"Arkady & Boris Strugatsky - Wanderers and Travellers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Strugatski Arkady)

which they had long ago made themselves at home in, well, what of it?
We'd not yet made ourselves at home in it! And for us they were nothing
more than a part of the Nature we had set out to explore and study, be
they three times as high as us! They were external to us! Though, of
course, if they started marking me, as I was marking the septopods. . .
I glanced at my watch and sat up abruptly. It was time to get on with
my work. I noted down the number of the last ampoule and checked my
aqualung. Then I went into the tent, got my ultrasonic locator and put it
in the pocket of my trunks.
"Help me on with it, Masha," I said, putting on the aqualung.
She was still sitting by the radio listening to the unremitting
"wah-wee". She helped me on with the aqualung and we got into the water
together. I switched on the locator and it began to emit signalsтАФmy
marked septopods were drowsily floating about in the lake. We looked
meaningly at each other and swam up to the surface. Masha was spitting
out the water and pushing the wet hair from her forehead as she said:
"But there is a difference between an astrocraft and wet weed in the
branchiate sac."
I told her to get on the bank and dived in again. No, I wouldn't worry as
much if I were Gorbovsky. It was all much too frivolous, like his
astro-archaeology. Traces of ideas. . . . Psychological shock. There would
be no shock. Most probably, we wouldn't notice each other at all. What on
earth are we to them, I'd like to know?


The End