Cinderella's white dress story. Kir Bulychev - Cinderella's white dress. About the ugly bioform

OK it's all over Now. Drach took the last readings of the instruments, battened down the casing and sent the construction boats into the capsule. Then he looked into the cave where he lived for two months, and he wanted orange juice. So the head is spinning. This is a reaction to too long an overvoltage. But why exactly orange juice?.. The devil knows why... But for the juice to gurgle like a brook on the sloping floor of the cave - here it is, all yours, bend down and lap from the stream.

You'll have orange juice, Drach said. And there will be songs. His memory knew how the songs were sung, but there was no certainty that it had correctly recorded this process. And there will be quiet evenings over the lake - he will choose the deepest lake in the world, so that broad-leaved pines grow on a cliff above the water, and strong mushrooms look out from a layer of needles in a transparent forest without undergrowth.

Drach climbed out to the capsule and, before entering it, took one last look at the hilly plain, at the lake bubbling with lava on the horizon and black clouds.

Well, everything. The drach pressed the signal of readiness... The light faded, flew away, left on the planet a ramp no longer needed.

In the ship on duty in orbit, a white light flashed.

“Get ready to welcome the guest,” the captain said.

An hour and a half later, Drach crossed the connecting tunnel to the ship. Weightlessness prevented him from coordinating movements, although it did not cause any particular inconvenience. He didn't have much trouble at all. Moreover, the team behaved tactfully, and there were no jokes that he was afraid of, because he was very tired. He spent the time of reloading on the captain's bridge and looked with curiosity at the shift watch in shock-absorbing baths. The overloads continued for quite a long time, and Drach performed the duties of a voluntary watchman. He did not always trust the automatics, because in recent months he had found more than once that he himself was more reliable than them. Drach jealously watched the remote control and even in the depths of his soul waited for an excuse to intervene, but no reason presented itself.

He dreamed of orange juice all the way to Earth. Unfortunately, orange juice was always on the table in the wardroom, and therefore Drach did not go there so as not to see a decanter with a piercing yellow liquid.

Drach was Dr Dombey's only patient, if Drach can be called a patient at all.

“I feel inferior,” Drach complained to the doctor, “because of this damned juice.

"It's not the juice," said Dombey. “Your brain could come up with a different fad. For example, the dream of a soft pillow.

But I want orange juice. You don't understand this.

“It is good that you speak and hear,” said Dombey. - Grunin managed without it.

“Relative consolation,” Drach replied. “I haven't needed it for several months.

Dombey was alarmed. Three planets, eight months of diabolical labor. Drach on the edge. We had to shorten the program. But Drach didn't want to hear about it.

The equipment of Dombey's ship's laboratory was not suitable for seriously examining Drach. Remained intuition, and she beat all the bells. And although she cannot be completely trusted, on the very first communication session, the doctor sent a long-winded report to the center. Gevorkyan frowned as he read it. He liked brevity.

And Drach had a lousy mood all the way to Earth. He wanted to sleep, and the short spells of oblivion did not refresh him, but only frightened him with persistent nightmares.

The bioforming institute's mobile was brought close to the hatch. Dombey promised in farewell:

- I'll visit you. I would like to get closer to you.

- Consider that I smiled, - Drach answered, - you are invited to the shore of the blue lake.

In the mobile, Drach was accompanied by a young employee whom he did not know. The employee felt embarrassed, he must have been uncomfortable with Drach's neighborhood. Answering questions, he looked out the window. Drach thought the guy wouldn't make a bioformist. Drach moved forward, where the institute's driver Polachek was sitting. Polachek was glad to Drachu.

"I didn't think you'd make it," he said with captivating frankness. “Grunin was no dumber than you.

“All the same, it worked out,” Drach replied. - Just tired.

- This is the most dangerous. I know. It seems that everything is in order, but the brain fails.

Polachek had the thin hands of a musician, and the console panel seemed like a piano keyboard. The mobile was moving under low clouds, and Drach looked sideways at the city, trying to guess what had changed there.

Gevorkyan met Drach at the gate. An overweight, big-nosed old man with blue eyes was sitting on a bench under the sign "Institute for Bioformation of the Academy of Sciences." For Drach, and not only for Drach, Gevorkyan has long ceased to be a person, but has become a concept, a symbol of the institution.

- Well, - said Gevorkyan. “You haven't changed at all. You look fine. Almost everything is over. I say "almost" because now the main concerns concern me. And you will walk, relax and prepare.

- For what?

- To drink this very orange juice.

“So Dr. Dombey reported it, and I’m not doing well at all?”

“You are a fool, Drach. And he's always been a fool. What are we talking about here? This is not the best place.

A window in the nearest building swung open, and three heads looked out at once. Dima Dimov ran along the path from the second laboratory, distractedly taking with him a test tube with a blue liquid.

“But I didn’t know,” he justified himself, “they just told me now.

And Drach was seized by the blissful state of the prodigal son, who knows that firewood crackles in the kitchen and smells of a fried calf.

– How is it possible? Dimov attacked Gevorkyan. “I should have been informed. You personally.

“What kind of secrets are there,” Gevorkyan answered, as if justifying himself.

Drach understood why Gevorkian decided to stage his return without fanfare. Gevorkian did not know how he would return, and Dombey's message alarmed him.

“You look great,” Dimov said.

Someone giggled. Gevorkyan yelled at the onlookers, but no one left. Blooming lilac bushes hung over the path, and Drach imagined what a wonderful smell she had. The Maybugs streaked past like heavy bullets, and the sun was setting behind the old mansion that housed the institute's hotel.

They entered the hall and stopped for a moment by Grunin's portrait. People in other portraits were smiling. Grunin did not smile. He was always serious. Drach felt sad. Grunin was the only one who saw, knew, felt the emptiness and hot nakedness of the world from which he had now returned.

Drach had been stuck on the test bench for the second hour. Sensors swarmed around him like flies. Wires stretched in all corners. Dimov conjured at the instruments. Gevorkyan sat to the side, looking at the screens and looking sideways at the information tables.

– Where will you spend the night? Gevorkyan asked.

- I would like to have it. My room was not touched?

Everything as you left it.

- And still.

- I will not insist. You want to sleep in a mask, for God's sake...

Gevorgyan was silent. He didn't like curves, but he didn't want Drach to notice.

- What bothered you? Drach asked.

“Don’t turn around,” Dimov stopped him. - You interfere.

You've been in the field too long. Dombey should have called you back two months ago.

– Because of two months, I would have to start all over again.

- Oh well. - It was not clear whether Gevorkyan Dracha approved or condemned.

– When do you think to start? Drach asked.

- Even if it's tomorrow morning. But I beg you, sleep in the pressure chamber. It's in your best interest.

- If only in my interests ... I'll go to my place.

- Please. We don't need you anymore.

Bad business, Drach thought, heading for the door. The old man is angry.

Kir Bulychev

Village. Thirteen years of travel. Great spirit and fugitives. Cinderella's white dress

© Kir Bulychev, heirs, text, 2017

© AST Publishing House LLC, 2017

Stories about Dr. Pavlysh

Dr. Pavlysh is one of the most famous heroes of Kir Bulychev. He first appears in the story "The Last War" (1970). The ship "Segezha" arrives on a planet that has recently survived a nuclear war. The name of the ship is not accidental: it was on the dry cargo ship Segezha during the passage along the Northern Sea Route in 1967 that Kir Bulychev met the ship's doctor, who became the prototype of his hero.

In 1972, the story "The Great Spirit and the Runaways" was published. Dr. Pavlysh's ship "Compass" crashes. Only he remains alive. After sending a message about what happened, Pavlysh goes to explore the planet on which he managed to land, and discovers humanoids. Their civilization is still at the very beginning of its development, and at the same time, as Pavlysh sees, an unknown highly developed civilization is conducting an experiment on these primitive aliens.

Cinderella's White Dress (1980) is a love story. On the moon, at the carnival, Dr. Pavlysh meets a strange girl. After a fleeting acquaintance, he is left with only her name, Marina Kim, and a short note. Months later, while working on Project 18, an almost entirely oceanic planet, Dr. Pavlysh learns that Marina is also there. He tries to meet her, but she refuses. The reason is that she became a bioform: her body was changed to work in those conditions in which an ordinary person cannot work. One day, an earthquake strikes, and Dr. Pavlysh saves the bird, which is actually a changed Marina.

The story “Thirteen Years of Traveling” (1983) tells about the youth of Dr. Pavlysh, when he, then still a cadet, ended up on the experimental ship “Antey”, which has been flying to Alpha Cygnus for a hundred years. Thanks to teleportation, the crew changes every year, but when Pavlysh's replacement arrives, communication with Earth is cut off. You have to choose: to return home or fly the remaining thirteen years to the goal.

In the novel "The Village" (which was released in full only in 1988), Dr. Pavlysh appears only in the second part. And the first describes the catastrophe of the ship "Pole" and the seventeen-year survival of the remaining crew members. In an extremely unfavorable environment, they are constantly on the verge of life and death: the older generation is aging and losing hope, and the younger one knows about the Earth only from their parents. But in a moment of despair, the victims notice an object in the sky that can only be man-made. Indeed, another expedition landed on the planet, which includes Dr. Pavlysh. Upon discovering the wrecked ship "Polus", she at first believed its crew to be dead, but eventually met with the survivors.

The stories about Dr. Pavlysh are classic space fiction of the 1970s, an era of intense space exploration and the Cold War, naive hopes of speedy flights to distant stars and paralyzing horror of the possibility of nuclear catastrophe. But above all, they are about people from the future, whom we would like to see in our present.

Part one. Pass

Chapter first

It was damp in the house, midges were crowding around the lamp, they should have been extinguished long ago, mother, of course, forgot, but it was raining outside, semi-darkness. Oleg was lying on the bunk - he had just woken up. At night, he guarded the village: he chased jackals, they climbed to the barn in a whole flock, they almost pulled themselves up. There was emptiness and ordinaryness in the body, although he expected excitement from himself, maybe fear. After all, fifty-fifty - you will return or you will not return. And if fifty squared? There must be a pattern, there must be tables, otherwise you always reinvent the wheel. By the way, everyone was going to ask the old man what a bicycle is. Paradox. There is no bicycle, and the Old One reproaches them, without thinking about the meaning of the phrase.

Mother coughed in the kitchen. She appears to be at home.

- Why didn't you go? - he asked.

- Awoke? Do you want soup? I warmed up.

- And who went for mushrooms?

- Maryana with Dick.

“Maybe one of the guys got involved.

Could wake up, call. Maryana did not promise, but it would be natural if she called.

- I don't want to eat.

“If the rains don’t stop,” said the mother, “the cucumbers won’t ripen before the cold weather.” Everything will grow moldy.

Mother entered the room, dispersed the midge with her palm, blew out the lamp. Oleg looked at the ceiling. The yellow spot of mold has increased, changed shape. Just yesterday it looked like Vaitkus's profile: a nose with potatoes. And today the nose is swollen, as if stung by a wasp, and the forehead arched in a hump. Dick is not interested in the forest. Why should he collect mushrooms? He is a hunter, a steppe man, he himself always spoke.

“There are a lot of midges,” the mother dropped, “it’s cold for her in the forest.

- Found someone to pity.

The house was divided in half, on the other half lived the Old and the Durov twins. He took them to himself when the elders died. The twins have always been ill: one will recover, the other will catch a cold.

If not for their nightly whining, Oleg would never have agreed to be on duty at night. And now you could hear them whimpering in unison. Indistinct, distant, familiar as the wind, the monologue of the Old One broke off, the bench creaked. The old one went to the kitchen, and his students immediately began to roar.

- And where do you want to go? mother said. - You won't get there! It's good if you come back whole!

Now my mother is crying. She cries a lot now. At night, she mumbles, tosses and turns, then begins to cry quietly - you can guess, because she sniffs. Or starts whispering like a spell: “I can't, I can't take it anymore! Let me die better ... "Oleg, if he hears, freezes: to show that he is not sleeping is ashamed, as if he spied something that cannot be seen. Oleg is ashamed to confess, but he does not feel sorry for his mother. She cries about what Oleg does not have. She cries about countries that cannot be seen, about people who were not here. Oleg does not remember a different mother - only such as today. A thin, wiry woman, her piebald, straight hair pulled back in a bun, but it always falls out and falls in heavy strands along her cheeks, and the mother blows on them to remove them from her face. The face is red, pock-marked from percatipolis, there are dark bags under the eyes, and the eyes themselves are too light, as if faded. The mother sits at the table, her callused hands outstretched with hard palms down. Well, cry, what are you? Now he will get a photo ... that's right, she pushed the box towards her, opens it, takes out a photo.

Behind the wall, the Old One persuades the twins to eat. The twins whimper. Pupils chirp, help the Old One feed the kids. Well, as if the most ordinary day, as if nothing had happened. What are they doing in the forest? Soon noon. Leave for lunch, it's time for them to come back. You never know what can happen to people in the forest?

To the question Tell me a summary of Kir Bulychev's "Cinderella's white dress" given by the author Caucasian the best answer is "Cinderella's white dress" - the fifth story about the space doctor Pavlysh. While on the moon, he accidentally meets a strange girl Marina at the carnival, who literally fascinated and intrigued the young doctor. However, this acquaintance turns out to be so fleeting that Slava Pavlysh is left with only the knowledge of her name and a short note in two lines - everything he has (except for a vague half longing - half love). Several months pass and our hero, by a whim of cosmic circumstances, finds himself on the recently discovered and intensively explored by people planet Project-18, which almost entirely consists of the ocean, with the exception of a few small islands. By chance, Pavlysh finds out that Marina is also there. But for some reason the girl does not want to see him. Pavlysh is at a loss: when and how could he offend her? And it's not about being offended. The fact is that Marina is now not quite Marina, but a bioform (this is a person whose bodily structure has been changed in such a way that he can do better work in conditions in which a normal person is not able to work). During an earthquake at Project 18, Pavlysh rescues a bird that turns out to be a bio-altered Marina. Pavlysh explains to her and confesses his love. In parting, Marina gives him her portrait in a finely carved jade frame.

Answer from Mosol[newbie]
"Cinderella's White Dress" is the fifth story about the space doctor Pavlysh. While on the moon, he accidentally meets a strange girl Marina at the carnival, who literally fascinated and intrigued the young doctor. However, this acquaintance turns out to be so fleeting that Slava Pavlysh is left with only the knowledge of her name and a short note in two lines - everything he has (except for a vague half longing - half love). Several months pass and our hero, by a whim of cosmic circumstances, finds himself on the recently discovered and intensively explored by people planet Project-18, which almost entirely consists of the ocean, with the exception of a few small islands. By chance, Pavlysh finds out that Marina is also there. But for some reason the girl does not want to see him. Pavlysh is at a loss: when and how could he offend her? And it's not about being offended. The fact is that Marina is now not quite Marina, but a bioform (this is a person whose bodily structure has been changed in such a way that he can do better work in conditions in which a normal person is not able to work). During an earthquake at Project 18, Pavlysh rescues a bird that turns out to be a bio-altered Marina. Pavlysh explains to her and confesses his love. In parting, Marina gives him her portrait in a finely carved jade frame.

OK it's all over Now. Drach took the last readings of the instruments, battened down the casing and sent the construction boats into the capsule. Then he looked into the cave where he lived for two months, and he wanted orange juice. So the head is spinning. This is a reaction to too long an overvoltage. But why exactly orange juice?.. The devil knows why... But for the juice to gurgle like a brook on the sloping floor of the cave - here it is, all yours, bend down and lap from the stream.

You'll have orange juice, Drach said. And there will be songs. His memory knew how the songs were sung, but there was no certainty that it had correctly recorded this process. And there will be quiet evenings over the lake - he will choose the deepest lake in the world, so that broad-leaved pines grow on a cliff above the water, and strong mushrooms look out from a layer of needles in a transparent forest without undergrowth.

Drach climbed out to the capsule and, before entering it, took one last look at the hilly plain, at the lake bubbling with lava on the horizon and black clouds.

Well, everything. The drach pressed the signal of readiness... The light faded, flew away, left on the planet a ramp no longer needed.

In the ship on duty in orbit, a white light flashed.

“Get ready to welcome the guest,” the captain said.

An hour and a half later, Drach crossed the connecting tunnel to the ship. Weightlessness prevented him from coordinating movements, although it did not cause any particular inconvenience. He didn't have much trouble at all. Moreover, the team behaved tactfully, and there were no jokes that he was afraid of, because he was very tired. He spent the time of reloading on the captain's bridge and looked with curiosity at the shift watch in shock-absorbing baths. The overloads continued for quite a long time, and Drach performed the duties of a voluntary watchman. He did not always trust the automatics, because in recent months he had found more than once that he himself was more reliable than them. Drach jealously watched the remote control and even in the depths of his soul waited for an excuse to intervene, but no reason presented itself.

He dreamed of orange juice all the way to Earth. Unfortunately, orange juice was always on the table in the wardroom, and therefore Drach did not go there so as not to see a decanter with a piercing yellow liquid.

Drach was Dr Dombey's only patient, if Drach can be called a patient at all.

“I feel inferior,” Drach complained to the doctor, “because of this damned juice.

"It's not the juice," said Dombey. “Your brain could come up with a different fad. For example, the dream of a soft pillow.

But I want orange juice. You don't understand this.

“It is good that you speak and hear,” said Dombey. - Grunin managed without it.

“Relative consolation,” Drach replied. “I haven't needed it for several months.

Dombey was alarmed. Three planets, eight months of diabolical labor. Drach on the edge. We had to shorten the program. But Drach didn't want to hear about it.

The equipment of Dombey's ship's laboratory was not suitable for seriously examining Drach. Remained intuition, and she beat all the bells. And although she cannot be completely trusted, on the very first communication session, the doctor sent a long-winded report to the center. Gevorkyan frowned as he read it. He liked brevity.

And Drach had a lousy mood all the way to Earth. He wanted to sleep, and the short spells of oblivion did not refresh him, but only frightened him with persistent nightmares.

The bioforming institute's mobile was brought close to the hatch. Dombey promised in farewell:

- I'll visit you. I would like to get closer to you.

- Consider that I smiled, - Drach answered, - you are invited to the shore of the blue lake.

In the mobile, Drach was accompanied by a young employee whom he did not know. The employee felt embarrassed, he must have been uncomfortable with Drach's neighborhood. Answering questions, he looked out the window. Drach thought the guy wouldn't make a bioformist. Drach moved forward, where the institute's driver Polachek was sitting. Polachek was glad to Drachu.

"I didn't think you'd make it," he said with captivating frankness. “Grunin was no dumber than you.

“All the same, it worked out,” Drach replied. - Just tired.

- This is the most dangerous. I know. It seems that everything is in order, but the brain fails.

Polachek had the thin hands of a musician, and the console panel seemed like a piano keyboard. The mobile was moving under low clouds, and Drach looked sideways at the city, trying to guess what had changed there.

Gevorkyan met Drach at the gate. An overweight, big-nosed old man with blue eyes was sitting on a bench under the sign "Institute for Bioformation of the Academy of Sciences." For Drach, and not only for Drach, Gevorkyan has long ceased to be a person, but has become a concept, a symbol of the institution.

- Well, - said Gevorkyan. “You haven't changed at all. You look fine. Almost everything is over. I say "almost" because now the main concerns concern me. And you will walk, relax and prepare.

- For what?

- To drink this very orange juice.

“So Dr. Dombey reported it, and I’m not doing well at all?”

“You are a fool, Drach. And he's always been a fool. What are we talking about here? This is not the best place.

A window in the nearest building swung open, and three heads looked out at once. Dima Dimov ran along the path from the second laboratory, distractedly taking with him a test tube with a blue liquid.

“But I didn’t know,” he justified himself, “they just told me now.

And Drach was seized by the blissful state of the prodigal son, who knows that firewood crackles in the kitchen and smells of a fried calf.

– How is it possible? Dimov attacked Gevorkyan. “I should have been informed. You personally.

“What kind of secrets are there,” Gevorkyan answered, as if justifying himself.

Drach understood why Gevorkian decided to stage his return without fanfare. Gevorkian did not know how he would return, and Dombey's message alarmed him.

“You look great,” Dimov said.

Someone giggled. Gevorkyan yelled at the onlookers, but no one left. Blooming lilac bushes hung over the path, and Drach imagined what a wonderful smell she had. The Maybugs streaked past like heavy bullets, and the sun was setting behind the old mansion that housed the institute's hotel.

They entered the hall and stopped for a moment by Grunin's portrait. People in other portraits were smiling. Grunin did not smile. He was always serious. Drach felt sad. Grunin was the only one who saw, knew, felt the emptiness and hot nakedness of the world from which he had now returned.

Drach had been stuck on the test bench for the second hour. Sensors swarmed around him like flies. Wires stretched in all corners. Dimov conjured at the instruments. Gevorkyan sat to the side, looking at the screens and looking sideways at the information tables.

– Where will you spend the night? Gevorkyan asked.

- I would like to have it. My room was not touched?

Everything as you left it.

- And still.

- I will not insist. You want to sleep in a mask, for God's sake...

Gevorgyan was silent. He didn't like curves, but he didn't want Drach to notice.

- What bothered you? Drach asked.

“Don’t turn around,” Dimov stopped him. - You interfere.

You've been in the field too long. Dombey should have called you back two months ago.

– Because of two months, I would have to start all over again.

- Oh well. - It was not clear whether Gevorkyan Dracha approved or condemned.

– When do you think to start? Drach asked.

- Even if it's tomorrow morning. But I beg you, sleep in the pressure chamber. It's in your best interest.

- If only in my interests ... I'll go to my place.

- Please. We don't need you anymore.

Bad business, Drach thought, heading for the door. The old man is angry.

Drach slowly walked to the side exit past the identical white doors. The working day ended long ago, but the Institute, as always, did not stop and did not fall asleep. Even before, he reminded Drach of a vast clinic with nurses on duty, night shifts and emergency operations. A small residential building for candidates and for those who returned was behind the laboratories, behind the baseball field. The slender columns of the mansion were blue in the moonlight. One or two windows in the house were lit, and Drach tried in vain to remember which window belonged to him. How long has he lived here? Almost six months.

ABOUT UGLY BIOFORM

OK it's all over Now. Drach took the last readings of the instruments, battened down the casing and sent the construction boats into the capsule. Then he looked into the cave where he lived for two months, and he wanted orange juice. So the head is spinning. This is a reaction to too long an overvoltage. But why exactly orange juice?.. The devil knows why... But for the juice to gurgle like a brook on the sloping floor of the cave - here it is, all yours, bend down and lap from the stream.

You'll have orange juice, Drach said. And there will be songs. His memory knew how the songs were sung, but there was no certainty that it had correctly recorded this process. And there will be quiet evenings over the lake - he will choose the deepest lake in the world, so that broad-leaved pines grow on a cliff above the water, and strong mushrooms look out from a layer of needles in a transparent forest without undergrowth.

Drach climbed out to the capsule and, before entering it, took one last look at the hilly plain, at the lake bubbling with lava on the horizon and black clouds.

Well, everything. The drach pressed the signal of readiness... The light faded, flew away, left on the planet a ramp no longer needed.

In the ship on duty in orbit, a white light flashed.

Chapter 2

HUSSAR AND CINDERELLA

The hussar Pavlysh, in a blue cardboard shako with a short plume of copper wire, a white cape and sparkling theatrical epaulettes, which hussars were not supposed to, looked stupid, sadly realized this, but could not help it. Alien monastery...

He walked through the empty central tunnel.

On the stage, the orchestra members, led by a noisy, fussy fat man with black mouse eyes, were setting up the piano. At the door to the hall crowded those who did not get a seat. Pavlysh looked over their heads.

On the stage, under a white shield with the inscription "50 years of Selenoport", entwined with a wreath of synthetic spruce branches, stood, not knowing where to put his hands, the famous professor from the Sorbonne. He was entangled in the solemn speech, and the numerous creatures of carnival fantasy that filled the hall only with great difficulty maintained relative silence. A deeply rooted sense of duty compelled the professor to inform the audience in detail about the achievements in selenology and related sciences and the significant contribution of lunar bases to space exploration.

Peacock looked around the room. Most of all there were musketeers. One hundred people. They looked at each other unkindly, like women in identical dresses who met by chance on the street, because until the last moment each of them believed that such a bright idea had come to his mind only. Between the musketeers swayed the high caps of the alchemists, making it difficult to look at the stage, the rare turbans of the Turkish sultans and the square scurleys of the Martians. True, there was no complete certainty that these were carnival Martians, and not employees of lunar laboratories from the Crown or P-9.