Six triangles

The crystal city

THE CRYSTAL CITY ( 4 )

Colonis was the biggest and the most developed union on the Evolut with its capital Dionix built above the central ocean, and with its 65 million inhabitants according to the Earth standards, it presented the biggest city on the planet.

   A little smaller, with 60 million inhabitants according to the Earth standards, but certainly the most beautiful and attractive city on the Evolut was the capital of the State Union Ustaut, Crystalis, or so-called Crystal City, built on the powerful river Plaudoor. The Plaudoor river was certainly the biggest one of many pawerful rivers existing on the Evolut, about 25 thousand kilometers long and with average width of 35 kilometers according to the Earth standards. It had its headwater below the Fiery mountain from thousands of small and clear mountain springs and in waterfalls it flowed down its violet sharp wreaths rapidly forming a strong and whirling water mass which marvelously and proudly passed through the vast forest of the Evolut. With its biggest part of length, it flowed through Ustaut and it emptied into the central ocean in delta which was more than 500 kilometers wide, according to the Earth standards and contented several hundred of huge by-channels.

      Crystalis was built on the Plaudoor in three levels. The biggest part of the city was built above the river. Its imposing crystal buildings were carried by huge aluminium supporting columns. The Upper city, as it was called, was scientific, business, trade, economic, artistic and entertaining center with large buildings of various geometry shapes which were up to 700 meters high, according to the Earth standards. The buildings were built of colorful glass, plexiglass and crystal combined with precious metals so that they refracted light and showered the city with the whole spectrum of variegated colours. The most noticeable was the central temple of the Gunareys which presented the huge three-sided prism with the sides of 250 meters long and height of 700 meters, according to the Earth standards. The temple, with its ability for absorption, absorbed so much light and, in the same time dispersed it that it was called the Shining Building. With its peak the temple cut white and downy clouds while the morning mist of the river with its steam hid its bottom, so it reminded on a building at a loss. One of many noteworthy buildings was the central residence of the state union of Ustaut. The crystal building which had a shape of a ball with the diameter of 500 meters according to the Earth standards, was carried by six crystal supported columns.It usually was not seen in the morning mist observed from the distance, so the building reminded on a big hanging ball in the air above Crystalis. The interior of the central residence was arranged with the combination of marble and crystal, of many connected rooms on various height levels joined with glass halls and filled with different shapes of finely worked wooden stylish furniture.

The second part of the city, a little bit smaller one, was built below the surface of the Plaudoor and that was the part that consisted almost exclusively of apartment buildings. Some of them were even above the surface of the river. The Plaudoor was about 600 meters deep in average according to the Earth standards, very clear and with no mud which enabled building below its surface. The Down city consisted of a set of  crystal submarine buildings that refracted gentle blue light and that were mutually and with the surface connected with a set of crossed underwater halls and tunnels made of glass and plexiglass.The inhabitants could enjoy in rich flora and fauna of this powerful river. The animals of the Plaudoor really could live freely and do their activities directly among the buildings. The plants, with their colorfulness and greatness presented the natural decoration of the Down city. With its aroma and variety, this city was like a big rich aquarium, according to the Earth standards.

The third part of the city was located on the banks of the Plaudoor and it entered deeply into the forest area. This part, called the Rear city , presented partly agricultural and parly industrial zone, with long but low crystal buildings built for those purposes. Some of them were really about five kilometers long, according to the Earth standards.

With all its three levels, Crystalis included about 160 thousand square kilometers, according to the Earth standards.

As every morning, according to the Earth standards, Defendor got up a little bit earlier. While he was waking up, on the other side of the glass in his apartment, two big yellow eyes of the fish dodox were staring at him. These eyes filled almost a third of a red, thorny, stocky body.Dodox was a hermaphrodite, one of the most numerous inhabitants of the Plaudoor, very delicious for the bigger inhabitants there, so as for those intelligent ones who lived on land. The difference was only in preparation. It usually lived in symbiosis with a large water plant petonix. Its  big water greenish trunk climbed and twisted around the buildings, decorating them with its big, dark blue leaves. The flowers of petonix were big and white like a crown and when they bloomed ( during the season of blooming ), they fullfilled the surface of the Plaudoor which then reminded on a vast blue meadow.

Defendor saw dodox which, at that moment, was giving of bubbles from its pouted mouth. He smiled and kissed his wife Constat who was still sleeping.

Constat was a very beautiful Norm Castus. Her religion was Gunaree. She was 2.30 meters tall, according to the Earth standards, with golden blond wavy hair that fell down to her gracious thighs, covering her gentle light blue skin and nice breast.Her reddish big eyes which were closed at that moment, showed an innocent character of this cute creature. She was the daughter of Aracor, the leader of the State Union of Colonis, and as Defendor was Penedor`s son, the leader of Ustaut State Union, their marriage had also another dimension. Constat was a charming, modest, educated woman who positively influenced on her husband. Her gentleness calmed Defendor`s unrestrained exploring temper.

As he was the member of the same race, Defendor did not differ from his wife physically, except he had a male beauty, athletic build and was about 10 centimeters taller than her, according to the Earth standards. Men on the Evolut mostly had long fair hair, so he did not differ from the average. Defendor was communicative and always ready for cooperation. Scientifically he was independent and liked to explore. He was always hurt by lie and injustice.

Though he was the son of the leader of the strong state union, Defendor was not interested in politics a lot. He devoted his life to science, genetics and spent a great part of his time in a laboratory.

Contrary to the two of them, their fathers were very aggressive and temperamental. Aracor and Penedor, as leaders of the strongest state unions, always showed a strong authority when appeared and caused a sort of awe. This was not pretending only for public. These two strong and experienced leaders were really like that in every moment. Though privately they were good friends, in politics they were merciless, persistent and revered with no compromise one to the other.

Since that day, according to the Earth standards, Constat was celebrating her eighteenth birthday, they invited her brother Zaxor, who was also Defendor`s best friend. Zaxor was extremely tall for his race and very nicely built young man. Contrary to the majority of men on his planet, he had a short dyed red hair. He had a good, strong build and such an image, because he was one of the most requested players of the most popular sport on the Evolut, luminet. Although from Colonis, Zaxor lived in Crystalis at that moment and played for their best team, Omnitus. Zaxor`s temper was alike his father`s. He was keen and uncompromisible, had clear aims and knew what he wanted in every moment.

-          My dear sister, are you happy today? You are so cheerful and beautiful!

-          Zaxor, how could I be happy? Our father and Defendor`s  do not have good relations. They are friends, but enemies, too. Today they are celebrating and drinking, and tomorrow they will fight about the Light Canyon disposing their arms!

-          Constat, do not be silly! They are good friends and political clashes. The war will not begin, for sure.

-          Do you have anything cleverer for conversation? It is her birthday today, and please, leave those old men alone, they will solve the problem by themselves; there will be no war. They should also have been invited today.

-          My dad is on a trip. I don`t know where, but he will come to my match. You will see him then.

-          My dear Defendor is leaving today, too. He doesn`t want to say where. He wants to surprise me with an unusual present for my birthday.

-          Well, Defendor, could my little sister and I know where you are going to?

-          Yes, the final luminet match on the Evolut will start soon, I have almost forgotten that. So, which team should I support? Zaxor, you play for Colonis and I love my Ustaut.

-          You can support any team you wish but I claim Colonis is better in everything, and, you are avoiding to answer our question. I justify it if you really want to surprise her.

-          Cheers, my friend, my dear wife. Happy birthday to you.

Indeed, Defendor was preparing to leave Crystalis and Ustaut for a few days. Nobody really knew where he wanted to go and what intentions he had. He told everybody that he wanted to make a surprise for Constat; a nice, expensive present that could only be found outside the borders of Ustaut. Zaxor especially insisted Defendor to tell him the secret about the trip, he even wanted to travel with him, but Defendor was overcoming promising he would come back to watch his final luminet match.

  ATHENS` TEAR (5)

The capital of Greece, the modernized ancient city, which, in concentric circles was arranged around the hill Acropolis, overcomes against tooth of time, and it is more and more beautiful and interesting. Above it, on the very top of the hill, there is an ancient temple, dedicated to the godess Athens,built in the 5th century BC. Parthenon was built of white marble in Doric style, 70 meters long, 31 meters wide, made of a large number of Doric columns and Antic sculptures. These were made of marble, ivory and gold, among which, the central spot is for the big statue of Athens to whose innosence this temple was dedicated.

Noko, Denis and Vanya stayed in a private apartment in the center of Athens.In that way they took a strategic position which enabled them to collect information they needed for the approaching undertaking.

-I have studied the surrounding a little. I have already walked to Parthenon, too. At the moment there is an archeological expedition of their highnesses the United Kingdom and United States there. I tried to hear what they were talking about. Most archeologists there believe that Athens` tear is a precious stone, sapphire, but I also heard the conversation of a leader of that expedition, a Lord Isak Bunton and his deputy. The leader secretly informed him that Athens` tear was in fact an equilateral triangle. That man, Bunton, probably knows and hides something. Since he is your compatriot, Denis, maybe you could approach him and get some more information. He is very funny to me, so short, with grey raincoat, thin moustache, and is pretending to have a noble pose, a real English lord.

-          No, thanks. One of the reasons I started this trip is to get rest of my compatriots. After all, why do we need his help, we will use our heads and find the solution by ourselves. You know this is a secret trip and we mustn`t reveal our position to anybody. And, how do you know that Bunton is not our direct rival? And how do you know what an English lord looks like?

-          Denis, you are conceited. You hate doing this job. I cannot believe it.

-          Noko, Denis is right. We are alone in this. We are going to get rest today, and tomorrow we`ll roam around Parthenon. Perhaps we will have good luck.

-          Oh, yes, it looks like the best archeologists here, believing that is a precious stone, have been looking for it for years and you think we`ll find it in a day. I really can`t believe that!

-          Why not? We can do it. It occurred to me, since Athens is the godess of war, if she saw today`s wars, each column of Parthenon would probably hide at least ten triangles of her tears.

-          You two do not know other things than making jokes.

-          Denis, can you imagine that irony? While people were fighting only with side arms, then skill and heroism were expressed fully. Nowadays, everybody could kill you from a distance of 5000 meters.

-    That is really ironic, Vanya.

Before the sun rose, the threesome had already been on the hill. Parthenon was open to visits. Since it was early in the morning, there was no crowd and archeological expeditions usually started working at noon, they could explore to their heart`s content. What they knew was that the triangle was hidden in one of a hundred identic columns here. Having parted, they started watching around and studying actively. As the greatest hopes in this project were pinned on Noko, she was determined to look inside the temple, while Vanya and Denis were studying roundabout ruins and sculptures. Denis seemed to be more occupied with alive world inhabited under the ruins, while Vanya, inspired by geometric structures, was doing some mathematical calculations. Denis managed to find interesing insects which reminded on ants and were moving all the time. That impressed him, so, in the end, he took several to be displayed to experiments. Vanya took out some theoremes, promising at first, but in the end he realized that all those figures and logarithms wandered in a circle and what he was doing was not logical at all. A few days later, both of them gave up their foolish and non-practical ideas and stayed in their apartment, while Noko continued her searching going up to Acropolis every morning earlier and earlier and coming back later and later.

-          Oh, here comes our scientist. Today you have set a record, twelve hours on Parthenon. Well, the guards probably know you very well. What is so interesting there? Maybe you fell in love?

-          You should know Vanya, they do know me, but if they hadn`t been hospitable, I wouldn`t have been able to tell you what I discovered. Trully, I had to grant them a certain sum of money so that they let me to roam alone a little.

-          Maybe you have found the famous triangle?

-          You can laugh, Denis, but listen! While watching the columns thoroughly, I came by one which was turned right to the Athens` statue and was about ten meters afar of it. At the first sight it is the same as other columns nearby. They are all Doric, decorated and ornate. But when I climbed up to look better its ornaments on the top, I discovered it had one more ring which was hardly noticeable and could be seen only from the very proximity. Its decorations on the top are much nicer but they can also be hardly observed because it was made so precisely that literally there is a decoration in a decoration. Analysing this column in detail, I concluded that it was set here later and presented a pale information of Corint style, but whoever made it, did it perfectly well. I wonder how all these archeologists have missed it now. I concluded there was a great probability that the triangle was hidden exactly in this column, but I wondered where. I have been watching it for days trying to find the hidden spot, but unsuccessfully, until I was shown by itself. Early in the morning, when the sun was in favorable position, under a certain angle it emits its rays, which, through the cracks on the roof, fall on the smooth eyes made of ivory on the Athens` statue. Only at that moment and under that angle the rays reflect of its eyes and focus in one spot on the column. This appearance lasts no more than ten seconds and disappears with the change of angle of the sun rays. At the moment when the rays focus at that spot on the column, the blue triangle set there on the very surface, starts shining. The only thing I could do was to take my pocketknife and scratch the triangle from the wall. I found this on the second day, but I didn`t take it immediately; I wanted to admire it for a few days more because it is a magnificent phenomenon.

-          Oh, you have teased us for so many days. You have found the triangle and are silent. We are bored here, don`t know what to do. We passed all through Athens!

-          You are really silly. How can you be bored in Athens?

The triangle in her hand was shining with smoothly bluish color to Denis` and Vanya`s great surprise. The first one of six was found. Maybe easily for the threesome and with no consequences, but that was only a drop in the bucket for what they were expected to do on this trip.

 LUMINET(6)

The mass and the most popular sport on the Evolut was luminet. When an important luminet match was to be played, that was the event number one on the Evolut. The rivers of passionate fans of this sport would crowd to a terrain and fill a stadium to the last seat. This time it was the final match in the world championship between the representations of Colonis and Ustaut, held at the central stadium in Crystalis, Omnitus that belonged to the team having the same name. It took the preference in this sport for decades on the Evolut, according to the Earth standards. Most players of Omnitus played for the representation of Ustaut and the tickets, according to the Earth standards were already sold. The large crystal building like a rhombus, 500 meters long and 150 meters high according to the Earth standards, was built above the Plaudoor and it was already filled to the last seat which meant more than two million spectators, according to the Earth standards. In the formal box, isolated and built of plexiglass, there were seats for the leaders of these state unions with their families. Defendor was also there with his wife Constat. He managed to come back from the secret trip to be present at the spectacle. He bought her a poofur for her birthday, an unusual small animal, a rodent according to the Earth standards, that lived on the poles of the Evolut. It had a silver, very valuable fur. Poofur ate the bark of a sort of a polar tree called babox and was a very rare plant which succeeded to live and survive in darkness. Of course, her brother and Defendor`s best friend Zaxor was one of the most requested and best paid players who played for Omnitus, but this time in the opposite team, for the representation of Colonis.

The luminet terrain had a shape of a regular rhombus with the length of a side and a shorter diagonal of 300 meters, according to the Earth standards. The middle of the rhombus, along its shorter diagonal, consisted of a pool with water, 30 meters wide and three meters deep, according to the Earth standards. Paralelly with the pool, from its both sides, there were spaces covered with fine sand, 30 meters wide, too, and half a meter deep, according to the Earth standards. The rest of the space spread to the poles was grassy. On the both poles of the terrain there was one aluminium goalpost, 15 meters high each, according to the Earth standards. It had an aluminium band with the diameter of two meters and was continued in the direction of the goalpost i.e. occupied a vertical position in regard to the ground and turned to its pair on the opposite side of the terrain.

One team consisted of ten players. Five of them were the carriers of the band and the other five were the carriers of sphere mirrors. The bands were made of aluminium and had the diameter of half a meter according to the Earth standards. The sphere mirrors had the same diameter as bands and from their front side they were hollowed out, and at the back, they were convex.

In the middle of the terrain there was a high reflector which emitted a continued beam of white light with the diameter of 25 centimeters according to the Earth standards often changing its direction and that beam was moving all around the terrain, so it was called the walking beam.

The aim of the game was to, with the sphere mirror, refract and direct the walking beam of light through at least one band in the team where the same beam had to pass through the big band of the opposite team to get the points. The more used sphere mirrors in that procedure, the more points were scored. In the process, the number of used mirrors and bands had to be the same and used alternately. Everything opposite to the rules would bring penalty. Of course, the number of points was increasing with the use of harder base, water or sand. The players of the opposite team had right to steal a beam of light from their rival, but only with the help of a sphere mirror and to, first through the band of their players, direct it to the big opposite band. At that moment they would score the point. In this way it was possible to develop the strategy of defense and attack during the game. In order to differ the teams and follow the game, the domestic players had the bands with red sensors which transformed the beam of light in red, and the guests had the bands with green sensors which transformed the beam in green.

Millions of spectators were shouting for joy because their favourites had just gone out to the terrain. Zaxor was among them. He was one of the band carriers, the green one this time, for he was playing for the guest team of Colonis. Zaxor was a young man of extreme strenghth, speed and mobility and he had a take off of two meters in a jump according to the Earth standards. That is why he had no problem to catch the beam of light on the great distance and height of him. His jumps often decided the matches.

After the classical sport greeting of the luminet players and formal light greeting of the present state unions, the match started. The players soon placed all over the terrain and the reflector started refracting the light. The crowd was shouting with excitement, the goalposts were packed with colored trademarks of the representations and other supportive accessories and the terrain was full in all possible directions with crossed red and green light beams. It was very difficult even  approaching to score a point because these two representations really were  the best ones on the planet. The match was hard from the very beginning but very intersting. After a long time there began the general enthusiasm of the domestic fans; the red beam passed through the band of Colonis and Ustaut took the lead thanks to the shrewdness of one of its better players, Gandor, Zaxor`s club friend. Soon after, one more beam was caught from Colonis and sent to its band. The situation became upsetting for the representation of the most powerful state union. Their fans became desparate and lost any hope about turn and win of their team. Obviously Zaxor had to take the initiation over. A bit later, the green beams started passing through the band of Ustaut and as the match was coming to an end, the result was more and more uncertain, but Ustaut did not let its small preference. Both teams got free a lot and the match now had an important dynamics and outcome. At the very end, Colonis needed a beam to pass through two bands in order to win. In a moment, the attack of Ustaut was stopped and the beam passed through one band, refracted of the sphere mirror and directed right to its band. Zaxor started running as fast as he could, jumped stratching his whole body, barely succeeded to set his band on the way of a green beam in the last moment and fell into the pool with water. The fans of Colonis got crazy of joy. Ustaut was beaten in the last moment. That happened in the center of Crystalis thanks to the best among the best ones, Zaxor. The fans in trans were shouting his name and praised the appellation of their favourites that belonged to Colonis this season, after a while.

When the match was over, in the formal box there were greetings changed among the present people. The leaders of the state unions separated in the conferation room, according to the Earth standards, where they were totally alone.

-          Your son is an outstanding player, Aracor; I congratulate you. I love Zaxor as if he were my son.

-          My dear friend Penedor, it`s only a game. I am worried about serious things. Do you know I was at the pole to meet THEM? It seemed to me that somebody had followed me. I think I know who it is, but I mustn`t tell you.

-          Did you meet them, what are the things like now? Did you make an agreement?

-          The mission is endangered. Someone started to recover us. We will have to turn the attention of the public to some other side.

-          How, Aracor?

-          We will have to start the war for the Light Canyon!

-          Do we have to?

-          There is no other way, Penedor! There is no bargain with THEM!

-          Are you sure? If we start the war, we risk the light nuclear war. The surrounding unions will not stay aside.

-          It will not be the nuclear war, but we must fight for the Light Canyon.

-          If that is THEIR wish, I will take a risk. But we have to make a deal.

-          Let`s start fighting, then we`ll talk. That`s THEIR wish. I advise you as a friend, take care of Defendor. I think he started endangering the mission naively.