofa, and I sat down next to him on a chair. The robot brought us wine and valerian, a glass for me and a three-liter jar for the Chumarozian.

Where are you working now? - I asked Gromozeka.

“We will dig a dead city on Koleida,” he answered. - I came here to get infrared detectors.

Interesting city on Koleida? - I asked.

Maybe interesting,” Gromozeka, who was terribly superstitious, answered cautiously. In order not to jinx it, he passed his tail four times over his right eye and said in a whisper: “Baskuri-bariparata.”

When do you start? - I asked.

In two weeks we will launch from Mercury. That's where our temporary base is.

Strange, inappropriate place,” I said. - Half of the planet is hot, half is an icy desert.

“Nothing surprising,” said Gromozeka and again reached for the valerian. - We found the remains of the Midnight Wanderers' ship there last year. So they worked. Why am I all about myself and myself! You better tell me about your route.

“I only know about him approximately,” I answered. - We will first fly around several bases in the vicinity of the Solar System, and then we will go on a free search. There is a lot of time - three months, the ship is spacious.

Are you not going to Eurydice? - asked Gromozeka.

No. The Small Dragon is already in the Moscow Zoo, but, unfortunately, no one has been able to catch the Large Dragon yet.

Even if you caught him,” said Gromozeka, “it’s still impossible to take him away on your ship.”

I agreed that you couldn’t take the Great Dragon on the Pegasus. If only because his daily diet is four tons of meat and bananas.

We were silent for a while. It's nice to sit with an old friend, there's no rush. An old tourist woman in a purple wig decorated with wax flowers came up to us and timidly extended a notebook.

“Would you mind,” she asked, “to write me an autograph as a souvenir of the chance meeting?”

Why not? - said Gromozeka, extending a clawed tentacle for the notebook.

The old woman closed her eyes in horror, and her thin hand trembled.

Gromozeka opened his notebook and wrote on a blank page:

“To a beautiful young earthling from a faithful admirer from the foggy planet Chumarosa. Restaurant "Selena". March, 3rd".

“Thank you,” the old woman whispered and retreated in small steps.

Did I write well? - Gromozeka asked me. - Touching?

Touching,” I agreed. - Just not entirely accurate.

This is not a young earthling at all, but an elderly woman. And in general, a dugout used to be called a primitive dwelling dug in the ground.

Oh, what a shame! - Gromozeka was upset. - But she has flowers on her hat. I’ll catch up with her now and sign her autograph.

It’s not worth it, friend,” I stopped him. - You'll only scare her.

Yes, the burden of fame is heavy,” Gromozeka said. - But it’s nice to know that Chumarosa’s greatest archaeologist will be recognized even on the distant Earth’s Moon.

I did not try to dissuade my friend. I suspected that the old woman had never met any cosmoarchaeologists in her life. She was simply struck by the appearance of my friend.

Listen,” said Gromozeka, “an idea came to me. I will help you.

Have you heard about the planet named after the Three Captains?

I read it somewhere, but I don’t remember where or why.

Then great.

Gromozeka leaned closer, put a heavy, hot tentacle on my shoulder, straightened the shiny plates on his round belly, like a small balloon, and began:

There is a small uninhabited planet in sector 19-4. Previously, it didn’t even have a name - only a digital code. Now astronauts call it the planet named after the Three Captains. And why? There, on a flat stone plateau, three statues rise. They were erected in honor of three space captains. These were great explorers and brave people. One of them was from Earth, the second

From Mars, and the third captain was born on Fix. Hand in hand, these captains passed through constellations, descended on planets on which it was impossible to descend, and saved entire worlds that were in danger. They were the first to defeat the Eurydice jungle, and one of them shot the Great Dragon. It was they who found and destroyed the nest of space pirates, although there were ten times more pirates. It was they who descended into the methane atmosphere of Golgotha ​​and found there the philosopher's stone, lost by Kursak's convoy. It was they who blew up a poisonous volcano that threatened to exterminate the population of an entire planet. You can talk about their exploits for two weeks in a row...

Now I remember,” I interrupted Gromozeka. - Of course, I heard about three captains.

That’s it,” Gromozeka grumbled and drank a glass of valerian. - We quickly forget heroes. Ashamed. “Gromozeka shook his soft head reproachfully and continued: “Several years ago, the captains parted ways.” The first captain became interested in the Venus project.

“Well, I know,” I said. - So, then he is one of those who changes its orbit?

Yes. The first captain always loved grandiose plans. And when he learned that it was decided to drag Venus away from the Sun and change its rotation period so that people could populate it, he immediately offered his services to the project. And this is nice, because scientists decided to turn Venus into a huge spaceship, and there is no person in the Galaxy who understands space technology better than the first captain.

What about the other captains? - I asked.

The second, they say, died unknown where and unknown when. The third captain flew to a neighboring galaxy and will return in a few years. So I want to say that the captains met many rare, wonderful animals and birds. There are probably some notes and diaries left from them.

Where are they?

The diaries are kept on the planet of the Three Captains. Next to the monuments erected by grateful contemporaries through subscriptions carried out on eighty planets, there is a laboratory and a memorial center. Doctor Verkhovtsev lives there permanently. He knows more about the three captains than anyone in the Galaxy. If you go there, you won't regret it.

“Thank you, Gromozeka,” I said. - Maybe you should stop drinking valerian? You yourself complained to me that it has a bad effect on the heart.

What to do! - my friend clasped his tentacles. - I have three hearts. Valerian has a very detrimental effect on some of them. But I just can’t figure out which one.

We spent another hour reminiscing about old acquaintances and the adventures we had to go through together. Suddenly the door to the hall opened, and a crowd of people and aliens appeared. They carried the players of the Earth team in their arms. Music played and cheerful shouts were heard.

Alice jumped out of the crowd.

Well?! - she shouted when she saw me. - The Varangians from Mars did not help the Fixians! Three is one. Now the meeting will take place on a neutral field!

What about the third “B”? - I asked sarcastically.

There weren’t any,” said Alice. - I would definitely see them. Probably the third "B" was intercepted and sent back. In potato sacks. Serves them right!

“You are a harmful person, Alice,” I said.

No! - Gromozeka roared offendedly. “You have no right to insult a defenseless girl like that!” I won't hurt her!

Gromozeka grabbed Alice with his tentacles and lifted her to the ceiling.

No! - he repeated indignantly. - Your daughter is my daughter. I will not let.

But I’m not your daughter,” Alice said from above. Luckily, she wasn't very scared.

But the mechanic Zeleny was much more frightened. At that moment he entered the hall and suddenly saw that Alice was struggling in the tentacles of a huge monster. Green didn't even notice me. He rushed towards Gromozeka, waving his red beard like a banner, and ran into my friend’s round stomach.

Gromozeka picked up Zeleny with his free tentacles and placed him on the chandelier. Then he carefully lowered Alice and asked me:

Am I getting a little excited?

A little,” Alice answered for me. - Put Green on the floor.

“He won’t rush at archaeologists,” Gromozeka answered. - I don’t want to take it off. Hello, see you in the evening. I remembered that I needed to visit the base warehouse before the end of the working day.

And, with a sly wink at Alice, Gromozeka, staggering, walked away towards the airlock. The smell of valerian wafted through the hall in waves.

We removed the green one from the chandelier using football team, and I was a little offended by Gromozeka, because my friend, although a talented scientist and a loyal comrade, was poorly brought up, and his sense of humor sometimes takes strange forms.

So where are we going? - Alice asked as we approached the ship.

First of all, I said, we’ll take the cargo to Mars and the scouts of Arcturus Minor. And from there - go straight to sector 19-4, to the base named after the Three Captains.

Long live the three captains! - said Alice, although she had never heard of them before.

MISSING TADLOSPES

The scouts of Arcturus Minor greeted the Pegasus very solemnly. As soon as we landed on the metal flooring of the landing pad, which swayed under the ship’s load and red, rotten water splashed into the cracks between the strips, they dashingly rolled up to us in an all-terrain vehicle. Three good fellows in red caftans, worn over spacesuits, came out of the all-terrain vehicle. They were followed by three more astronauts in luxurious sundresses, also worn over their spacesuits. Young men and women carried bread and salt on platters. And when we descended onto the wet metal strips of the cosmodrome, they put wreaths of local lush flowers on our spacesuit helmets.

A gala dinner was prepared in our honor in the cramped wardroom of the intelligence base. We were treated to canned compote, canned duck and canned sandwiches. Mechanic Zeleny, who was the chef on the Pegasus, also did not lose face - he bet on festive table real apples, real whipped cream with real currants and, most importantly, real black bread.

Alice was the main guest. All the scouts are adults, their children remained at home - on Mars, on Earth, on Ganymede, and they really missed being without real children. Alice answered all sorts of questions, honestly tried to seem stupider than she really was, and when she returned to the ship, she complained to me:

They so want me to be a little fool that I didn’t upset them.

The next day we handed over all the cargo and parcels to the scouts, but, unfortunately, it turned out that they would not be able to invite us to hunt for local animals: the storm season was beginning, all the rivers and lakes overflowed their banks and it was almost impossible to travel around the planet.

Do you want us to catch a tadpole for you? - asked the head of the base.

Well, at least a tadpole,” I agreed.

I have heard about various reptiles of Arcturus, but I have not yet met a tadpole.

About two hours later, the scouts brought a large aquarium, at the bottom of which meter-long tadpoles, similar to giant salamanders, were dozing. Then the scouts dragged a box of seaweed up the ladder.

This is food for the first time, they said. - Please note that tadpoles are very voracious and grow quickly.

Do you need to prepare a larger aquarium? - I asked.

Even a swimming pool is better,” answered the head of the scouts.

Meanwhile, his comrades were dragging another box of food up the ladder.

How fast do they grow? - I asked.

Pretty fast. “I can’t say more precisely,” answered the head of the scouts. - We don't keep them in captivity.

He smiled mysteriously and started talking about something else.

I asked the chief of the scouts:

Have you ever been to the planet named after the Three Captains?

No, he answered. - But sometimes Doctor Verkhovtsev flies to us. Just a month ago he was here. And I have to tell you, he's a big weirdo.

And why?

For some reason, he needed drawings of the Blue Seagull ship.

Sorry, but what's strange about this?

This is the Second Captain's ship, which went missing four years ago.

Why does Verkhovtsev need this ship?

That's it - why? I asked him about this. It turns out that he is now writing a book about the exploits of three captains, a documentary novel, and cannot continue work without knowing how this ship works.

Was this ship special?

The base commander smiled indulgently.

“You, I see, are not aware of the matter,” he said. - The ships of the three captains were made to a special order, and then rebuilt by the captains themselves - after all, they were jacks of all trades. These were amazing ships! Adapted for all sorts of surprises. One of them, Everest, which belonged to the First Captain, now stands in the Paris Space Museum.

Why couldn’t Verkhovtsev request the Paris Space Museum? - I was surprised.

So all three ships were different! - exclaimed the chief of the scouts.

The captains were people of character and never did anything twice.

“Okay,” I said, “we’ll fly to Verkhovtsev.” Please give us the coordinates of his base.

“With pleasure,” answered the head of the scouts. - Give him our best regards. And don't forget to transfer the tadpoles to the pool.

We said goodbye to the hospitable scouts and flew away.

Before going to bed, I decided to examine the tadpoles. It turned out that their similarity to salamanders is only external. They were covered with hard shiny scales, they had large sad eyes with long eyelashes, short tails forked and ended in thick, hard brushes.

I decided that I would transfer the tadpoles to the pool in the morning - nothing would happen to them overnight in the aquarium. I threw two armfuls of seaweed to the tadpoles and turned off the light in the hold. The start has been made - the first animals for the zoo are already on board the Pegasus.

This morning Alice woke me up.

Dad,” she said, “wake up.”

And what happened? - I looked at my watch. It was still only seven in the morning, ship time. - Why did you jump up at the crack of dawn?

I wanted to look at the tadpoles. After all, no one has ever seen them on Earth.

So what? Do you really need to wake up your old father for this? You'd better turn on the robot. While he prepares breakfast, we would slowly get up.

Just wait, dad, with your breakfast! - Alice interrupted me impolitely. - I’m telling you, get up and look at the tadpoles.

I jumped out of my bed and, without getting dressed, ran into the hold where the aquarium stood. The sight I saw was amazing. The tadpoles, although incredible, more than doubled in size overnight and no longer fit in the aquarium. Their tails stuck out and hung almost to the floor.

Can't be! - I said. - We urgently need to prepare the pool.

I ran to the mechanic Zeleny and woke him up:

Help, the tadpoles have grown so big that I can’t lift them.

“I warned you,” said Zeleny. - It won’t be that way yet. And why did I agree to work in a traveling zoo? For what?

“I don’t know,” I said. - Went.

Green put on his robe and trudged, grumbling, into the hold. When he saw the tadpoles, he grabbed his beard and groaned:

Tomorrow they will occupy the entire ship!

It's good that the pool was filled with water in advance. With the help of Green, I dragged the tadpoles. They turned out to be not heavy at all, but they struggled a lot and slipped out of our hands, so that when we lowered the third and last tadpole into the pool, we were out of breath and sweating.

The pool on the Pegasus is small - four by three meters and two meters deep - but the tadpoles were at ease in it. They began to circle around it, looking for food. It is no wonder that they were hungry - after all, these creatures were apparently going to set a Galaxy record for growth speed.

While I was feeding the tadpoles - this took half of one of the boxes with algae - Poloskov appeared in the hold. He was already washed, shaved and dressed in uniform.

“Alice says your tadpoles have grown,” he said, smiling.

“No, nothing special,” I answered, pretending that such miracles were nothing new to me.

Then Poloskov looked into the pool and gasped.

Crocodiles! - he said. - Real crocodiles! They can swallow a person.

Don't be afraid, I said, they are herbivores. The scouts would have warned us.

The tadpoles swam near the surface of the water and stuck their hungry mouths out.

“They wanted to eat again,” said Zeleny. - They'll take care of us soon.

By lunchtime, the tadpoles had reached a length of two and a half meters and finished the first box of algae.

“They could have warned,” Zeleny grumbled, referring to the scouts. - They knew and thought: let the specialists suffer.

Can't be! - Alice was indignant, to whom the scouts partingly presented a model of an all-terrain vehicle carved from wood, a chess set from the bone of a fossil parallelepiped, a knife for cutting paper carved from the bark of a glass tree, and many other interesting things that they themselves made during the long evenings.

Well, let’s see,” Zeleny said philosophically and went to check the engines.

By evening, the length of the tadpoles reached three and a half meters. It was already difficult for them to swim in the pool, and they swayed at the bottom, surfacing only to grab a bunch of algae.

I went to bed with a heavy premonition that I would not be able to take the tadpoles to the zoo. The first animal turned out to be lumpy. Space sometimes poses riddles that a simple terrestrial biologist cannot solve.

I got up before everyone else. I tiptoed along the corridor, remembering the nightmares that tormented me at night. I dreamed that the tadpoles became longer than the Pegasus, crawled out, were flying next to us in space and were still trying to swallow our ship.

I opened the door to the hold and stood on the threshold for a second, looking around to see if a bighead would crawl out from around the corner.

But there was silence in the hold. The water in the pool was still. I came closer. The shadows of tadpoles, no more than four meters long, darkened at the bottom. My heart was relieved. I took the mop and moved it in the water. Why don't the tadpoles move?

The mop hit one of the tadpoles, and it easily swam to the side, pinning its relatives to the far wall of the pool. They didn't move.

“We died,” I realized. “And probably from hunger.”

So what, dad? - asked Alice.

I turned around. Alice stood barefoot on the cold plastic, and instead of answering I said:

Put something on your feet immediately, you'll catch a cold.

Then the door opened and Poloskov entered. Green's fiery beard could be seen behind his shoulder.

So what? - they asked in unison.

Alice ran off to put on her shoes, and I, without answering my comrades, tried to push the motionless tadpole. His body, as if empty, floated easily in the pool. The eyes were closed.

“We died,” Zeleny said sadly. - And we tried so hard, dragging them yesterday! But I warned you.

I turned the tadpole over with a mop. This was not difficult to do. The tadpole's spotted belly was cut lengthwise. Only the skins of monsters floated in the pool, which retained the shape of their bodies, because the hard scales that covered them prevented the skins from shrinking.

Wow! - said Zeleny, looking around. - They hatched.

Who? - asked Poloskov.

If i knew!

Listen, Professor Seleznev,” Captain Poloskov officially addressed me, “apparently, I suspect that there are unknown monsters on my ship that were hiding in the so-called tadpoles. Where are they?

I turned over the rest of the tadpoles with a mop. They were also empty.

“I don’t know,” I admitted honestly.

But when you came here, was the door closed or open?

Confusion reigned in my head, and I answered:

I don’t remember, Poloskov. Maybe it's closed.

Affairs! - said Poloskov and hurried to the exit.

Where are you going? - asked Zeleny.

Search the ship,” said Poloskov. - And I advise you to inspect the engine room. Just arm yourself with something. It is unknown who hatches from the tadpoles. Maybe dragons.

They left, and a few minutes later Poloskov came back running and brought me a blaster.

What the hell is not joking,” he said. - I would lock Alice in the cabin.

What else was missing! - said Alice. - I have a theory.

“And I don’t want to hear your theories,” I said. - Let's go to the cabin.

Alice resisted like a wild cat, but we still locked her in the cabin and began searching the premises.

It’s amazing how many holds, compartments, corridors and other rooms are hidden in a relatively small expedition ship! The three of us, covering each other, spent three hours until we had examined the entire Pegasus.

There were no monsters anywhere.

Well, - I said then, - let's have breakfast, then look around the ship again. They had to go somewhere.

“I’ll have breakfast too,” said Alice, who heard our conversation on the intercom. - Release me from prison.

We released Alice and escorted her to the wardroom.

Before starting breakfast, we locked the door and placed the blasters next to us on the table.

Miracles! - said Poloskov, starting to eat semolina porridge. -Where did they hide? Maybe into the reactor? Or did they get out?

Sinister miracles,” said Zeleny. - Miracles are not my taste. I didn't like tadpoles from the very beginning. Pass me the coffee pot.

I’m afraid that we will never solve this riddle,” said Poloskov.

I nodded, agreeing with him.

No, allow it,” Alice intervened.

Just shut up.

I can't remain silent. If you want, I'll find them.

Poloskov laughed, and laughed long and sincerely.

Three grown men searched for them for three hours, and you want to find them alone.

“It’s easier this way,” answered Alice. - I bet I'll find it?

Of course, we argue,” Poloskov laughed. - What do you want?

“At will,” said Alice.

Agree.

Only I will look for them alone.

“Nothing like that,” I said. - You won’t go anywhere alone. Have you forgotten that there may be unknown monsters roaming the ship?

I was angry with the scouts and their dangerous jokes. He’s also angry at himself for going to bed and missing the moment when the tadpoles’ shells were empty. Angry at Alisa and Poloskov, who started a childish argument at such a serious moment.

Let’s go,” said Alice, getting up from the table.

“First, finish your tea,” I answered sternly.

Alice finished her tea and confidently walked into the hold where the aquarium stood. We followed her, feeling like fools. Well, why, tell me, did we listen to her?

Alice quickly looked around the compartment. She asked Poloskov to move the boxes away from the wall. He obeyed with a smile. Then Alice returned to the pool and walked around it. The empty shells of the tadpoles darkened at the bottom. Half-eaten algae floated on the surface of the water.

Here,” said Alice, “catch them.” Just be careful: they jump.

And then we saw that three frogs were sitting in a row on the seaweed. Or rather, not exactly a frog, but three creatures very similar to baby frogs. Each one is as tall as a thimble.

We caught them, put them in a jar, and then I, repenting of my stubbornness, asked Alice:

Listen, daughter, how did you guess?

This is not the first time you’ve asked, dad,” she answered, not hiding her pride. - The whole point is that you are all adults, smart people. And you think, as you yourself said, logically. But I’m not very smart and I think whatever comes into my head. I thought so: if these are tadpoles, then then there must be frogs. And baby frogs are always smaller than tadpoles. You walked around the ship with pistols and looked for large monsters. And even they were afraid in advance. And I sat locked in the cabin and thought that perhaps I shouldn’t always look up and look for something huge. Maybe look around the corners and look for little little frogs. And I found it.

But why do baby frogs need such large containers? - Poloskov was surprised.

“I didn’t think about it,” Alice admitted. - I didn’t think to think about it. And if I had thought about it, I would never have found the frogs.

What do you say, professor? - Poloskov asked me.

What to say? It will be necessary to carefully examine the shells of the tadpoles. They are probably some kind of factories that process food into a complex concentrate for the frog... Or maybe a large tadpole is easier to defend against enemies.

“And don’t forget about your wish, Poloskov,” Alice said sternly.

“I never forget anything,” the captain answered clearly.

ADVICE OF DOCTOR VERKHOVTSEV

We sent a radiogram from the road to Doctor Verkhovtsev: “We are arriving on Friday. Meet me." Verkhovtsev immediately replied that he would gladly meet us and take us on his space boat through the dangerous asteroid belt that surrounds the planet of the Three Captains.

At the appointed hour we stopped at the asteroid belt. A dense swarm of stone blocks, like clouds, hid the surface of the planet from us. For some reason we were all overcome with excitement. It seemed to us that the meeting with Dr. Verkhovtsev would lead to important and interesting events. Maybe even adventure.

The doctor's space boat flashed among the asteroids like a silver arrow. And now he rushes in front of us.

- “Pegasus”, can you hear me? - a dull voice was heard in the speaker. - Follow me.

What is he like, I wonder? “He’s probably bored alone on the planet,” said Alice, who was sitting with us on the bridge in a small shock-absorbing chair specially made for her.

Nobody answered her. Poloskov controlled the ship, I acted as a navigator, and Zeleny was not on the bridge - he remained in the engine room.

“Pegasus” changed course, went around the fanged asteroid and immediately obediently slid down.

Below us lay the desert, cut here and there by gorges and marked by pockmarked craters. The silver arrow of the boat flew ahead, showing the way.

We have dropped noticeably. One could already make out rocks and dried up rivers. Then a dark green spot of an oasis appeared ahead. The dome of the base rose above him. The doctor's boat took a turn and landed on a flat area. We followed his example.

When the Pegasus, swaying slightly, stood on its shock absorbers and Poloskov said “okay,” I saw three stone statues between the greenery of the oasis and our ship.

Three stone captains stood on a high pedestal. Even from a distance it was clear that two of them were people. The third is a three-legged thin Fixian.

“We’ve arrived,” said Alice. - May go out?

Wait,” I replied. - We do not know the composition of the atmosphere and temperature. What kind of spacesuit are you going to wear?

“No,” answered Alice.

She pointed to the porthole. A man in a gray casual suit and a gray rumpled hat stepped out of the silver spaceboat. He raised his hand, inviting us.

Poloskov turned on the external speaker and asked:

Is the atmosphere breathable?

The man in the hat nodded quickly - go, don't be afraid!

He met us at the gangway.

“Welcome to the base,” he said and bowed. - I rarely see guests here!

He spoke a little old-fashioned, to match his suit.

He looked about sixty years old. He was short, thin and looked like a kind old woman. His face was lined with fine wrinkles. The doctor squinted or smiled all the time, and if sometimes his face smoothed out, the wrinkles became white and wide. Doctor Verkhovtsev had long, thin fingers. He shook our hands and invited us to his place.

We followed the doctor to the green trees of the oasis.

Why is there an oxygen atmosphere here? - I asked. - After all, the planet is a complete desert.

The atmosphere is artificial,” said the doctor. - It was made when the monuments were being built. In a few years, a large museum dedicated to space heroes will be built here. End-of-life spaceships and all sorts of curiosities from distant planets will be brought here.

The doctor stopped in front of a block of stone. The words in cosmic language were embossed on it:

You see,” said Verkhovtsev. - The museum will be built together by eighty different planets. In the meantime, for starters, a powerful reactor is installed in the center of the planet, which releases oxygen from rocks. It's not very good here right now good air, but by the opening of the museum the air will be the best in the entire Galaxy.

Meanwhile, we approached the foot of the monument.

The monument was very large, the size of a twenty-story building. We stopped and, throwing our heads back, looked at the three captains.

The first captain turned out to be young, broad-shouldered, slender. He had a slightly snub nose and wide cheekbones. The captain smiled. On his shoulder sat a strange bird with two beaks and a beautiful crown of stone feathers.

The second captain was taller than him. He had a very broad chest and thin legs, like all people who were born and raised on Mars. The Second's face was sharp and dry.

The third captain, a Fixian in a tight spacesuit with his helmet thrown back, rested his palm on a branch of a stone bush.

“They’re not old at all,” said Alice.

“You’re right, girl,” Dr. Verkhovtsev answered. - They became famous when they were young.

We entered the shade of the trees and walked along a wide alley to the base. The base turned out to be a vast room, littered with boxes, containers and instruments.

They started sending exhibits to the museum,” the doctor said, as if apologizing. - Follow me to my den.

Well, just like “Pegasus” at the beginning of our journey! - Alice admired.

And in fact, traveling through the base to Dr. Verkhovtsev’s apartment was similar to walking around our ship when it was overloaded with parcels, cargo and all sorts of equipment.

A small nook between the containers, littered with books and microfilms, in which a bed could barely fit, also littered with papers and films, turned out to be the bedroom and office of the museum curator, Dr. Verkhovtsev.

“Sit down, make yourself at home,” said the doctor.

It was absolutely clear to all of us, except the owner, that there was no place to sit here. Verkhovtsev swept the pile of papers onto the floor. The leaves flew up, and Alice began to collect them.

Are you writing a novel? - asked Poloskov.

Why novel? Oh yes, of course, the life of the three captains is more interesting than any novel. She deserves to be described as an example for future generations. But I am deprived of a literary gift.

I thought that Dr. Verkhovtsev was being modest. After all, he himself flew to the scouts to find drawings of the ship of one of the captains.

So,” said the doctor, “how can I be useful to my dear guests?”

We were told,” I began, “that you know everything about the three captains.”

Well,” Verkhovtsev even blushed with embarrassment, “this is a clear exaggeration!”

He placed his hat on a pile of books; the hat tried to slide down, and the doctor caught it and put it back in its old place.

The captains, I said, managed to visit many unknown planets. They met wonderful animals and birds. They say that there are notes and diaries left from them. And we are just looking for unknown animals on other planets. Won't you help us?

Yeah, that’s what it’s all about... - Verkhovtsev thought about it. His hat took advantage of this moment, slid down and disappeared under the bunk. - Ah,

He said, “If I had known in advance...

Dad, can I tell the doctor? - asked Alice.

Yes, girl,” the doctor turned to her.

One stone captain has a bird with two beaks and a crown on his head sitting on his shoulder. There is no such bird in the zoo. Maybe you know something about her?

No,” said Verkhovtsev. - I know almost nothing. Where's my hat?

“Under the bed,” said Alice. - I'll get it now.

“Don’t worry,” Verkhovtsev said and dived under the bed. Only his legs stuck out from there. He was looking for a hat there in the darkness, rustling papers and continuing to talk. - The sculptors were given latest photos captains. They chose the photographs they liked best.

Maybe they invented this bird? - I asked, leaning towards the bed.

No no! - Verkhovtsev exclaimed, and his boots began to twitch. - I saw these photographs myself.

But do you even know where they were filmed?

The first captain never parted with the bird,” Verkhovtsev answered,

But when he flew to Venus, he gave the bird to the Second Captain. And the Second Captain, as you know, has gone missing. The bird also disappeared.

So, it’s not even known where it is found?

Verkhovtsev finally crawled out from under the bed. He crushed his hat in his fist and looked embarrassed.

Sorry,” he said, “I got distracted.”

So, it’s unknown where the bird lives?

No, no,” Verkhovtsev quickly answered.

It’s a pity,” I sighed. - So it's a failure. There is nothing you can do to help us. And that's what we hoped...

Why can't I? - Doctor Verkhovtsev was offended. - I’ve traveled a lot myself... Just think about it.

The doctor thought for about three minutes, then said:

I remembered! There is a Little Dragon on the planet Eurydice. And also, they say, the Big Dragon.

“I know,” I said. - One of the captains once shot a large dragon.

How do you know? - asked Verkhovtsev.

I know. My friend the archaeologist Gromozeka told me.

“It’s strange,” Verkhovtsev said and tilted his head, looking at me as if he was seeing me for the first time. - Then I’ll think about it some more.

He thought for another minute and told us about the Martian mantis. It was even funny. Martian mantises live not only in all zoos - they are even kept at home. Alice has one living with her, for example.

Then Verkhovtsev told us about tadpoles, about the flycatcher from Fix, about hellbirds from the planet Trul and about other animals known from the book “Animals of Our Galaxy”.

No, we don't need these animals.

Forgive me,” Verkhovtsev said politely, “but all my life I have been interested in intelligent beings, and somehow I have never encountered animals.” May I think?

Verkhovtsev thought again.

Where have I been? - he asked himself. “Yeah,” he answered, “I’ve been to the Empty Planet.”

On the Empty Planet. It's not far from here, in a neighboring star system.

But if this is an Empty Planet, then what kind of animals are there? - Alice was surprised.

Nobody knows this. You see, we were there on Monday, the whole sky was teeming with birds. And on Tuesday, not a single bird - only wolves prowl in packs. And deer. And on Wednesday - neither one nor the other. The planet is empty.

But maybe the animals just migrated somewhere else?

No,” said Verkhovtsev, “that’s not the point.” We had a reconnaissance boat, and out of curiosity we flew around the entire planet. No animals, no birds. Emptiness. And we weren’t the only ones surprised by this. I'll give you the coordinates.

Thank you, I said. - But if you can’t remember anything else, then show us the captains’ diaries. They probably saw different animals.

Who told you about the diaries? - the doctor asked and bowed his head.

Our friend is the archaeologist Gromozeka,” I answered.

Never heard. And why do you need diaries? I remembered the Skliss. About the Skliss from the planet Sheshineru. There are tons of them there. They told me.

And thank you for that too,” I said. But I really wanted to look at the captains’ diaries, and for some reason Dr. Verkhovtsev did not want to show the diaries. Somehow we aroused his distrust.

Please.

What about the diaries? - asked Alice.

Oh, girl, what do you want in these diaries? By the way, they are not here. They are on Fix. Stored in the archives. Yes, yes, in the archives. - and Doctor Verkhovtsev suddenly perked up, as if he had come up with a successful lie.

“Well, as you wish,” said Alice.

The doctor became embarrassed, pulled his crumpled hat over his eyes and said quietly:

You can also visit the market in Palaputra.

We will definitely go there,” I said. - We know about him.

End of free trial.

The famous science fiction writer Kir Bulychev (1934–2003) came up with a wonderful heroine - Alisa Selezneva, a girl from the 21st century. The book "Alice's Journey" includes stories about the space travel of Alice, her dad and other members of the Pegasus spaceship to different planets in search of new animals for the Moscow zoo. As a result, an ordinary scientific expedition turned into a mysterious detective story. Thanks to the Pegasus team and, first of all, Alice, they managed to rescue two famous heroes from trouble. The illustrations for the book were made by the talented artist Nadezhda Bugoslavskaya, who created a very cute image of Alice. The book is addressed to children of middle school age. The book was also published under the titles “The Girl from Earth”, “Alice and the Three Captains” and “The Secret of the Third Planet”. [i]The publishing design is preserved in pdf A4 format.

A series: Alisa Selezneva (illustrated edition)

* * *

by liters company.

The doctor stood for a long time at the feet of the huge stone captains and waved his hat. The golden rays of the setting suns illuminated him, and it seemed that he was also a statue, only smaller than the others.

- A-ah-ah! – suddenly a distant cry reached us.

We turned around.

The doctor ran towards us, getting stuck in the sand.

- I wish I could! - he shouted. - I completely forgot!

The doctor ran up to us and for about two minutes tried to catch his breath, he kept starting the same phrase, but there was not enough breath to finish it.

“Ku...” he said. - Uh...

Alice tried to help him.

- Chicken? – she asked.

- No... ku-ustiki. I... forgot to say about the bushes.

- What bushes?

– I stood by these very bushes and forgot to tell about them.

The doctor pointed to the monument. Even from here, from afar, it was clear that at the feet of the third captain the sculptor depicted a lush bush, carefully sawing out its branches and leaves from the stone.

“I thought it was just for beauty,” said Alice.

- No, it’s a bush! Have you ever heard of bushes?

- Never.

- Then listen. Just two minutes... When the Third Captain was on the eighth satellite of Aldebaran, he got lost in the desert. No water, no food, nothing. But the captain knew that if he did not reach the base, the ship would die, because all the crew members lay stricken with space fever, and the vaccine was only at the base, on an empty, abandoned base in the Sierra Barracuda mountains. And so, when the captain’s strength left him and the path was lost in the sands, he heard distant singing. At first the captain thought it was a hallucination. But he still gathered his last strength and walked towards the sounds. Three hours later he crawled to the bushes. The bushes grow in places around small ponds, and before a sandstorm their leaves rub against each other, emitting melodious sounds. It seems that the bushes are singing. This is how the bushes in the Sierra Barracuda mountains, with their singing, showed the captain the way to the water, gave him the opportunity to wait out a terrible sandstorm and saved the lives of eight astronauts who were dying from space fever. In honor of this event, the sculptor depicted a bush on the monument to the Third Captain. So, I think you should look at the eighth satellite of Aldebaran and find bushes in the Sierra Barracuda mountains. In addition, the Third Captain said that in the evening large, delicate, luminous flowers open on the bushes.

“Thank you, doctor,” I said. “We will definitely try to find these bushes and bring them to Earth.”

– Can they grow in pots? - asked Alice.

“Probably,” answered the doctor. - But, to tell the truth, I have never seen bushes - they are very rare. And they are found only at the source in the very center of the desert, surrounding mountains Sierra Barracuda.

The Aldebaran system lay nearby, and we decided to find the bushes and, if possible, listen to their singing.

Eighteen times our spacecraft flew around the entire desert, and only on the nineteenth approach did we see greenery in a deep hollow. The reconnaissance boat descended over the sand dunes, and the bushes surrounding the spring appeared before our eyes.

The bushes were not tall, up to my waist, they had long leaves, silvery on the inside, and rather short, thick roots that easily came out of the sand. We carefully dug up five bushes, choosing those on which we found buds, collected sand into a large box and transferred our trophies to the Pegasus.

On the same day, Pegasus launched from the desert satellite and headed further.

As soon as the acceleration ended, I began to prepare the camera for filming, because I hoped that luminous flowers would soon bloom on the bushes, and Alice prepared paper and paints to sketch these flowers.

And at that moment we heard quiet, euphonious singing.

- What's happened? – the mechanic Zeleny was surprised. – I didn’t turn on the tape recorder. Who turned it on? Why don't they let me rest?

“It’s our bushes singing!” - Alice screamed. – Is there a sandstorm coming?

- What? – Zeleny was surprised. – Where can there be a sandstorm in space?

“Let’s go to the bushes, dad,” Alice demanded. - Let's see.

Alice ran into the hold, and I lingered a little, charging the camera.

“I’ll go too,” said mechanic Zeleny. “I’ve never seen singing bushes.”

I suspected that he actually wanted to look out the window because he was afraid that a sandstorm was actually approaching.

I had just finished charging the camera when I heard a scream.

I threw the camera in the wardroom and quickly ran down to the hold.

- Dad! - Alice shouted. - Just look!

- Save me! - the mechanic Zeleny made noise. - They are coming!

A few more steps and I ran to the door to the hold.

At the door I ran into Alice and Zeleny. Or rather, I ran into Zeleny, who was carrying Alice in his arms. Zeleny looked frightened and his beard was flying as if from the wind.

Bushes appeared in the doorway. The spectacle was truly terrible. The bushes crawled out of a box full of sand and, stepping heavily on short, ugly roots, moved towards us. They walked in a semicircle, swaying their branches, the buds opened, and among the leaves, pink flowers burned like ominous eyes.

- To arms! – Zeleny shouted and handed Alice to me.

- Shut the door! - I said.

But it was too late. While we were jostling, trying to pass each other, the first of the bushes passed the door, and we had to retreat into the corridor.

One by one the bushes followed their leader.

Green, pressing all the alarm buttons along the way, ran to the bridge to get a weapon, and I grabbed a mop that stood against the wall and tried to cover Alice. She looked at the advancing bushes with fascination, like a rabbit at a boa constrictor.

- Yes, run! – I shouted to Alice. “I won’t be able to hold them back for long!”

The bushes, with elastic, strong branches, grabbed the mop and tore it out of my hands. I was retreating.

- Hold them, pa! - Alice said and ran away.

“It’s good,” I managed to think, “at least Alice is safe.” My situation continued to be dangerous. The bushes tried to drive me into a corner, and I could no longer use the mop.

– Why does Green need a flamethrower? – I suddenly heard Captain Poloskov’s voice in the speaker. - What's happened?

“We were attacked by bushes,” I answered. – But don’t give Zeleny a flamethrower. I'll try to lock them in the compartment. As soon as I retreat behind the connecting door, I will let you know, and you will immediately close the hold compartment.

-Aren't you in danger? – asked Poloskov.

“No, as long as I hold on,” I answered.

And at the same moment, the bush closest to me strongly pulled the mop and tore it out of my hands. The mop flew to the far end of the corridor, and the bushes, as if encouraged by the fact that I was unarmed, moved towards me in a closed formation.

And at that moment I heard quick steps from behind.

- Where are you going, Alice! – I shouted. - Go back now! They are strong like lions!

But Alice slipped under my arm and rushed to the bushes.

There was something large and shiny in her hand. I rushed after her, lost my balance and fell. The last thing I saw was Alice, surrounded by ominous branches of animated bushes.

- Poloskov! – I shouted. - For help!

And at that very second the singing of the bushes stopped. It was replaced by quiet murmurs and sighs.

I rose to my feet and saw a peaceful picture. Alice stood in the thick of the bushes and watered them from a watering can. The bushes swayed their branches, trying not to miss a drop of moisture, and sighed blissfully... When we drove the bushes back into the hold, removed the broken mop and wiped the floor, I asked Alice:

- But how did you guess?

- It’s nothing special, dad. After all, bushes are plants. This means they need to be watered. Like a carrot. But we dug them up, put them in a box, and forgot to water them. When Zeleny grabbed me and tried to save me, I had time to think: after all, they live at home right next to the water. And the Third Captain found water by their singing. And they sing when a sandstorm approaches, which dries the air and covers the water with sand. So they worry then that they won’t have enough water.

- So why didn’t you tell me right away?

- Would you believe it? You fought with them like you fought tigers. You completely forgot that they are the most ordinary bushes that need to be watered.

- Well, the most ordinary ones! – the mechanic Zeleny grumbled. “They’re chasing water through the corridors!”

Now it was my turn as a biologist to say my last word.

“So these bushes are fighting for existence,” I said. “There is little water in the desert, the springs dry up, and in order to stay alive, the bushes have to wander through the sand and look for water.

Since then, the bushes have lived peacefully in a box of sand. Only one of them, the smallest and restless one, often crawled out of the box and lay in wait for us in the corridor, rustling branches, humming, and begging for water. I asked Alice not to over-drink the baby - and so water oozes from the roots - but Alice felt sorry for him and until the very end of the trip carried him water in a glass. And that would be nothing. But somehow she gave him compote to drink, and now the bush doesn’t allow anyone passage at all. He stomps along the corridors, leaving wet footprints behind him, and stupidly pokes leaves at people’s feet.

There's not a penny of sense in him. But he loves compote like crazy.

* * *

The given introductory fragment of the book Alice's Journey (Kir Bulychev, 1974) provided by our book partner -

Font:

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© Kir Bulychev, heirs, 1974

© Roife A. M., introductory article, 2010

© Migunov E. T., heirs, illustrations, 1974

© Borisov A. A., drawings on the binding, 2010

© Design of the series. OJSC Publishing House "Children's Literature", 2010

1934-2003

There lived a cheerful man...

In life his name was not even Kir Bulychev, but Igor Vsevolodovich Mozheiko. And for a very long time, colleagues at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences had no idea that their friend, a specialist in the history of the country of Burma, which is now called Myanmar, in free time writes funny and exciting books for children. But Igor Vsevolodovich himself did not want to tell them.

This probably surprised you. You probably thought: wow, he’s so shy! If we were in his place, we wouldn’t be modest; let everyone know about our achievements!

You thought so because you live in a completely different time and in a completely different country. And when Kir Bulychev began writing his books, he was quite seriously afraid that they would bring him not only fame, but also major troubles. After all, he worked in a scientific institution, and it’s not as if he was in such good standing. Not because, of course, he was a bad scientist - he was just a wonderful scientist, he wrote several books about his beloved Burma, defended his dissertation and became a doctor of science. But Igor Mozheiko really did not like the so-called social burdens. I didn’t go to vegetable warehouses (and scientists were then easily sent to vegetable warehouses, because the people who worked there for some reason could not learn to work well for years and could not cope with their work). Didn't go to trade union meetings. And in general, most of all he valued his family, his friends, his work, his hobbies.

Now this seems normal to us. And at that time, for such views one could be called an “individualist” or even a “private trader.” And this could cost a person dearly, including dismissal from work.

It is not surprising that for his first science fiction story, which was called “When the Dinosaurs Died Out” and was published in the magazine “Iskatel” in February 1967, Igor Mozheiko chose a literary name, or pseudonym, for himself. His wife’s name was Kira, and his mother’s last name was Bulycheva. This is how Kir Bulychev appeared.

This story turned out to be a funny story. The magazine was supposed to publish a completely different story - a translated one, by an American author. But censorship banned this story. There was such an institution in our country at that time - the country's leaders, with its help, indicated what the population could read, and what - under no circumstances.

So, the censorship banned the story, but a color cover for the magazine was already printed, and on it was an illustration for the banned story. A chair, a bank on a chair, a dinosaur in a bank. And as many as 300 thousand of these covers were printed!

What was to be done? Send covers to waste paper and print new ones? Yes, it could have been that way. But what additional expenses would have to be incurred! The entire editorial board would probably have been left without bonuses and would have received more reprimands. It was then that Kir Bulychev invited his friends at the editorial office to write a story overnight that would fit that cover. Everyone agreed with him, but this task turned out to be within the capabilities of only Bulychev himself. He wrote that a telegram had arrived in Moscow with Far East: Dinosaurs are not extinct and one of them is caught. Then turmoil begins, a railway platform is urgently organized to transport the dinosaur, and suddenly a correspondent appears in Moscow, sending a telegram. In his hands is a jar in which a dinosaur sits. “Dinosaurs did not go extinct,” says the correspondent, “but they were greatly reduced.”

The story was urgently published, the editorial prizes were saved, and a new author appeared in Russian science fiction.

So, at least, Kir Bulychev himself wrote about it in his memoirs.

But before becoming a writer, Igor Mozheiko had to go through a lot. When the Great Patriotic War began, he was seven years old. Together with his mother and younger sister, he was sent from Moscow to be evacuated to the east. The trains moved very slowly, sometimes standing in the steppe for half a day. During one of the stops, the Mozheiko family almost fell behind the train when the driver unexpectedly gave a departure and the people who had gone out for a walk had to catch up with their cars. And yet, Igor and his relatives reached their destination.

First they lived in the village of Krasny Bor, and then in the small town of Chistopol. They lived hungry and cold: the country was at war, one could only dream of personal comfort. And it so happened that Igor became seriously ill: his heart became inflamed. Scientifically, this is called “rheumatic carditis.” He lay in bed for six months because doctors strictly forbade him to get up. But then he finally recovered, became stronger, and in 1942 was able to return to Moscow and go to school.

Many years later, already in the new century, Igor Vsevolodovich’s heart will still fail him. At first it gets capricious, and then it stops altogether. But this will not happen soon, but for now little Igor goes to school and reads books. The books are very different, but for some reason the adventure and fantasy ones are remembered better than others. Louis Boussenard, Jacolliot, Alexander Belyaev, Sergei Belyaev, Ivan Efremov, Alexey Tolstoy. If you haven't read these authors yet, be sure to read them! Real literature never becomes obsolete, real heroes live forever. And among them are the heroes of Kir Bulychev, of course.

True, before Igor Vsevolodovich himself took up the pen, two important events happened for him. Firstly, all his childhood he dreamed of becoming an artist, but eventually entered the Institute foreign languages to the translation department. And I learned English there. And secondly, he married early, and he and his wife, like the families of five other married translators, were sent to Burma, where Soviet specialists were building an Institute of Technology, a hotel and a hospital.

Burma Bulychev was slightly disappointed. It turned out that in the capital of the country, the city of Rangoon, elephants do not roam the streets at all, and the Irrawaddy River is not only deep and powerful, but also muddy and dirty.

But in Rangoon, Igor Mozheiko came across an English book store with huge stocks of fiction. And he could also read the latest issues of Galaxy magazine there. At that time, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, Clifford Simak, Robert Sheckley and Ray Bradbury were published there. They were not yet considered undisputed classics; they were young and full of ideas. And almost every day, Igor Mozheiko, having quickly dealt with urgent construction matters at customs or in a warehouse, went into this store and spent long hours in it.

When the trip came to an end two years later, Igor Vsevolodovich could probably be considered the greatest expert on English-language science fiction in the USSR. Fiction had accumulated in him and was just waiting for a reason to spill out onto paper.

This occasion was the remaining “ownerless” cover of the “Iskatel” magazine. However, you already know about this.

All the fiction that Kir Bulychev wrote, he himself divided into three parts. Firstly, fiction is “normal”, serious, “scientific”. Secondly, parody fiction - short stories about the fictitious town of Velikiy Guslyar. Thirdly, fiction for children and teenagers - stories about Alisa Selezneva and her friends.

He was best known, of course, from the stories about Alice. There was one simple reason for this: these stories were published very willingly. They did not raise any questions among the then leadership of the country, because they talked about a bright and good future. Of course, they are, first of all, talented, which is why today's children love to read them and tomorrow's children will probably read them. In addition, there were almost no children's science fiction writers in the USSR. Apart from Kir Bulychev, one can only remember Vladislav Krapivin, while the rest of the science fiction writers wrote rarely and reluctantly for children.

And such a situation developed. Kir Bulychev came to his favorite publishing house “Children's Literature” and proposed including a book of adult fiction in the plan. And the publishing house answered him with a sigh: “Do you know how many adult science fiction writers we have in line for publication? But again there are no children. You write us another book about Alice, please, and we will publish it with pleasure.”

So it turns out that even our adults don’t know Kira Bulychev’s adult fiction very well. But she is very interesting! The flights of earthlings into space and adventures on distant planets are described in a series of works about Doctor Pavlysh (the most famous of them is “The Village”). Bulychev’s other heroes fight against galactic criminals and villains: Cosmoflot agent Andrei Bruce and Intergalactic Police officer Cora Orvat, characters from the novels “The Dungeon of the Witches” and “The Rape of Theseus.” ABOUT parallel world, where many dangerous surprises await earthlings, can be read in the “Shadow Theater” book series.

And what’s most remarkable is that all these serious works are quite suitable for young readers: they speak about very difficult things clearly and convincingly.

Kir Bulychev also has books that will be much more the more interesting it is who is older. He, for example, considered the cycle of novels “The Chronos River” to be the best of what he wrote. And it talks about our complex Russian history, suggesting what would have happened if it had flowed a little differently than what happened in reality... Bulychev also wrote a lot of documentary historical books. About how the Second World War went on in South-West Asia (“ West wind- clear weather"). About how differently the civilizations of the West and the East developed (“1185”)... I hope that in due time you will discover such a Bulychev.

But you may have already discovered Bulychev, a television and film screenwriter. Maybe you saw the series “Guest from the Future” on one of the TV channels or on discs? It is about Alisa Selezneva, based on the story “One Hundred Years Ahead.” When it was first filmed, its popularity among schoolchildren in our country was enormous. The story of a student of the 6th “B” class Kolya Gerasimov, who, having gone to the store for kefir, found himself in the future, prevented space pirates from stealing Alice’s device for reading thoughts - myelophone, returned to his time and, at home, together with Alice, defeated the pirates, Many viewers liked it.

Natasha Guseva, who played Alice, made a special impression on her peers. Thousands of boys wrote letters to her, offering to be friends. And they were all very jealous of the grown man, screenwriter Kir Bulychev, who, teasing, liked to mention at meetings with readers that he always had the opportunity to invite Natasha to an ice cream parlor.

The story with the letters received an unexpected continuation. Usually, such movie crushes don’t end with anything. Schoolchildren are growing up, dreams of a distant beautiful actress are disappearing. But one of Natasha’s fans turned out to be very persistent and persistent. He found out her address and bombarded her with declarations of love. And imagine, a few years later they got married, and then their daughter was born! And if it weren’t for the series, there would be no wedding, no daughter...

But we got a little distracted. And I would like to talk about one more film, the script for which was written by Kir Bulychev. It is called “Through Thorns to the Stars” and, perhaps, can lay claim to the title of the best science-fiction picture of domestic production.

The film begins in space. On a crashed ship, rescuers accidentally discover a surviving girl. This is Niya from the planet Dessa. There is an ecological disaster on her home planet: all nature has been destroyed, the population lacks water and air. Earthlings fly to the rescue, but it turns out that not everyone local residents I like that they will be rescued. The Dessian oligarch Turanchoks is afraid of losing his profits from the production of gas masks and masks. He tries to stop the earthlings, but dies in a skirmish with his former henchman, who has gone over to the side of good. Now nothing can stop us from saving the planet...

Of course, the filmmakers wanted not only to tell the story of distant Dessa, but also to warn against such a development of events on Earth. It’s not for nothing that at the end the inscription appears on the screen: “All footage of the dying planet Dessa was filmed on planet Earth.” Unfortunately, there is a danger of going too far in destroying own home still threatens earthlings. This means that the film “Through Thorns to the Stars,” filmed in 1980, is still relevant.

In total, one and a half dozen feature and animated films were produced based on the scripts of Kir Bulychev. He wrote his own, extremely interesting chapter in the history of Russian cinema of the 20th century.

The story “Alice's Journey,” which is published in this book, was also filmed. It is possible that you have not only seen, but also already loved the cartoon “The Secret of the Third Planet”. Of course, it does not repeat the book in all details. For example, in the book there are three captains, but in the cartoon there are only two; it’s as if there wasn’t a third one. Or the wonderful story about forty-three “hares” that had to be removed from the Pegasus ship was omitted. Why is that? Yes, because literature and cinema live by their own laws. And when a film is shot too close to the text, it almost always turns out very boring. Well, take the same “hares”. It's fun to read about them. How to show it? Film how, one by one, they are found on board and disembarked? Don't you fall asleep around the twelfth "hare"?

In general, there is no need to be surprised at the differences between the book and the film. After all, in the main thing they are similar. Both there and there talk about the adventures of Alice and her dad, Professor Seleznev, on different planets. It shows how courage and honesty can help in the most dangerous situations, even when space pirates have fooled you for their own selfish purposes. And about friendship, this great force that can move mountains, the book and the film speak with equal admiration.

Read Bulychev!

Alexander Roiphe

Chapter 1
Criminal Alice

I promised Alice: “When you finish second grade, I’ll take you with me on a summer expedition. We’ll fly on the Pegasus ship to collect rare animals for our zoo.”

I said this back in the winter, right after the New Year. And at the same time he set several conditions: study well, don’t do stupid things and don’t engage in adventures.

Alice honestly fulfilled the conditions, and nothing seemed to threaten our plans. But in May, a month before departure, an incident occurred that almost ruined everything.

That day I was working at home, writing an article for the Bulletin of Cosmozoology. Through the open door of the office, I saw that Alice had come home from school looking gloomy, throwing her bag with a voice recorder and microfilms onto the table, refusing lunch, and instead of her favorite book in recent months, Beasts of Distant Planets, she took up The Three Musketeers.

-Are you in trouble? – I asked.

“Nothing of the sort,” answered Alice. - Why do you think so?

- So, it seemed.

Alice thought for a moment, put the book aside and asked:

- Dad, do you happen to have a gold nugget?

– Do you need a big nugget?

- About one and a half kilograms.

- What about smaller ones?

– To be honest, there is no less. I don’t have any nugget. Why do I need it?

“I don’t know,” said Alice. “I just needed a nugget.”

I left the office, sat down next to her on the sofa and said:

-Tell me what happened there.

- Nothing special. Just need a nugget.

– And if we’re completely honest?

Alice took a deep breath, looked out the window, and finally decided:

- Dad, I'm a criminal.

- A criminal?

“I committed a robbery, and now I’ll probably be kicked out of school.”

“It’s a pity,” I said. - Well, continue. I hope that everything is not as scary as it seems at first glance.

– In general, Alyosha Naumov and I decided to catch a giant pike. She lives in the Ikshinsky reservoir and devours fry. One fisherman told us about it, you don’t know him.

- What does the nugget have to do with it?

- For the spinner.

– We discussed it in class and decided that we should catch pike with a spoon. A simple pike is caught with a simple spoon, but a giant pike must be caught with a special spoon. And then Leva Zvansky said about the nugget. And we have a nugget in the school museum. Or rather, there was a nugget. Weighing one and a half kilograms. One graduate gave it to his school. He brought it from the asteroid belt.

– And you stole a gold nugget weighing one and a half kilograms?

- That's not entirely true, dad. We borrowed it. Leva Zvansky said that his father is a geologist and he will bring a new one. In the meantime, we decided to make a spinner out of gold. Pike will probably bite on such a spoon.

– Lot fell at you.

- Well, yes, the lot fell on me, and I could not retreat in front of all the guys. Moreover, no one would have missed this nugget.

- And then?

– And then we went to Alyosha Naumov, took a laser and sawed this damn nugget. And we went to the Ikshinskoye reservoir. And the pike bit off our spoon.

- Or maybe not a pike. Maybe a snag. The spoon was very heavy. We looked for her and didn't find her. We dived in turns.

- And your crime was discovered?

– Yes, because Zvansky is a deceiver. He brought a handful of diamonds from home, but says that there is not a piece of gold. We sent him home with diamonds. We need his diamonds! And then Elena Alexandrovna comes and says: “Young people, clean the museum, I’ll bring the first-graders here on an excursion.” There are such unfortunate coincidences! And everything was revealed immediately. She ran to the director. "Danger! - he says (we listened at the door). “Someone’s past has awakened in their blood!” Alyoshka Naumov, however, said that he would take all the blame on himself, but I did not agree. If the lot has fallen, let them execute me. That's all.

- That's all? – I was surprised. - So you confessed?

“I didn’t have time,” said Alice. - We were given until tomorrow. Elena said: either tomorrow the nugget will be in place, or a big conversation will take place. This means that tomorrow we will be removed from the competition, and maybe even kicked out of school.

- From what competitions?

– Tomorrow we have races in air bubbles. For the school championship. And our team from the class is just Alyoshka, me and Egovrov. Yegovrov can’t fly alone.

“You forgot about another complication,” I said.

-You violated our agreement.

“I did,” Alice agreed. “But I hoped that the violation was not very strong.”

- Yes? Steal a nugget weighing one and a half kilos, cut it into spoons, drown it in the Ikshinsky reservoir and then never confess! I'm afraid you'll have to stay. Pegasus will leave without you.

- Oh, dad! - Alice said quietly. - What are we going to do now?

“Think,” I said and returned to the office to finish writing the article.

But it was poorly written. It turned out to be a very nonsense story. Like little children, they sawed up a museum exhibit.

An hour later I looked out of the office. Alice was not there. She ran away somewhere. Then I called Friedman at the Mineralogical Museum, whom I had once met in the Pamirs.

A round face with a black mustache appeared on the videophone screen.

“Lenya,” I said, “do you have an extra nugget weighing about one and a half kilograms in your stash?”

- There are five kilograms. And why do you need it? For work?

- No, I need to go home.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Lenya answered, twirling his mustache. - They are all capitalized.

“I’ll like the one that’s best for me,” I said. – My daughter needed it for school.

“Then you know what,” said Friedman, “I’ll give you a nugget.” Or rather, not for you, but for Alice. But you will pay me good for good.

- With pleasure.

- Give me a blue leopard for one day.

- Sinebarsa. We have mice.

- In the stones?

“I don’t know what they eat, but they’ve got it.” And they are not afraid of the cat. And the mousetrap is ignored. And from the smell and sight of the blue leopard, mice, as everyone knows, run away as fast as they can.

What was I supposed to do? The blue leopard is a rare animal, and I myself will have to go with it to the museum and see there that the blue leopard does not bite anyone.

“Okay,” I said. – The nugget just arrived by tomorrow morning, via pneumatic mail.

I turned off the videophone, and immediately the doorbell rang. I opened. Behind the door stood a little white boy in an orange Venusian scout suit, with the emblem of the pioneer of the Sirian system on his sleeve.

“Excuse me,” said the boy, “are you Alisa’s father?”

- Hello. My last name is Egovrov. Is Alice at home?

- No. She went somewhere.

- It's a pity. Can you be trusted?

- To me? Can.

- Then I have a manly conversation for you.

– Like an astronaut with an astronaut?

“Don’t laugh,” Yegovrov blushed. “In time, I will rightfully wear this suit.”

“I have no doubt,” I said. - So what kind of manly talk is this?

“Alice and I are competing in competitions, but one circumstance happened that could cause her to be removed from the competition.” Basically, she needs to return one lost thing to school. I'm giving it to you, but not a word to anyone. Clear?

“I see, a mysterious stranger,” I said.

- Hold it.

He handed me the bag. The bag was heavy.

- Nugget? – I asked.

- Do you know?

- Nugget.

– I hope it’s not stolen?

- No, no! They gave it to me at the tourist club. Well, goodbye.

Before I could return to the office, the doorbell rang again. Two girls were found behind the door.

“Hello,” they said in unison. - We are from first class. Take it for Alice.

They handed me two identical wallets and ran away. One wallet contained four gold coins, ancient coins from someone's collection. The other contains three teaspoons. The spoons turned out to be platinum, not gold, but I couldn’t catch up with the girls.

Another nugget was dropped by an unknown well-wisher into the mailbox. Then Leva Zvansky came and tried to hand me a small box of diamonds. Then one high school student came and brought three nuggets at once.

“I collected stones as a child,” he said.

Alice returned in the evening. From the door she said solemnly:

– Dad, don’t be upset: everything turned out okay. You and I are flying on an expedition.

- Why such a change? – I asked.

- Because I found a nugget.

Alice barely pulled the nugget out of her bag. It looked like it weighed about six or seven kilograms.

– I went to Poloskov. To our captain. He called all his friends when he found out what was going on. And he also fed me lunch, so I wasn’t hungry.

Then Alice saw nuggets and other gold things that had accumulated in our house during the day, laid out on the table.

- Oh oh oh! - she said. – Our museum will become rich.

“Listen, criminal,” I said then, “I would never have taken you on the expedition if it weren’t for your friends.”

- What does my friends have to do with it?

- Yes, because they would hardly run around Moscow and look for gold things for a very bad person.

“I’m not such a bad person,” said Alice without undue modesty.

I frowned, but at that moment the pneumatic mail receiving device rang in the wall. I opened the hatch and took out a bag with a nugget from the Mineralogical Museum. Friedman kept his promise.

“This is from me,” I said.

“You see,” said Alice. - So you are my friend too.

“It turns out like this,” I answered. - But I ask you not to be arrogant.

...The next morning I had to walk Alice to school, because the total weight of the gold reserves in our apartment reached eighteen kilograms.

Handing her the bag at the entrance to the school, I said:

– I completely forgot about the punishment.

- About which one?

– On Sunday you will have to take the blue leopard from the zoo and go with him to the Mineralogical Museum.

– With the blue leopard – to the museum? He's stupid.

“Yes, he’ll be there to scare the mice, and you’ll make sure he doesn’t scare anyone else.”

“Agreed,” said Alice. – But we are still flying on the expedition.

How can an ordinary Moscow schoolgirl spend the summer holidays at the end of the 21st century if your dad is an employee of the Moscow Zoo? Of course, go with him in search of rare animals throughout the galaxy, and at the same time try to smuggle his classmates to a super football match that will be held on the Moon, find and save the legendary Second Captain and meet with evil space pirates. In general, there are a lot of impressions, and there will be something to tell at school!..

Kir Bulychev, in my opinion, along with Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, is one of the best authors who wrote science fiction in the Soviet Union. And this work is one of the most striking works in his work. Few people have been able to create a world the size of an entire galaxy in less than two hundred pages. Many worlds, their inhabitants inhabiting them, so different from each other, exotic animals that capture the reader’s imagination, as well as interstellar travel and adventures on the surface of planets - all this awaits us on the pages of this magnificent story. And apparently because the entire series about Alisa Selezneva is primarily intended for children, we do not find here scientific justification for what the Master is talking about, although he touches on some serious issues, such as, for example, fear of the future, ecological problems, as well as features of children's perception of the world.

And I would certainly like to note that the book is written very kindly and even the evil space pirates, Rats and Veselchak U, do not cause obvious rejection. This is probably what the future should have been like in the dreams of Soviet people. Kind and Light!

Result: The standard of youth fiction written in the USSR.

Rating: 10

Reading the reviews, I was a little surprised that some readers said the book was naive and childish. Of course it is there. When I realized that fiction is nothing more than just a way of expressing thoughts, I thought about the meaning of this book. When I read it for the first time, I couldn’t properly understand what was real in it. Now I understand. Think about it.

1. Little green men. They are afraid of the future, running away from the present into the past, where it was good. Doesn't this look like people? Same problems.

2. Planet of the Claptrap. The robots have built up the entire planet with their hardware and there are not even forests left, which only makes things worse for them. The problem of ecology and the harmful treatment of our planet.

3. Tadpoles. Seleznev, Poloskov and Zeleny immediately began looking for monsters without thinking. It is a common thing to turn a fly into an elephant and be afraid of a fly without any particular reason for it.

You can also list...

You see how much is contained in this fascinating book, reading which I did not tremble. It tops the list of my MOST favorite books, although after it I certainly read a lot...

Rating: 10

Classics of Soviet children's fiction. Professor Seleznev, mechanic Zeleny, Gromozeka, Alisa. We have known all of them since childhood, if not from books, then from the wonderful cartoon “The Secret of the Third Planet” by Roman Kachanov. At the same time, the book is broader and more complex than the cartoon; despite the childishness of the plot, two episodes could not help but attract attention. The first is the planet Sheshineru and the little green men inhabiting it, who received pills for time travel, and since then this civilization has lost any incentive to progress, over and over again chasing the pleasures of bygone years. The second episode is the planet Shelezyak and the civilization of robots that thoughtlessly spent all the resources of their world and are now vegetating, degrading in the complete absence of hope. These are not children’s problems at all, and Bulychev, when creating “Alice’s Journey,” an undoubtedly brilliant children’s book about the future, added a second layer to it for adults so that they try to avoid those mistakes with which this future will never come.

Rating: 10

I began my acquaintance with Bulychev’s work with his serious “Village”, “The Great Spirit and the Fugitives”, “The City Above”, etc. And to this day, in terms of the totality of their characteristics, they are for me one of the best examples of fantasy.

As for the series about Alice, it is mainly influenced by nostalgia - memories of the first impressions of the cartoon “The Secret of the Third Planet” and the film “Guest from the Future”. And besides, it’s just nice to plunge into the atmosphere of childhood.

“Alice's Journey” is undoubtedly a story for children and teenagers, but I read it (like other stories about Alice) with great interest and pleasure. Sometimes the cruelty and darkness in fiction is so tiring that such books act as a lifeline for the soul!

Obviously, there is a lot of naivety here, but, on the other hand, there are a lot of great ideas. The “photo-mirror” flowers alone are worth it! And in general, in “Alice’s Journey” the author managed to convey a vivid feeling of some kind of native (and not at all hostile) galaxy, full of miracles, amazing planets and the wide variety of creatures inhabiting them.

Rating: 9

...Stood there in the evening then

At anchor off London

Three captains of the court.

I have long developed for myself the criterion for a good children's book: it should appeal not only to children, but also to adults. And adults, probably even to a greater extent. After all, it is much more difficult to write a good children's book than a book for adults - the author must be a real Master. From this point of view, Kir Bulychev is an undoubted Master. The image of a girl from Earth he created goes with me through life: from childhood to adulthood. I hope it will reach old age.

"Alice's Journey" is one of the best works of the "Alice" cycle. The image of the future presented in the story has some strange attractive power: for some reason you just want to go there yourself. It is childishly open and direct, but at the same time there is no sugary naivety in it: good there is good, and evil is evil, without any exaggeration or allowance for age. The concepts of friendship, honor, and betrayal are also presented in a completely adult way, and the presence of a little girl somehow exposes them in a special way, clearing them of all adult husks. After all, it is difficult to pretend in front of children - they subtly sense the slightest falsehood.

10 points.

Rating: 10

“The Secret of the Third Planet” is generally a classic, so it’s somehow no longer worth discussing its relevance against the background of modernity. This adventure of Alisa Selezneva forever branded her as an intelligent, inquisitive and brave girl, and endowed the civilization of the 21st century, according to Kir Bulychev, with technological advancement and justice. It is clear that all these noble qualities were taken by the author from his real time, but this does not make “The Secret of the Third Planet” far-fetched in the modern century, when the concepts that distinguished this story have already been lost.

The story is written for children, but is great to read as an adult. Of course, if the reader is not too picky: the phrases, let’s say, are constructed in a very trivial way. The adventures in this story take place in space, and this is what I enjoy most - with Alice I was able to travel to other star systems. “The Mystery...” reflects the desire of all mankind to study near and far space, and Bulychev directs his heroes to the farthest frontiers. This is not a scientific work, the reader does not have to understand quantum physics, and this is good. Naive, but good.

Rating: 10

It is very, very, very difficult to write a better book for children than Alice's Travels. I read it at the age of 10, having already watched the cartoon several times. And I loved the book more than the cartoon! I have re-read it many times, I quote interesting phrases from the book many times - in a word, a book for all times!

A real treasure! Real literature!

Rating: 10

ADORE. In my childhood there was such a book “The Girl from the Earth” (most likely published in 1974). I've read it a hundred times. Or two hundred. I would read to the last page, turn the volume over and start reading again. All my girlfriends read the book. It really was read to the gills. Then my son read about Alice, I already bought him a new edition and sequels. A wonderful children's book that doesn't get old over the years. Written in wonderful language. I remember that when the cartoon came out, I was hostile to it - after all, everything was wrong. And then I even got used to the cartoon, as one of the reflections, a projection of the book, now I think the reason for this is the author of the script, the same favorite author. In general, the book is a “must have” on a shelf in a children's bookcase.

Rating: 10

I read it with my eight-year-old daughter. It turned out that at the time of reading, neither my wife nor my daughter remembered the cartoon “The Secret of the Third Planet,” although they had definitely watched it more than once. I remembered the cartoon almost word for word, so it was difficult not to compare.

Overall a very good detective quest. Interesting. Almost all guns fire. But the feeling is that when creating the cartoon, everything unnecessary was successfully removed and it turned out much better.

The book is written on behalf of Alice’s dad and therefore is perceived as an organic continuation of “The Girl With Whom Nothing Will Happen.”

The first two chapters have little to do with what follows. We learn that on Earth there are no problems with gold nuggets, there are problems with understanding what is good and what is bad in children. And that the concept of friendship and mutual assistance is not alien to the end of the 21st century.

Further more. Alice is entrusted with controlling a boat over a large cosmodrome, which almost ends sadly. After which Alice also arranges an overload for the unfortunate Pegasus, again within the framework of the idea of ​​​​children and friendship about mutual assistance - it is better for everyone to crash than not to get to the football match. But Alice is careless, she believes that almost in the 22nd century on the Earth-Moon nothing can happen to a person, no matter what stupidity he does.

Then Gromozeka appears, who is of course much more impressive than in the cartoon, in the sense of being scarier. There is no joke with 400 drops of valerian in the book. But the plot begins with three captains, who turned into 2 captains in the cartoon without any losses.

The chapter about tadpoles fits perfectly into the concept of the Alice stories, but does not play at all in the future. More precisely, there is a desire that Alice won from Poloskov, but this thread ended on the planet with little green men and games with time. The same applies to the Empty Planet. In the book, neither fish from an empty planet, nor tadpoles, nor unfortunate green men, with a fire, unlike the robots from the shells, no one is going to help, are not found. And they were not wisely included in the cartoon.

But bushes, an indicator and a Weaver spider walk throughout the story.

Otherwise, to an accuracy of the number of captains and, accordingly, the presence of an equal-in-power land of the Fix civilization, the book and the cartoon are similar.

We meet Veselchak U and Rat for the first time. For some reason, the cartoon decided to add an essence, creating instead of the Rat, the pirate Glot.

The scientific nature of the book was also diluted by Alice’s invisible hat.

Mirror flowers and ghost pebbles are very clever inventions. The question remains why spy life forms live in the Medusa system on both habitable planets.

Spoiler (plot reveal) (click on it to see)

The ending turned out to be very dynamic and lively. And the third captain, who was buried almost three times in the last chapter, added drama.

As usual, negligence is common. Starting from checking the load on the ship and ending with unclosed hatches on unfamiliar planets and the freedom of an obviously dangerous turtle, just because you feel sorry for it.

The talker bird is not very well liked in the book. In the cartoon, she was clearly treated with more respect.

The psychological war between the captains and Veselchak, with the peculiar help of Zeleny, is perfectly described.

As a nerd, I was confused by some mathematical moments. Medusa is in another part of the galaxy. Well, let it be in the center for simplicity. This is 30,000 light years. holidays - 3 months. This means they flew to Medusa no more than 45 days. For simplicity, let's say 30 days, that's 1000 light years per day (30 light years per hour). In this context, it’s very funny how they looked for the Empty Planet:

Just think, 1500 light years to the cloud.

And with absolute fuel it’s even faster. It’s somehow not clear where faster.

Rating: 9

At one time it was a book of books. WITH capital letters. Published in 1974, and the animated film appeared in 1981. And, it seems to me, it was he who became an event in the science fiction of the USSR. For the first time such a big film, pirates, adventures - it was so unusual, or rather so unusual, without slogans, politics and victories.

Of all the works about Alice, this one stands apart, it seems to me that it is full of fantastic ideas, adventures and, most importantly, kindness. Even pirates are not repulsive. Such books belong to the classics of science fiction, they have been read and will be read, and will be reread

Rating: 10

The first real science fiction in my life! True, read after The Hobbit, which was the reason for the constant priority of fantasy, but still... A children's book, fascinating, exciting, completely unlike anything else. It is much more complete and interesting than the cartoon, which, of course, is good in its own way, but everything that is possible is cut off. A bunch of interesting ideas from the author - such as men with time pills who stole pineapples from the refrigerator, which are designed to convey to the young reader important thoughts that cannot always be explained in ordinary life... It’s good that there are books that you can slip to your child to read when you can’t answer his questions in your own words...

Today it is not so easy to instill in a child a love of reading. Cartoons, TV shows and computer games compete for his attention. Forcing people to read under pressure is definitely not the answer. Wise parents use a completely different method, since it is enough just once to interest the child in an entertaining story or story for him to want to make friends with books. And experience shows that this friendship drags on for years.

However, which book should you choose? In this article, as an example, we will look at a work written by Kir Bulychev - “Alice’s Journey”. A brief summary of the story will not only allow you to get a general idea of ​​the book, but will also reveal the features of the author’s artistic style. But this is precisely what allowed Bulychev to create an impressive cycle of works united by one heroine, which for several decades continues to be popular with both children and adults.

The story consists of 24 chapters, each of which, in fact, is a small independent complete story. From the first chapter, the reader learns about the preparations for an interstellar journey to collect rare alien animals by Professor Seleznev and his daughter Alice, whom he promised to take with him. The participation of second-grader Alice in the expedition is called into question due to an unpleasant incident at school. However, true friends come to the rescue, and everything ends well.

In the next chapter, due to Alice's fault, the launch of the Pegasus spaceship is almost disrupted. Due to the fact that she secretly brought on board nearly fifty of her school friends so that they could get to a football match on the moon, there was an overload, and the Pegasus simply could not tear itself away from the Earth. However, the crew’s favorite is forgiven for this trick too.

New character

In the third chapter, a new, very colorful character appears - the space archaeologist Gromozeka. This good-natured giant will appear more than once in various stories in the series about Alisa Selezneva. Most often, in order to convince Professor Seleznev to allow his daughter to get involved in another adventure, it is his help that the author Bulychev will resort to. "Alice's Journey" summary which we are considering gives a fairly complete picture of Gromozeka’s character and his inclinations. So in other stories his appearance is perceived as a meeting with a close friend.

In the meantime, he invites his friend Seleznev to turn to the diaries of the famous Three Captains, who traveled the entire Galaxy on their starships. Their records should help the expedition find truly rare and unique alien animals. The main intrigue of the story begins with this innocent conversation.

Alice's first discovery

The fourth chapter is marked by a commotion on the ship. The first unknown animals found - tadpoles - quickly turn into monsters, and then suddenly disappear altogether. This mystery, which turned out to be too much for the three adult crew members, is easily dealt with by the extraordinary childish thinking Alice.

This is her first discovery in a whole series of future mysteries and puzzles. What follows is another episode that, without a doubt, deserves to be included in the summary (“Alice’s Journey”). Bushes are creatures that look like plants, which is how they get their name, but behave like animals. They terrorized the entire team until the inventive Alice realized what the bushes were really after.

Talker

Professor Seleznev was not able to personally see the captains' diaries; he received only their oral and very brief contents. Alisa Selezneva’s journey might not have become so exciting if she had not been lucky enough to acquire a talker that belonged to one of the captains.

Talker - amazing bird, capable of independently flying between planets. In addition, he has an excellent memory and is able to reproduce any sounds he hears. The second captain, having fallen into a trap, sent him to call for help. But only a knowledgeable person could fully extract the information embedded in the bird. So our heroes had to be content with only fragmentary clues.

Meeting with space pirates

On the very outskirts of the Galaxy, far from patrol ships, the most elusive of space pirates - Veselchak U and the Rats - enter into confrontation with the Pegasus crew. But even here, Alice’s courage and ingenuity allows her to win a complete victory over the sophisticated scoundrels. They are arrested, and the captured captains are released.

Famous captains express gratitude to their saviors. They ask about the latest news from Earth and receive a story about it. Alisa Selezneva's journey is coming to an end, but the captains promise to take her with them on an excursion to the neighboring Galaxy. The father promises to let his daughter go on the condition that she grows up a little more.

Homecoming

The story ends with a description of how the whole team heads to their native solar system. During the expedition, we managed to collect not very many specimens of rare animals. But these species will be a worthy addition to the collection of the Moscow Space Zoo.

Alice is asked not to talk too much about the most amazing adventures. She readily agrees, realizing that her friends won’t believe most of them anyway. In addition, the logbook already stores their brief contents. Alice's journey, completed during the summer holidays, ends with the beginning of the new school year.

The Mystery of the Third Planet

Based on his story, Bulychev wrote a script for the cartoon “The Secret of the Third Planet.” Like the book itself, it turned out to be perky and dynamic. However, this work should be perceived, at best, only as a summary of the fairy tale “Alice’s Journey.” It in no way conveys the full story about the girl Alice described in the book.

Therefore, if school curriculum you will need to read this story, don't think that watching the cartoon will be enough. Although, if you try, you can write a summary of “Alice’s Journey.” 5-6 sentences will be enough for this.

Description option for reader's diary

As the expedition progresses, the small crew encounters many unusual situations, the resourceful Alice often helps to find a way out of them. Thanks to her curiosity, the team manages to discover the trail of long-lost heroes - famous captains. Despite the machinations of space pirates, the crew of the Pegasus discovers the secret hideout of the villains and frees the captive captains.

From his trip, Professor Seleznev brings tadpoles to the zoo, which during their development grow to gigantic sizes, and then turn into small amphibians; bushes that can run after people on their roots in search of water, and fight among themselves for compote. Among the finds are pebbles that turn into heroes that a nearby person thinks about. The researchers also brought Skliss, who looks like an ordinary cow, but has transparent wings, and a couple of other animals.