I stood between the mirage and Alice, shielding her, because I was not entirely certain that Verkhovtseff was just an illusion.
But the doctor did not notice Alice. He was walking in a straight line, laughing, as though he had seen someone. I looked ahead of him. Coming to meet Verkhovtseff was the fat man in the black leather suit. They shook hands and, their heads close together for conspiracy, began to argue about something.
Alice got to her feet and took my hand.
“There’s no way you can keep secrets on this planet.” She said. “So now we know that the fat man and Verkhovtseff are friends and they had some reason to try and get the Blabberyap bird from us.”
The mirages conversed soundlessly, and from the other side approached yet one more mirage. It depicted the Three Captains. But not made out of stone, like we had seen on the Three Captain’s Planet, but the real Captains in the blue uniforms of the Space Fleet. The Captain’s stopped, clasped each other’s hands as if saying good-bye. And immediately they wavered and vanished. In their place stood just one of the Captains, the Second. Tall, thin, with a curved nose. The Captain stood pensively, as though thinking of something. On his shoulder sat the Blabberyap bird. The Captain took a very long look around the valley and quickly headed for yet another mirage which had grown on the horizon. The mirage was a starship, blue, except where its hull had been inlaid with precious stones in the form of an enormous, dark blue gull.
And then the mirages dissipated. Verkhovtseff and the fat man vanished as well.
“I’ve never seen such a beautiful ship before.”
Poloskov’s voice came through my ear phones:
“Listen, Professor; you say you’ve never seen such a beautiful ship before? That must have been the Second Captain’s Blue Gull.”
“Of course.” Alice said. “Could it have been hidden somewhere around here? We have to find it!”
From the horizon where the Blue Gull had stood came a flash of light; we watched the ship rise from the ground and leave the planet.
“So your mirage flew away.” Zeleny said. “I would have thought so.”
“Yes, right after that the Blue Gull departed.” Poloskov agreed with him.
I bent down over the spot where Alice had fallen while running toward our doubles. I bent down because I had seen something very curious: two roundish stones were slowly rocking, as though someone had touched them. But no one had. Even the wind had died away. I reached out to touch one of the stones but it moved away from my hand, and suddenly a mirage began to grow from the stone. At first it was misty, almost transparent, but then it became Milady de Winter. Milady de Winter ran for the hills holding her skirts in her hands.
“Don’t go!” I said aloud. “Just like I thought. There are no miracles here!”
I jumped forward as thought I wanted to grab Milady de Winter; at the moment when I reached the spot where she stood, the mirage vanished. Under my hands lay a round stone.
“What have you got?” Alice asked. “Why did you chase after Milady?”
“I caught her.” I said.
Zeleny snorted a laugh.
“Nothing at all like that happened. Your Milady de Winter just up and vanished without a trace.”
“Actually, she’s in my hand.” I said. “So let’s return to the ship and I’ll explain it all.”
Back in the Crew’s Lounge I placed a roundish stone on the table, as well as another five like it that I had picked up on the way back to the ship. The little stones lay peacefully in a row. Quite ordinary stones, each about the size of a small potato, looking in fact like small, hard potatoes.
“Let me present this planet’s inhabitants.” I said.
“They’re living beings?” Zeleny was astonished. “I would never have guessed that.”
“With a very interesting ability. They can generate optical illusions copies of people, objects, not only what they have themselves seen for example the Three Captains or Doctor Verkhovtseff, but what they pick up from the minds and imaginations of visitors. Thus, for example, Alice was reading The Three Musketeers, she saw the book’s illustration and imagined how the Musketeers must have looked, and we in turn saw them. They were, Alice, exactly as you imagined them?”
“Exactly.” Alice said.
“As to whatever these stones might need mirages for, why they evolved the ability, I haven’t a clue.”
“Maybe they are just bored?” Alice asked. “All they do is lay around on the empty ground and get bored. So any visitor, any guest for them is just a marvelous diversion.”
“Anything else might be.” I agreed. “So, do we search here or fly to the third planet?”
“I suspect the third planet will be more interesting.” Poloskov said. “I looked at the long range photos and there was air, water, and vegetation.”
Then one of the stones turned itself into the Second Captain. The Captain looked at us with vast sadness in his eyes, but the Blabberyap bird said in his voice:
“‘Search for me on the third planet. Search on the third planet.’“
“There, you see!” Alice said.
We immediately took off for the third planet in the Medusa system.
Chapter Fifteen
The Crockadee’s Nest
Four suns rose and set quickly in the fast spinning planet’s sky, and nights were scarce and short; without some complicated calculations no one could determine at which moment it might suddenly become dark, the short twilight flash past and a short night settle over that part of the planet. Half an hour would pass, sometimes less, and another close star rose above the thorny bushes and temporarily rose into the sky.
The planet was overgrown with forests and underbrush. At the poles the forests were low and huddled close to the ground; in the tropics they rose to unbelievable heights.
The world turned out to be heaven for a biologist. What didn’t this planet have! The oceans overflowed with fish, jelly fish, crustaceans, sea snakes, the forests were filled with every imaginable kind of animal and butterflies with wings a meter long; different kinds of birds flew over our heads, to the jagged crags of the mountains and the endless hills.
“We can stay here a while.” I said when we climbed to the top of a hill overgrown with bushes. “One planet like this could fill fifty zoos.”
“Great.” Poloskov said. “First thing we can do is carry out some repairs to the ship.”
“That’s fine.” Alice said. “But for starters we have to find the Second Captain. I’m certain he’s around here somewhere.”
“Just don’t go off in search of him on your own.” I warned Alice. “There are some very dangerous animals around here.”
“But I’m the Queen of the Natural World.” Alice said.
“The animals here might not know about that.” I said. “It might not be something covered in their educational system.”
“Then how are we going to find the Second Captain?” Alice asked.
“First thing we’ll do is orbit a scanning satellite over the planet.” Poloskov said. “And have it hunt for metal concentrations.”
“Why?”
“As soon as it locates the traces of metals used in space ships it will let us know.”
“How long will that take?”
“To do a thorough job, about two weeks.”
“That long!”
“And in the mean time you can help me.” I said. “I dub thee Feeder of Animals.”
“And Waterer of Bushes.” Alice added. “Except they’ve run all over the place and I can’t find them.”
At that moment the youngest of the wanderbushes pushed his way into the crew’s lounge and timidly stopped in the doorway. He shook his branches and began to sing, trying to make us understand that he wanted fruit juice.