Последние тайны СССР – Проект Марс 88 - [13]

She looked at Andrey knavishly: only candles and wine were missing, otherwise it would make quite a romantic dinner!

I hid the wine so far that I still can’t find it, but I can offer you some vodka or brandy.

And you have these, too?! At my choice?! How did you manage to get the whole bar past the control men?

Everything is simple, said Andrey. – I used my position for personal and far-reaching purposes!

Your aims are written all over your forehead, gentleman, said Sveta, smiling and pursing her lips a little. And continued invitingly: so what are you going to do next, Mr. Smuggler?

Andrey replied, undressing Sveta with his eyes: it depends on how much you will drink, my dear lady…

And I won’t drink at all! – laughed Sveta. – Booya?

No, said Andrey and unzipped Sveta’s “space” T-shirt. While Sveta was taking off her light shorts, Andrey switched off the almost earthly gravity, and the beautiful naked woman’s body started to soar in the zero-gravity – just as beautiful and immense as the whole Universe around them.

So, dear people of Earth, if you did not love in space, you probably did not love at all…

-9-

It did not seem a holiday at all: on the contrary, it was a simple and ordinary thing, even a little unnoticed one, when they reached the orbit of Mars. MS 88 made a loop after a loop over the planet that attracted many people who looked at it through those primitive telescopes. They surely strove to set their eyes on it, someone visited it in his thoughts…

Alexey Tolstoy in “Aelita” helped the Martians to make a revolution…

Looking at the surface of the planet flying past below, one could not help looking for the characteristics of their native Earth, but there was nothing similar except for polar ice caps. The planet was dark red and black, silence which did not seem alive seemed to reign there. A great number of big and small craters gave involuntary associations with the Moon, with the only difference in color. Probably all the planets that have no atmosphere look so lifeless and oppressing…

They started to prepare for arrival a month ago, without any hurry. All the equipment was long ready for landing and placement on the surface of the planet. It was necessary to stay in orbit for a week to adapt the body to the gravity of the Red Planet.

Also, Marina had to prepare her chemical set to carry out primary express tests to analyze the composition of Mars atmosphere and soil. It was here in orbit that Marina got a stronger impression that someone absolutely strange and totally unknown looked at her from the side.

Once she shared her feelings with Sveta. The latter frowned a little and said: you know, I feel something similar. Sometimes it seems to me that we are being observed by the whole space around us, something huge, the Space as a whole… At a first glance, there is nothing strange about it: if you remember, the guys who were here before said something of this kind, and psychologists warned about it, Sveta recollected thoughtfully. And let’s say, for example, you are alone in a dark room and you turn off the lights. Someone immediately feels fear, and many have a feeling that there is somebody else in the room. Even though you know you have just been alone in it. It is light here, but the feeling is similar, but it’s much stronger, finished Sveta.

Let’s talk to the boys as they must have the same thoughts, said Marina.

Andrey appeared.

– Hello, beauties, why are you looking so mysterious?

– Hello, rowdy, said the girls in a choir, having unbent brow a little, looked at each other and burst out laughing. After the last Andrey’s ideas they said the same greeting involuntarily. They shared with him what they had been talking about before he came in.

Smiling, Andrey passed his eyes from Sveta’s light blue eyes to Marina’s brown eyes. Calm down, girls, I also have this big feeling, and sometimes it even appears as a voice in my head and tries to ask questions, something like – How are you?

And what about you? – asked Marina.

Once I asked: Will you have some vodka? – And he replied somewhat sadly: I’d like to drink a bit, but to my regret I can’t! And after this suggestion of mine he never appeared again! Finished Andrey, laughing.

Right, dear, you are your usual self, – Sveta put in, laughing as well.

Thank you, guys, now it feels better, we can calmly land, – said Marina laughing.

And what’s so hard about landing?! Zap and it’s done, it’s not the same as flying here for six months, – Andrey summarized.

-10-

The first step on Mars… you step and go… They also walked every day in the spaceship using magnetic paths. They are different there, and they are different here, but anyway – these are steps.

The planet, whose surface could be finally observed, looked dismal and sullen. The ground was strewn with millions of stones of different sizes and shapes, sunk in maroon dust which looked more like rust…

Somewhere one could see separate mountains that looked like ruins of pyramids or mounds, and on the other side they formed almost a single chain – a high plateau. Suddenly they got a feeling that they were absolutely lonely here, accompanied by overwhelming dreary desperation that seemed to have been there for millions of years.