Pope Alice Selezneva talks about the adventure of her daughter on another planet. The story is included in the collection "Girl from the Earth."
Chapter 1-4
Alice’s dad, cosmobiologist professor Seleznev, thought about giving her daughter a birthday. At this time, a videophone bell rang - it was Gromozeka, a space archaeologist of tremendous growth with ten tentacles, eight eyes, a shell on his chest and three kind hearts. He flew to Earth and asked to visit the Seleznevs.
Gromozek explored the planet Koleida. Once upon a time, people lived on the planet, but now even microbes were not found there. An archaeologist flew to the earth to get a time machine, transport it to Koleida, get into the past and solve the mystery of the planet. Gromozeka himself believed that life on the planet was destroyed by the cosmic plague.
Cosmic viruses carried this terrible disease. Once in a living organism, viruses formed an incredibly evil mind that destroys entire star systems. People have long since found a cure for cosmic plague, but the inhabitants of Coleida did not have time to do this.
Gromozek went to the Institute of Time and persuaded specialists to give him a time machine. It took ten starships to transport her to Coleida. The car was accompanied by two temporary specialists - the director of the Institute Mikhail Petrov and his assistant Richard. Kromozeka persuaded Seleznev to let Alice and him go, which would be the best present for her birthday.
Four days later, the starships, loaded with parts of a time machine, headed for Coleida. Seleznev found out about what happened on the planet only two weeks later, when Alice returned home.
Chapter 5-11
At Coleida, Alice was met by 35 archaeologists, among whom there was not a single person. The smallest archaeologist named Rrrr, resembling a light green one-eyed kitten, Alice pulled out of the crowd, where he was nearly crushed, and made friends with him.
During the absence of Gromozeki, archaeologists managed to rebuild a small city. It turned out that the inhabitants of the planet were not tall, approximately from Alice. The epidemic of space plague occurred on Coleida 101 years ago. Plague viruses cannot fly through the atmosphere, which means that someone brought the disease to the planet.
The temporary scientists assembled a time machine and began to argue who would fly into the past. Alice also wanted to fly, but the temporary workers did not even listen to her. Gromozeka whispered to the girl that he had invited her here for a reason - he had prepared “the most difficult job” for Alice. The archaeologist asked the girl to "take a hypnotic course of teaching the local language" and be vaccinated against all known diseases.
Alice was present on her first time travel and even studied the design of a time camera. Mikhail Petrov flew into the past and obtained local newspapers and some coins. It turned out that the plague brought to Koleida "the first spaceship launched from the planet."
Then Gromozeka revealed to Alice his plan: he wanted to save the Coleida civilization from the cosmic plague. To do this, it was necessary to go back in time, get to the hatch of the spacecraft and spray a vaccine bottle against the plague there. Compared to the Koleids, people seemed giants, but Alice was the same height with them, so Gromoseka decided to entrust her with this responsible mission.
However, the temporary workers flatly refused to send Alice to the past. They did not want to risk the safety of the girl and believed that they had no right to change the story, but could only watch.
Gromozeka was upset, but Alice was not used to abandoning her plans. She decided to go to the past on her own. Late at night, she left the tent where she lived with Gromozeka, capturing a vaccine bottle.The archaeologist slept so soundly that he talked in a dream and even advised Alice to dress warmly. With her on a trip, the girl took Rrrr, who sewed himself a tail to pass for a local kitten.
Chapter 12-17
Alice and Rrrr were 101 years old and ended up in the middle of a green meadow. They had to get to the railway station, where trains run to the capital. It was not easy. At first the dogs chased after Rrrr and tore his tail. The shepherd, the owner of the dogs, was very surprised that a kitten with a torn tail does not bleed.
He did not believe Alice either, who said that she had arrived in this town on an excursion. The shepherd was guarded by the accent of the girl and her strange clothes. Alice had to change the legend and impersonate a foreigner, and put Rrrr in a bag. The archaeologist began to rock, and his mood immediately deteriorated.
Upon reaching the station, Alice bought a newspaper and a train ticket. After two stations, the compartment neighbors got off, and the girl released Rrrr from her bag so that he would sew his tail and read the newspaper. It turned out that they arrived at the right moment of the past and were in time just in time for the spacecraft to meet.
Suddenly an old woman came into the compartment and was very scared when she saw a kitten with one eye sewing on its tail. Rrrr immediately scuttled into the bag, and Alice managed to convince the old woman that she had thought everything. The old woman was the mother of one of the astronauts. She liked Alice, and she undertook to take the girl directly to the runway.
The cosmodrome was cordoned off by the police, but the old woman, along with Alice, who she gave out as her daughter, was everywhere let through. Alice managed to get to the spaceship itself, however, the bag with Rrrr had to be left with one of the policemen.
As soon as the first astronaut appeared in the open hatch, the girl ran up the ramp and sprayed the vaccine bottle directly into his face. The police decided that Alice was going to poison the entire crew, grabbed her and locked her in one of the spaceport warehouses.
Alice was afraid that she would never return home, because the time machine is set up for one person. If someone else goes to the past, the girl will forever remain in this time. But then Alice thought: if necessary, Gromozeka will bring another time machine to Koleida, but she will not leave her in trouble.
Calming down a bit, Alice dozed off. Rrrr woke her up, who escaped from the policeman and made his way to the warehouse through the sewer. Alice hardly opened the sewer grate and slipped out of her prison at the last moment - someone was already walking down the corridor behind the girl.
Running away from the chase on foot, the exhausted Alice and Rrrr reached the clearing where the time machine had transferred them. Alice took the archaeologist in her arms and stood in the same place, the car recognized her and brought her home.
Chapter 18-19
Alice was already waiting for Gromozek and the temporary workers. As soon as the girl appeared in the cockpit, the spaceship on which she found herself started. Gromozeka told the girl that she did everything, so their expedition leaves Coleida.
Gromozeka knew that Alice herself would try to escape into the past. He did not sleep that night. Making sure that the time machine worked, Gromoseka woke the camp. Archaeologists learned about what happened and began to hastily turn off, because if Alice succeeds, a populated city will appear in this place. Rrrr also fell for Alice for a reason - Gromozeka asked him to go with the girl and help her in this dangerous business.
Alice looked out the window and joyfully saw the city lights far below. Soon, the rescued Koleids contacted the ship of archaeologists. Alice was very interested in whether there was a monument to her and Rrrr on the planet.
Gromozeka and Alice went to Koleida’s on-duty satellite and found out: the inhabitants of the planet did not even suspect that someone had saved them. In the history textbook, which the dispatcher gave the travelers, there was a description of the arrival of the first spacecraft.Only an unknown girl was mentioned there, who "was the first to run up to the ship and spray the astronauts with spirits."
Gromozeka officially demanded permission to land their starship on the planet. He decided to tell the Koleida government the whole truth. Alice was not upset by the lack of a monument, because the main thing is that all the inhabitants of the planet remained alive. “It’s only a shame that the story says that I poured perfume on them,” she complained to Gromozeka.
