Beetle in the Anthill

1 June 78-2

I stopped. Wait a minute! I probably met him! That’s right, back in 58. There was a whole group of them: Komov, Rawlingson, Martha… And that sullen-looking intern. The Excellency (back then known as Wanderer) told me to drop everything and get them over the Blue Snake disguised as a Department of Science expedition… A tall guy with pale face and long straight dark hair, like a Native American’s. That’s right! They all (except Komov, of course) called him Leo the Siren, or just Siren, because his voice was so deep and roaring, just like a tahorg. Small world! OK, let’s see what became of him.

March 60 through July 62, planet Saraksh, leader of Operation Man and Bigheads. July 62 through June 63, planet Pandora, leader of Operation Bighead in Space. June 63, planet Hope, participating, jointly with Bighead Schekn, in Operation Dead World. September 63 through August 64, planet Pandora, retraining. August 64 through November 66, planet Giganda, first insertion – junior accountant in hunting dog kennels, dog handler in the household of Marshal Nagon-Gig, jegermeister to the Duke of Alai (see page 66).

I looked at page 66. It turned out to be a scrap of paper, torn out of something and still showing traces of crumpling. Written on it in sprawling longhand was: Rudi, Don’t worry. By God’s omission, two of our twins met on Giganda. I assure you, it was completely random and had no consequences. If you don’t believe me, look into 07 and 11. Measures have already been taken. Illegible, but very ornate, signature. The word “completely” was underlined three times. On the reverse side of the scrap of paper, printed text in Arabic.

Rudi, Don’t worry. By God’s omission, two of our twins met on Giganda. I assure you, it was completely random and had no consequences. If you don’t believe me, look into 07 and 11. Measures have already been taken.I caught myself scratching my head and went back to page one.

November 66 through September 67, planet Pandora, retraining. September 67 through December 70, planet Saraksh, insertion into the Republic of Honti: underground unionist, establishing contacts with agents of the Island Empire (first stage of Operation Headquarters). December 70, planet Saraksh, Island Empire: inmate in a concentration camp (no contact until March 71), interpreter for concentration camp administration, private in a construction unit, private first class in the coast guard, interpreter for the coast guard detachment headquarters, interpreter/cryptographer on the flagship of the Second Submarine Fleet of Group C, cryptographer at the headquarters of Group C. Observing physicians: Yadviga Lekanova (38 trough 53), Romuald Crecescu (53 through 60), Kurt Loffenfeld (since 60).

That’s it for page one. On the reverse side, though, was a large glyph, painted in washed-out brown (looks like gouache) and resembling a stylized Russian letter “Zhe”.

Oh well, Lev Abalkin, Leo the Siren, now I know something about you. Now I can start looking for you. I know who your teacher is. I know who your mentor is. I know who your physicians are. What I don’t know, however, is who needs this page one and why. If someone needed to know who Lev Abalkin is, they could call up information (I called up GWI, the Great Worldwide Informatorium), punch in his name or code number (I punched in the code number) and in (one-and-two-and-three-and) four seconds they would find out everything they are allowed to know about a stranger.

Here you go. Lev Abalkin, code number, genetic code, date of birth, parents (by the way, why are they not mentioned on page one?): Stella Abalkina and Vyacheslav Tsurupa, boarding school in Syktyvkar, teacher, Progressor school, mentor… Everything matches. Since 60, Progressor on planet Saraksh. Hmm, not a lot, just the bare official minimum. Looks like he decided not to trouble himself with updating his GWI record… Now what’s this? “Address: not registered on Earth.”

I punched in a new query: at what addresses has this code number registered on Earth? Two seconds later, a reply: Abalkin’s last address on Earth was Progressor School #3 (Europe). Another curious detail; either Abalkin has not been on Earth for the last eighteen years or he is a loner who never registers and wishes to share no information about himself. Both are imaginable, but very atypical…

As everyone knows, the GWI contains only information that people want to report about themselves. And what is on page one? I see absolutely nothing that Abalkin would have reasons to hide. A lot more detail, but no one would look for details of this kind in GWI. Just ask COMCON-1, they’ll tell you everything. And what COMCON doesn’t know can be easily found out by rubbing shoulders with Progressors on Pandora, where they undergo reconditioning or simply relax on Diamond Beach at the feet of the largest sand dunes in the inhabited Cosmos.

All right, let’s leave page one alone. In parentheses, let’s note that we still have no idea why it is necessary, and especially why there is so much detail. And, speaking of details, why aren’t the parents mentioned?

Well, that is probably none of my business. But why didn’t he register with COMCON after returning to Earth? This could be explained by a mental breakdown. Disgust for the profession. A Progressor on the verge of a mental breakdown returns to his home planet where he hasn’t been for at least eight years. Where would he go? In my opinion, going to one’s mother in a state like this would be indecent. The teacher? Or the mentor? This is possible. This is highly probable. A shoulder to cry on. I know this from my own experience. And it’s more likely to be the teacher than the mentor. The mentor is, in some sense, a colleague, and we have disgust for the profession on hand… Wait a minute… What’s wrong with me? I looked at the clock. It took me thirty-four minutes to go over two documents. And I haven’t even studied them, just took a look.

I suddenly realized that I am not interested in thinking about how I am going to find Abalkin. I am much more interested in understanding why he must be found. I immediately got angry with the Excellency, although simple logic suggested that if there was something to help me search, the boss would give it to me. And since he provided no explanation as to why Abalkin must be found, the why must have no bearing on the how.

howwhywhywhyhowImmediately, I realized something else. To be precise, I didn’t realize it, I felt it. To be even more precise, I simply began to suspect it. This bulky file, this abundance of paper, all this writing yellowed with time will give me nothing, except maybe a few more names and a huge number of new questions, completely unrelated to the question of how.

how

1 June 78 Briefly on the Contents of the File

By 14:23, I have completed the inventory of the contents.

Most documents, it appears, were handwritten by Abalkin himself.

First of all, there was his report of participation in Operation Dead World on planet Hope. Seventy-six pages written in steady large longhand with very few corrections. I briefly looked through the pages. Abalkin was writing about how he and Bighead Schekn crossed an abandoned city in search of some object (I didn’t catch exactly what that object was) and made contact with some of the remaining unfortunate locals.

Fifteen years ago, Hope and its cruel fate became a staple horror story on Earth, both as a dire warning to all inhabited worlds and as evidence of the most direct involvement of the Wanderers into the affairs of other civilizations. It is considered affirmatively proven that over the last century of its history, the inhabitants of Hope lost control over the development of technology and broke the environmental equilibrium beyond repair. The environment was destroyed. Industrial waste, along with the waste generated by desperate experiments undertaken to remedy the situation, trashed the planet so badly that the population acquired a variety of genetic diseases and was doomed to savagery and death. Gene structures went mad. As far as I know, no one here understands the mechanics of this madness yet. At any rate, none of our biologists was able to successfully model this process. Externally, it looked like drastic non-linear acceleration of aging of any complex organism. A human being would develop more or less normally until approximately twelve years of age, and then begin to quickly mature and even more quickly grow old. At sixteen, a person would look thirty-five. At nineteen, most people died of old age.

Needless to say, this civilization had no historical prospects, but then the Wanderers came into the picture. For the first time, as far as we know, they actively intervened in the events of another world. Now we consider it an established fact that they were able to relocate the vast majority of Hope’s population through hyperspace tunnels, presumably to save them. Where the unfortunate billions of sick people were relocated, where they are now, and what become of them, we, of course, don’t know, and it doesn’t look like we’re about to find out.

Abalkin participated only in the first stage of Operation Dead World, and his role was rather modest. Although there is another way to look at it; he was the first (and still the only) Earth Progressor to work in partnership with a sentient non-humanoid.

Looking over the report, I found that Abalkin mentions quite a few names, but I had a feeling that the only one of importance for this case is Schekn. I knew that there was a Bighead mission on Earth, so it would make sense to find out if this Schekn is a member of it. Abalkin wrote about him with such affection that I wouldn’t put it past him to go see the old buddy. By then, I already noted that Abalkin is good with animals; he spent a few years with the Bigheads, became a dog handler on Giganda, and all that…

There was another report by Abalkin in the file, one of his operation on Giganda. The operation, in my opinion, was mundane; the jegermeister of His Highness the Duke of Alai was trying to get his poor relative a courier’s job at a bank. Lev Abalkin was the jegermeister, and the role of the poor relative was played by one Korney Yashmaa. The material looked completely useless for my purposes. Except Korney Yashmaa, as far as I could see from a quick glance, not a single Earth name was mentioned. The report was full of Zoggs, Nagon-Gigs, horse masters, highnesses, armor masters, conference directors, ladies in waiting… I made a note about this Korney, although it was clear that I probably won’t need him. The second report contained twenty-four pages, and there were no other reports by Abalkin in the file. I thought it strange and decided that at some point I should think about why of all the numerous reports written by a professional Progressor only two made it into the file 07. And why these two?

Both reports were executed in the “lab technician” style and, in my opinion, looked a lot like middle school essays about visiting with the grandparents during the summer break. Writing these reports is a pleasure, reading them, generally, is a t*****e. Psychologists entrenched in the headquarters require the reports to contain not so much the objective information about events and facts as the strictly subjective feelings, impressions, and stream of consciousness of the author. The style of the report (“lab technician”, “general”, “artist”) is not chosen by the author; it is assigned to him based on some mysterious psychological considerations. Truly, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, but dear friends, let us not forget psychology!