Текст книги "Super Queen-Mother. Book I. The Last Hope"

Chapter 5

Julia came to the surface at the same place, looked around and, having seen nobody nearby, slowly swam to the shore.

She was not tired but shocked by what she had heard and seen. It made her view everything around her in a different light.

She reached the shore, took off the mask and the snorkel, rinsed her face with sea water and came up to her half-sleeping friends.

They were still sunbathing, and even had not noticed her absence. Julia silently joined them, pondering over recent events.

One could not see this even in the wildest dreams, and here it had happened in reality.

The company, overheated in the sun and awakened by Julia’s return, with a stretch and a yawn went swimming again. She emptied the net with collected seashells, divided them into equal parts and put them on each mat.

In her thoughts Julia relived her trip once more, beginning with falling into the abyss and up to her coming back, and …decided to take her mind off things for a while, up to the moment when she would have to make a decision, though she understood quite well that she had no choice.

She had only three days for a rest before the inevitable event.

Her friends came out of the sea, stayed in the sun for some time, and decided to go home.

William noticed that Julia was concerned about something, and directly asked her about this:

«Julia, you are unlike yourself, has anything happened?»

Julia could not tell him the truth, so she dismissed the matter with a joke:

«Maybe I was diving and swimming too much», and then changed the topic:

«What shall we do in the evening, why don’t we go to the concert?»

There was a good concert hall in the town, and many famous musicians came on tour there. To switch off disturbing thoughts, she had to busy herself with something. And what could be better than good music?

They chose seats closer to the stage, next to the aisle, to have a chance to dance during the concert.

The concert of the rock group was wonderful; Julia liked the soloist in particular – he was short and plain, but his voice made people spellbound to it.

They came home well into the night and dispersed to their rooms.

In the morning, soon after breakfast, they went on a planned mountain trip.

The day was nice. Small clouds were covering the broiling sun, and the walking was quite easy. Part of the way was along the channel of the mountain stream. Small waterfalls and rapids enlivened the climb up.

In some time they came up to the object of their trip – the emergent top of the hill. Here they took off their rucksacks and halted.

Michael and William got busy with the fire. They went to gather some brushwood, and Julia and Linda started to lay out the food they had brought.

Their purely woman-to-woman talk concerned Michael and William. The girls liked them: Julia was fond of William, while Michael was more to Linda’s liking. They were discussing their habits and courtesies they paid to the girls, but soon the boys came with the brushwood, and they stopped talking.

The fire blazed up quickly. The flame was greedily swallowing the dry brushwood. The young people grilled their sausages on thin whittled sticks and warmed the bread.

After lunch they stretched out on the grass watching the clouds floating across the sky. They were constantly changing their shapes and all the time distantly resembled something familiar. It was so relaxing that the friends took a nap.

The evening coolness was coming in. Clouds grew dark. It was time to go back. The small fire burnt out; there was not even a bit of charcoal left.

The friends gathered the trash into a package and set out. The air was cool, and the way down was much easier and faster.

Several times Michael tried somersault, but bumped his back against a creeping burr and after that stopped his peculiar descent of the mountain.

The short stay of the friends at Julia’s was coming to an end; they all had to go home.

The three days that the Earth Keepers gave her to think over what they had told her, were over.

Among friends, the days went by quickly and without being noticed.

In the evening the friends flew away to their homes. Julia saw them off, then closed the iron gates and went down to the house. Nobody even suspected what could happen.

She did not say anything to her friends, because she did not know much herself. What will she do, and how should she act? She did not know who to ask for advice.

Julia was watching some film on TV, but her thoughts were far away. Did she have another way out? No, she did not. She had to do only one thing: to act in a right way in this new real-life situation. Nothing else.

Julia watched the film to the end and went to her bedroom. She was walking around the room for some time, then went to the bathroom and soon went to bed. She was lying for a long time with her eyes closed, mulling over unknown and incomprehensible events that could happen to her. At last, she opened her eyes and said, loudly and positively:

«YES!»

«We knew that!» the familiar voice of the Earth Keepers sounded. «The training will start tomorrow, in the morning, at our base. Good night!»

A quiet, pleasant melody filled the room; light multi-colored rain poured merrily from the ceiling. It was impossible to look at that for a long time, and Julia quickly fell asleep.

In her dream she saw huge asteroids rushing to the earth, and no one could escape them.

Those, which fell into the ocean, caused enormous tsunami. Billions of tons of water rushed along different shores, destroying all in their path.

Those, which hit the ground, ruined everything at a long distance from the place they had fallen down.

Where shock wave could not reach, high temperature did its work – all around was burning.

Dust was filling in the atmosphere, screening off the Earth from the sun’s rays.

The bombing did not cease.

Separate dormant volcanoes began to work, erupting with ash, smoke, and fire lava streams.

Soon separate volcanoes joined.

Fire belts started working at a full power on the earth.

Gigantic continental plates began to move.

The Sixth Civilization had disappeared…

Chapter 6

Julia woke up, sat up and looked at her watch. It was too early to get up, but she did not want to sleep any more. The whole range of horrible events of Earth’s collapse was running before her eyes. Demolition was terrifying.

Could she prevent this hell? What could she set against this? And suddenly she understood – what. It was her will. She will never allow the events in her dream to happen. Never. Cost what it may.

Julia abruptly threw off her blanket and got up. The day was breaking.

After shower and breakfast she went into the yard and saw a weak light path leading to the «dog ground» – the place where she walked their dogs. She walked up and stopped at the edge of it, in front of the steep.

The warm air from the sea was reaching the ground, softly enveloping her body.

Suddenly, there appeared a round spaceship, right in the steep. The light path was pointing to it.

Julia took some steps on the path, and it carried her to the ship. The receiving bay opened, and she was sucked into it. The spaceship immediately disappeared.

The training center was a mega-stadium covered with a milk-white dome, which looked like white clouds illuminated by numerous light sources behind them.

The stadium was empty. Its floor was made of very thick solid glass, so thick that the bottom was not seen. The floor surface looked slippery and even slightly caving in.

Julia surveyed the surroundings, jumped for a while to check if it would be convenient to train there, and headed for the border of the stadium to find out if there was any exit and what was the dome composed of.

Suddenly, she lost her foothold and fell into a deep abyss. Light clouds heaved in sight on the dome, and the sun was shining, but she had no time to look at nature. She was trying to clutch at something with her feet and arms to stop the fall.

Small bushes were being torn out, and she hit her feet against ledges that only for a moment broke her fall. At last, one of the bushes sprang and did not let Julia fall. She quickly snatched it with the other hand and found some support.

The ledge was very small but let her put both feet on it; however, it was impossible to sit and to rest on the ledge. She did not have to look down, and she knew that, but for all that she did it. Bushes she tore out were slowly floating down the gorge with a mountain river on its bottom. From her height it looked like a thin thread. Its coloring was changing: white on the shores and blue at shallow waters, it was black where it was deep.

Julia quickly noticed that to herself and then glanced up. To get out of here she had to climb up for about 50 feet. She stood up and looked closely at the steep sides to find out a way to get to the surface. A big bulging stone blocked her way.

Julia started climbing up, choosing reliable bushes, cracks and hollows. In this way, she managed to reach the stone. She moved aside from it a little and rose a bit higher. Further climbing was impossible – the wall was sheer, without cracks and hollows.

She looked behind the stone to find out what was there. On the stone was a layer of soil with a heap of rotted leaves. No bushes or something else she could grasp or clutch at. However, farther, behind the stone and above it, the wall was gentler, and some bushes were seen. There was no other way up.

Julia shifted a little lower to clamber to the stone. Soon she neared it, and, having found some more small cracks, succeeded in rising higher, so that her head could be above the stone surface.

Julia glanced down once more. The height of the abyss gave no chance to her in case of her fall. The river below seemed to be so far as if it was at the other end of the earth.

Julia thought over the situation. No help was within reach, no people nearby; she could rely only upon herself. If she goes on to stick around this wall, next to this stone, she would just got tired, and there was no place to have a rest. Julia glanced down once more and loudly said:

«Nuts to you!», and looked at the stone. She examined its sides, but saw nothing to catch hold of.

«Smooth like a bald head», Julia thought and mentally drew a plan of actions. She turned round a little and pressed herself to the stone all over. Her left hand was fitfully holding on to a small hollow in the wall, while the right hand was free. Julia began to quickly fold and unfold her fingers to let the blood warm the palm sooner.

At last she felt a rush of blood and, stretching herself up as much as she could, planted her arm into humus on the stone with all her might, top down. Her arm came into the soil free, almost up to the elbow.

«I’m lucky there were no pebbles in the soil», Julia thought, «Otherwise I could badly hurt my hand».

The earth was so soft, that it was risky to pull on it – the soil could just come off the stone. Julia set free her left hand and hit it against the humus too; her arm came into it almost to the elbow again.

Now Julia did not have any support under her feet; her body was hanging over the abyss. She stuck to the stone, leaning on it with her chin and whole body.

Julia shifted off her body weight to the left and made a twitch up. She managed to raise herself a little. She immediately clinched the victory, having moved her body to the right, made a twitch up again and at once took the original position. She carried through the same motions several times; her body, little by little, was setting free of the abyss grip.

She succeeded to crawl on the stone, and now most of her body was on it. Understanding that she could fall down at any moment, Julia crawled ahead, like a snake, not losing touch with the saving stone.

She got up and looked up – the wall here was not as steep as below. Julia did not care to turn back and to look at the stone. She sat down on the earth and decided to rest.

The sun was descending. Julia looked up – gunmetal dark clouds were quickly running towards the place where she was. She understood that it was already raining because it was dark under the clouds, too.

It grew darker and strong wind arose. At once it became cold. Julia immediately started climbing to get out of the abyss. But the black clouds had already come.

It set in for heavy rain. Julia began to climb up faster. Water was already pouring down not in small streams, but in waterfalls. In a moment Julia became wet through, and water was pouring down her body as well as down the wall.

Climbing up was becoming more and more difficult. The grass, growing on the slope, only seemed to be a support. Actually, it easily came out, wet bushes slid in her hands, leaving only torn leaves. Julia was soiling her hands all the time, to prevent sliding. It helped for a while, until the water washed the soil off.

She had to put in great efforts not to fall down. Thus, at a high price and superhuman efforts, she was winning back foot after foot from the abyss. At last, the upper surface came in sight.

The water from it was running directly on Julia, pouring down her face and back. She saw nothing and gripped a bush by feel. She pulled on it to check for strength, gripped it with both hands and… the bush sheered off the rock together with the soil it was growing on. Her arms and legs were spastically searching for a support. There wasn’t any, and she fell down into the abyss.

It seemed to her that the fall wasn’t fast. Julia clearly saw the whole wall she was falling by in detail: the nest of some grey small birds hidden from a stranger’s eyes in a narrow crack, a flower with closed petals because of the rain.

She did not understand to what extent all this was real; it seemed to her that it was happening not to her. It was true, however. She was falling down away from the upper ground farther and farther. Soon it was not seen any more, then a jolt followed – first she hit against the water, then, almost at the same moment, against the bottom of the river; and a flash and darkness after that…

Chapter 7

Some airiness and a weak dark blue light – it was the first thing she felt and saw.

In a big room there were many dead bodies lying on gurneys and covered by sheets. Julia got up and saw a tag on her toe. It was very unpleasant.

She got down from the gurney and walked barefoot on the floor tiles. She did not have the feeling of cold. Then Julia heard somebody walking up the stairs and discerned approaching child’s steps.

Julia came up to the door and opened it – a child was gazing at her unblinkingly. He was apparently not alive, but there was no putrescent smell. There were no smells in general. He did not say anything, and his stare was blank, as if into the distance, through her.

She slammed the door on him, took some steps, and stopped.

What she saw could drive any person crazy – her own body, chaotically swinging its arms, was crawling down from the gurney. After some attempts the efforts panned out, and it walked on the snow-white tiled floor. It was not easy to walk, however. To keep its balance and not fall down, the body was making incredible pirouettes.

It looked like some strange dance stepped by a corpse, only nobody had written the music matching these movements yet.

Suddenly, a tall man, wearing a long light cloak and a hat, came up to the body. He had a brown face with a wax tint, as if it were carved in stone. No one muscle was stirring on it. The strange man was not just watching the body’s movements; he was going to come into it. He was slowly approaching it closer and closer. At last, he stood next to it, behind the back, and put his hands together to get into the body.

The Earth Keepers’ voice said:

«You shouldn’t move far away from the body, otherwise others can occupy it».

Julia shifted off the emotional numbing and went to her body.

The man was also not alive. He was just standing, staring in front of him, and she had to slightly move him aside with her shoulder when she was entering her body. The touching was very unpleasant, but when she had finished the procedure, the man disappeared.

It was not so simple to stop her body’s chaotic movements. Julia’s ghostly arms were constantly coming out of her physical frame. At last, she succeeded, and came up to the window.

It was light and crowded outside. Some people were hurrying somewhere; others were sitting in the café across the street, sipping coffee and viewing passers-by. Cars, sparkling with their polished sides at the bright sun, were idly making their way, one by one, on the paved road.

Only then she noticed how many souls were willing to get bodies for themselves – they came up to every passer-by and looked into him or her, but, having found that the body had been occupied, quietly moved on to the next passer-by.

It was strange, but passers-by did not see them. Souls were not visible to the ordinary eye. Julia eyed the life outside for some more time and turned to the hall.

She was not happy with this pitiful neighborhood, and decided that it was time to go away. She moved away from the window and came up to the heavy open door again. There was nobody behind it, and she decided to go downstairs.

The marble staircase with marble balusters and railings was steep and narrow. Along it, on the oak-clad wall, were numerous big paintings. The ceiling was decorated with frescos displaying episodes from old legends and myths, and framed by artfully carved rare woods.

Two old women, wearing old-fashioned rot cloths, and dripping with jewels, were coming up toward Julia. They silently passed her, looked back and disappeared round the corner. Julia did not meet anybody else.

She came to the hall, stopped and looked back – the staircase and the hall were illuminated in a quite different way. The staircase illumination was dim, only the paintings were well lighted from beneath, and even the frescos were hardly discernable.

On the contrary, the illumination of the hall, decorated even better than the staircase, was bright and merry. Life was felt in every corner here.

She quickened her pace towards the exit, but suddenly was being raised higher and higher above the floor. A bright flash lighted all around, blinding everybody and the surrounding space.

Julia gathered her wits. A strange landscape was surrounding her. It seemed she was hanging over a big planet. There were no other planets in sight.

Souls were floating in the air in accurate rows, receding into the distance. They resembled bundles of tied ropes of different lengths, hanging down like beards. The bundles were longer in the middle and shorter on the sides.

It was dark in the upper part of the sky dome, but the border of the darkness was not sharp, as if it was just getting dark; it was impossible to descry anything in the far distance.

Beneath, everything was dark blue, like the sea surface, but it wasn’t the sea.

A slightly curved horizon was seen far away. The sky was relatively light above it, as if the sun had set not long ago.

The landscape was illuminated in such a way that it seemed it had started growing but never became dark.

The air was still; the outside temperature was not felt.

From time to time a selected soul flew out of a row (it was not clear what the principle of selection was) and flew away behind the horizon. This process was followed by a flash visible to all souls – it was the mystery of birth of somebody new, alive, though it was not seen who it was.

Some souls were uncalled for a long time. New souls quickly replaced the old ones.

The notion of time did not exist here; it had stopped. It was neither warm nor cold; only the state of absolute rest.

It seemed that something pushed Julia’s soul, and it came out of the state of rest. The energy hidden in it slightly raised it over the rows of hanging souls and carried it away behind the horizon.

The entry into the body was followed by enormous energy release in the form of the light flash over the horizon, seen to all souls. Some more time was needed to join the ropes with the nerve endings of her body, and… the heart started beating. Whose heart it was – a human being’s, a dog’s or of some other living creature – one could find out only after the birth.

The time was passing quickly – a child’s birth and growth were speeded up. When Julia looked at the mirror she understood that her memory was not obliterated; she recognized herself. Suddenly, the mirror blinded her with a bright flash.