the piercing gaze of the colonel’s gray eyes, which made even him, the best doctor of the cosmonaut corps, uncomfortable. But the astronaut’s health was all right. No deviations were observed at this stage of the «helicopter» inspection.
«Forgive us for such attention,» the colonel used to say, almost affectionately and somehow awkwardly. «After all, you just disappeared from the radar. We found the emergency capsule only today at eleven o’clock.
«I don’t understand something,» Elena began to speak loudly, trying to out-shout the chirping roar of the helicopter motors. – After all, communication with the ship ended instantly and
he began to accelerate into open space. I couldn’t even hold on to it
sustainer engines in braking mode.
«No, you disappeared, somehow suddenly,» the colonel insisted. – I, as a leader
flight, followed every maneuver. It happened when you requested
permission to maneuver. We have everything recorded. And suddenly she disappeared. And so
you appear seven days later in an emergency rescue capsule, – the colonel looked expectantly at Elena.
– How are seven days?! I immediately went to the rescue compartment and started. truth
everything happened so quickly that I lost consciousness from overloads.
– Yes, the capsule is designed for overloading the male body. More precisely, more
trained. This is your first independent.
Both were worried. Inaccuracy in seven days, and even in Cosmonautics, it looks like the explosion of an atomic bomb accidentally dropped by a US Air Force pilot flying over Alaska. But for an anomalous phenomenon for sure. This seems to have to be sorted out. In the meantime, the cosmonaut is waiting for rest, close supervision of doctors and an analysis of what happened. So thought the head of the flight, Colonel Smirnov. But one thing he was calm about was that the first-class pilot-cosmonaut who was entrusted to him was alive and well. This is the main thing. And the rest is a matter of technology. Its flight part is in order, but the engineers will have to work hard. Finding the cause of the accident and pushing it onto the pilot is not a success, there are clear signs of their inattention. Somewhere in the depths of my soul I thought maliciously, already a general, former Colonel C, but still remained a Colonel.
Chapter 6
– I’m asking you, Colonel! – shouted at the frozen in the middle of the Persian carpet, the general, standing at the massive polished writing table. Glass from the portrait of Felix Edmundovich glittered menacingly behind the general’s back. – Come on! The colonel, striking a step, sinking into the carpet, approached. Dzerzhinsky saw off the guest with a portrait look.
– I ask you how it could have happened that Gracis spent seven days in orbit
unnoticed?! – bulging, pitch-black eyes on the roll, with a look of impatient objections, devoured Smirnov, general.
– We have everything written down. She disappeared from radar and was not even detected.
intelligence service during…
– Why do they report this to me from third parties?! – the colonel winced:
– «As in prison, here are informants. They make a career on the bones,» Colonel Smirnov thought unflatteringly. The colonel’s eyes gazed sadly at the slender cypress tree outside the office window…
– «The general’s shoulder straps were crying. I will retire, to hell. Let everything burn, with a blue flame. The colonel’s pension will be enough», – the saving thought tenderly touched his temple.
– Go! – unexpectedly barked the general, – Major! – the last spoken word did not immediately reach the colonel’s consciousness, but when his hand touched the cold metal of the door handle:
– «How? Major?!» – for a moment Smirnov paused, then pulled the heavy, black leather door of the office towards himself and went out. The colleagues never saw Colonel Smirnov again. There were various rumors that he was promoted to the academy in Moscow for a general’s post. Such are the vicissitudes of the service. And Elena, meanwhile, at ease, but persistently was questioned by majors, captains, colonels and various military men and everyone asked her the same question, how she started from a reusable ship in an emergency capsule. And why I stayed in orbit for seven days. And for the umpteenth time she repeated the same thing, that she immediately lost consciousness and did not remember anything, that she woke up only on the ground. Yes, to be sure, and the rescue capsule with a man on board spent seven days in Earth orbit and remained unnoticed, this has never happened in astronautics. No matter how the departmental services tried, there were no perpetrators of what happened, and there was not for the only reason that nowhere in any corner of the world was the capsule recorded by the international tracking service for space objects. It turned out that Elena appeared from Space. Suddenly from nothing and a capsule? General Fedorov, appointed responsible for the investigation of the incident, stood on the firm positions of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, where the principle of the primacy of matter and the secondary nature of consciousness is clearly formulated. Therefore, miracles do not happen. And since miracles do not happen, it means that the capsule with Elena was simply not noticed. Sighing heavily, and burying his blind gaze in the instructions and prescriptions neatly laid out on the desk, he was senilely worried about the fact that had happened. But an incomprehensible shiver ran through his cheeky face and sleek bald head, and a sigh of relief escaped the general’s thick lips. But the intelligence of Western countries does not confirm the discovery. So there are no guilty ones. A stupid expression hardened on the general’s face, reflected in the stubbornly knitted bushy eyebrows and a firm gaze above the eyes that looked like bones from smoked prunes.
─Yes, ─ the general dropped. But in the practice of the military, and even in his department, there are no guilty ones, just as there are no reasons that give rise to these guilty ones themselves. Bushy eyebrows parted, eyes regained their usual melancholy, diffuse smoked prune color, and the general pressed a button. A moment later, the door opened to admit the chubby captain. The staff secretary, as in the old pre-revolutionary times, the adjutant of His Excellency, was helpful and transformed, trying his best to resemble his master, both in appearance and in habits.
─Colonel Smirnov’s case?! ─ the general barked as he entered. The captain, not at a loss, in a coolly obliging tone in his voice, gently remarked:
─It is on your table, comrade general, ─ Fedorov fussed. The captain, with lightning speed, with some catlike movement, ran up to the general’s table, throwing on the go:
─Allow me? ─ and took out what was needed from the pile of cases.
─Thank you, captain. You are free.
─ There is! May I go out!
─ I said go.
The secretary went out noiselessly. The general leafed through the gray folder with the «SECRET» stamp on the cover for a long time, step by step studying the colonel’s record. Secret reports of informants ran before my eyes. Characteristics of the commanders of the units where the colonel served and not a single case of violation of discipline. The general snorted in displeasure. Even in his personal file there is a report from the deputy for the political part of the squadron, in which officer Fedorov began his service, that he allegedly, having got drunk with his colleagues, sent him, i.e. Major so-and-so, what the Major’s name was, he no longer remembered. And along with it, the entire leadership of the army in three letters of the expression, famous from Slavic Russia. How beautiful, then, the major inflated – this is the case. He had no doubts of success, that, finally, the generals themselves would envy his vigilance. But the naive major did not take into account that this pimply lieutenant, stupid in appearance, the illegitimate son of the Commander of the Air Force of the Central Asian Military District,