# Path part 1-6

Аноним Yager

The guy turns into Jane Shepard and goes into the army at 18. The Scilian Blitz and the career of the Spectrum. Invasion of the Reapers. The post-war galaxy.

The prologue.

The most ordinary day, or rather night, the most ordinary shift at a part-time job in a taxi. I pick up a customer at the address, another dyed blonde eager for a drink and dancing at the club. I've never understood such a pastime. Everything is as usual, the road is shiny with puddles in the holes in the asphalt, moderately broken but still allowing you to drive at a fairly decent speed, the joints of the overpasses protrude. From behind, the heart-rending howl of engines running at top speed approached. Walking at a speed of ninety, I am bypassed by two "chepyrki" (ВАЗ-2114), painted, tinted in trash, with loud rhythmic music bursting out of the windows. They pass and disappear ahead of us behind a smooth turn of the city chord. There's an interchange four kilometers away, so I'll have time to admire the jerks in the oncoming lane. I slow down automatically, there are speedcams ahead on a trellis farm thrown over the road, as soon as these assholes are not caught. The descent is smooth, and a couple can be seen flying around the bend on the oncoming lane. One of the "чепырок" flies into a puddle and catches an aquaplane at a speed of 180 degrees. Time has slowed down, and I'm watching what's happening in slow motion. The idiot skids, throws under the second one, and now two idiots are looping in the oncoming lane, hitting him with a swing against a metal bump on the right side, pieces of bumper fly, sparks, the car crumples into a shapeless lump of metal and plastic. Consciousness notes all this as if automatically. The second one hits the side of the high curb of the dividing strip, the car bounces, it flies sideways onto the divider and hits the metal fence post with all its might. Glass splashes, the rear bumper, torn off by inertia, slowly takes off, the car begins to tear in half, I see a long metal pin fly out from under the bottom and fly in a smooth parabola, rotating, in my direction. "Fucked up!" A piece of metal flies through my mind with a pop like a gunshot, smashes into the windshield, a blow to the chest, and the pain flares up and goes out. I slam on the brake, the car stops abruptly, I feel the jolts of my ABS in the pedal, the passenger squeals across the front seat, burying her face in the headrest. My swallow got up, the engine stopped, the locks clicked, automatically unlocking the doors.

"What are you doing!" Flying from the back seat. "You don't know how to drive at all! I'll report it to the dispatcher. They'll recruit anyone with purchased rights."

"You need to buckle up, you fool!" He floats listlessly in his thoughts. I look at the ragged hole in the windshield with cracks radiating in all directions. I look down, and there's a pin sticking out of my chest with a cut-off bolt at the end. "Why doesn't it hurt?" My consciousness begins to swim, and a hot feeling spreads in my chest.

- There's something sticking out of your seat, I've hurt myself! What's it? Is it sticky?" The ceiling switch clicks, flooding the interior with white LED light. "Ah-ah-ah!" It comes from the back seat.

"What are you screaming about? My ears are already ringing. Or is it just my imagination?" The ringing in my ears is getting louder, and black flies are in front of my eyes. "Why is there no pain?"

***

Darkness and silence, no sounds, no movement, no sensations. Only on the verge of perception is a feeling-a whisper-a thought:

"Forget everything, accept peace and oblivion, forget pain and fear, memories bring pain, why do you need them? Forget it, forget it, forget it..."

"Who am I! Answer me!" A thought flashes by. "I don't want oblivion! I want to remember!"

"Are you sure you want to?" It was as if a strange alien thought-feeling appeared nearby, there are no comparable concepts. "Are you sure that's what you want?" She repeated.

"Yes! Yes, I do. Give me back to you. You are welcome."

"As you wish."

And I remembered everything, my whole life, kindergarten, school, college, the army! I remembered my wife, my children, and my job at the factory. I remembered everything every day, and most importantly, I remembered my death.

"Fuck, did I die? Yes?"

"The biological shell has stopped functioning. But he died, it's pretty controversial, don't you think." They answered me.

"I think means I exist. So what is it?"

"Right."

"And what's next?"

"As you wish. You want to go back, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. Can I?"

"May. But with some condition."

"Like what?"

"People like you, those who have given up oblivion, are offered to return for a reason. They need to help the world they're being sent to. You will be given the skills and gifts to be able to cope with the task assigned to you."

"What are these gifts and skills?"

"Different, for example, how do you like absolute memory?"

"Normal."

"Is it okay?! The brute."

"And which world will I be sent to? What should I do there?"

"One of the worlds you know."

"What kind of acquaintances?! I've never been anywhere but Earth."

"Many of them are described in your fiction."

"So you're giving the authors plots! But why?"

"We can't interfere directly, but with the help of people like you, it's acceptable. You are bound by the laws of that world and you are mortal. Therefore, based on our forecasts and assumptions, we, in other worlds, using means of information delivery, such as books and others, raise people like you. And then we send you to help other worlds. Remember, what you have described is not identical to what you have in reality, but it is close, but not the same, and the forecasts are not absolute. Foreknowledge can fail you. Check it out."

"And if I fail? I'm not a superhero!"

"So we'll raise the next ones."

"What about me? What will happen to me?"

"If you don't break down, we'll send you somewhere else. There are many problematic worlds."

"What does it mean if I don't break down?"

"There are quite difficult situations there, but after all, a reasonable person cannot live in a vacuum, he acquires friends, relatives, and just reasonable relatives. Not everyone can stand losing then, oblivion awaits them. And after oblivion, what good are they? They leave for another incarnation in the usual way."

"And in case of victory?"

"You win first! If you win, we'll talk."

A crazy thought flashed through my mind:

"Oh, I'll turn around!"

"And so that you don't get distracted, I'll change the boundary condition. That's not why you're being sent there!"

"For what reason?"

"For everyone, for everything! As they like to say in your homeland. That's enough talking, you should go."

It feels like I'm falling, falling faster and faster. A dazzling white dot appeared ahead and began to grow rapidly. The dot turns into a cloud of light, the feeling of the body comes, it is compressed as in a vice, there is a soft elastic tightness and darkness around. I'm not breathing, what's going on? The darkness pulsates, strange sounds are heard, as if someone is moaning. My body is squeezed to the point of severe pain and pushes forward with my head, suddenly I am pushed into the light, it blinds everything around me with muddy, some colored spots, voices. Someone hits me in the ass, it hurts so much that I want to scream, I take a breath, my chest explodes with wild pain, I scream and pass out under my own scream.

Part 1. Chapter 1.

Eugene (Mendoir March - April 2355)

March 11, 2355

The realization came somehow suddenly, I saw a giant bending over me, he smiled at me and said:

"Who is it that I have here, so small, and no longer sleeps."

Damn, is he talking about me? And why is it small?! I tried to feel myself with my hands, and I broke off so abruptly, my hands! My fucking hands! THEY DIDN'T LISTEN TO ME! He tried to touch his face and stuck his finger in his own eye. Your mother's! I tried to swear, but instead it just came out.

"Augomugoao!"

Ooooh! I can't even speak properly! A complete polar fox! Have arrived...

The man picks me up, and I realize that my head is being pulled back so badly, I straighten it out with a noticeable effort, and slowly look around. It's nothing like the decor, laconic, futuristic, all kinds of screens, a huge window in the wall floor, furniture made of polished metal bent. A tablet is lying on the table, transparent glass, with glowing orange symbols. I'm the one who got into the future, and that's bread! I would have cast my voice in the Middle Ages, but it was really tough back then. There are no normal toilets, no medicine, you'll shudder when you think about dental treatment, the church is militant with all sorts of inquisitions! So I'll try to look at my hand anyway, if my bring it up to me face quietly, slowly... Oh, it worked, the hand obeyed! Adults don't have such hands, the fingers are plump, the nails are pink, so I'm a child, not a "Gulliver" in the land of giants! And the question about my little one remains open. How can I check that? What an ambush... Oh, I thought of it! I start kicking my legs and groaning! There is a contact! The guy bends down and takes out a metal pot from under the sofa, well, the most ordinary kind, my boys had the same in a previous life, only plastic and not stainless steel. So take off your pants and put me on an iron friend, slowly lower your head and!

Oppa! And HE's not there!That is, the dignity of a man! Fuck! Bitch! AAAhh! This is a boundary condition change, it's just fucking mean! But I really wanted to go to the bathroom, so we're doing it, hmm, it feels strange, different, damn it! Of course they are different, the platform is different!! Ehhh! Well, there's no way out, we'll get used to this one!

So it's done, they're probably carrying me to the bathroom. Exactly! Oh! The mirror! Come on, come on, let's look at ourselves, small as small, about a year old, a smile, oh, dimples formed on the cheeks! There are about eight teeth in his mouth. There's not enough hair yet, and the color is so strange, reddish like. The eyes are green, not GREEN like malachite! So they washed me, put my pants back on, and carried me back. We look around, it's spacious, there are a lot of windows, all kinds of equipment, oh, this is probably a TV! No shit, it looks like two meters diagonally! There are columns of one and a half meters on the sides with grids on the outside, columns probably. Everything turned off is flashing red lights! We returned to the same place we came from, the guy sat me on the couch, propped me up with pillows on both sides, put some crap with a pen in his hand, I shook it, and it started to sparkle, lights inside, bah, it's a rattle, so let's look at it more closely. Well, what can I say, nothing special, a transparent plastic ball with another ball inside, the second one with built-in LEDs, the handle is also made of plastic, only soft to the touch. And everything. Then I heard a "pssssssss" sound from the right, and there was a piece of wall moving so slowly, and the opening we entered was closing, Close. And on the wall to the right, a green circle lit up, about ten centimeters in diameter, and the circle itself seemed to be hanging in the air without touching the wall, wow! A hologram in no way.

Then I felt that someone was looking at me, so we turned our head slowly to the left. Wow! What a huge cat, bigger than my head, hefty, sixty centimeters at the withers! Thick long paws, a meter-long tail like a tube, and only the tip bends back and forth. He stands on the couch next to me and looks at me so intently with his green eyes.

The man sat down at the table and said:

"Is Barsik awake, Zhenya, and you're on guard duty?"

The cat looked at the man, stood on the pillow with his front paws, and folded into a ball, so that his head was right under my hand. I reached out and ran my fingers into the fur, and the fur was soft, I scratched him behind the ear with my little fingers, went down on his cheek, the cat threw his head back, purred like an engine. I was looking at the guy, and he turned sideways to the table, pressed something with his hand under the table, and in front of him a hefty hologram lit up for about a meter and a half. He put gloves on his hands with metal claws on the tips of his fingers, and as he began to feel in the hologram, he pokes somewhere from the left, then moves back and forth with both hands at once, then launches his hands into the hologram itself with fingers spread out as if holding something and twirling his palms as if turning. Bah, it's a big deal to see! I wish I'd been like this in a previous life!

The man looks to be in his thirties, has light

hair and light-colored blue eyes, is wearing what looks like a pair of light-colored overalls with hip pockets and a white T-shirt with a large blue inscription ALC "LOKI EI-14" TAS NAVY on the left side. She wears soft-looking short moccasins made of white material.

I stared at him for about twenty minutes, but in the end he couldn't stand it, got out from behind the table, walked through the hologram, came up to me and said:

"Why are you looking at Dad like that, my daughter? It was like seeing it for the first time." And he smiles, well, I give him a smile back, he bends over to me and covers me with love, tenderness and some kind of joy mixed with delight! Damn, why am I so overwhelmed! Didn't you feel anything like that just now?! The guy kisses me on the forehead and returns to the table. The feelings went with it! Oh shit! So it was his feelings!! That's the second bonus, I'm an empath now, no, an empath girl, cool!

"Maybe turn on the cartoons," says "Dad" from the table. "Well, that's how it is." And he presses something on the table, it buzzed above his head, clicked, and right in front of me, two meters away, a three-dimensional picture appeared in the air, in it, on a blue background, some icons were scattered in groups, the numbers 11:03:2355 10:22 were lit in the corner, the date was decided on the 24th century! The icons are signed with different abbreviations such as "СПиКРК on 1UO" go understand. Here the cursor appeared, it hovered over the icon with the image of a small folder for papers signed "miscellaneous", several windows flashed in a row, voila, a picture with a roaring lion appeared!!! I went all over the "screen" and no, well, it can't be! Tom and Jerry! Hold me seven! It was worth dying to watch these cartoons again in a new life! Oh ha ha ha I can't believe it! Well, let's see!

Two hours have passed.

Something's bothering me, some kind of discomfort, damn, I'm hungry! And this "dad" is stuck in his punch line and it's like I'm not there! So we need to get his attention somehow, maybe yell?! Okay, I'll try:

"Aaaaaaaaaaa! Oooooooh aaaaa! Waaaaa!"

Oh! He looks at me.

"What are you doing, daughter?"

I look back intently and looking into his eyes I make a sound

"Ooooaaaa!!"

"Dad" slaps his forehead with his palm and exclaims:

"You must be hungry at my place! I'm a fool! I forgot about you with my job!"

He jumps up from his chair, quickly goes to the doorway, slaps the green circle with his palm, the door opens with a hiss and he disappears somewhere in the house, another hiss is heard, then something clinks, hums. Everything went quiet. Footsteps were heard approaching, and he returned. He's holding a glass plate with something mushy inside. He takes a chair, sits down in front of me, and begins the process of feeding me. Like any loving parent, he accompanies every spoonful, opening and closing his own mouth, and it's getting harder for me to watch. Oh, I can't take it anymore, I'm neighing like a horse! As a result, I choked and mixed coughing and laughing, I burst into tears, which brought my father to a real panic attack. Well, everything passes, and that passed, and dad went to the kitchen, but where else did he get it all and brought me a drinking bowl with an incredibly delicious compote! After drinking a compote, we continued our business, I watching cartoons, and daddy working on the kool-aid.

An hour later.

There was some noise coming from outside the door! Something rattled, the door slid open and a beautiful woman appeared in front of me, about the age of my father, with dark brown hair, broken dark eyebrows over wide-set large gray eyes with fluffy long eyelashes on a regular Scandinavian-type face, but with soft lips. She was wearing a long fur coat made of thick, shiny black fur. Black pointed-toed boots with low heels were visible from under the fur coat.

"How are you doing here?" She asked, and then noticed a hologram with cartoons. "So! What is this!?" She said, looking at her father. "Michael Shepard, I'm asking you! WHAT IS THIS!" She stuck her finger into the hologram. I'm stuck! What, what did she call her father! What's his last name?! SHEPARD!! And I'm Eugenia Shepard! Very interesting!


March 25, 2355

So one step, one more step, take your time, Zhenya, take your time, keep your head up, keep talking. Here is the corner of the crib, we intercept with our hands and then take another step. I'm learning to walk! My legs are still weak, but my hands are already much better. It's still early in the morning, and my parents are sleeping on the couch with their arms around each other. A Barsik is lying at their feet and follows my steps around the crib with an attentive look. So we keep the balance, oops, the head has outweighed, eee! I manage to fold in half and land on the fifth point uhh! It took my breath away. Is my little one awake?! I hear my mother's voice, she looks at me with a smile, I smile back, grab the bars, pull myself up and stand up. My head is above the bars, and I'm sincerely pushing my forehead and reaching out to my mother. Yes! Now they are really my parents for me, and empathy has turned out to have not only a bright side, but also a "dark" side. It is impossible to remain indifferent under the pressure of parental feelings. Mom gets up, picks me up from the crib, and I'm just basking in a wave of maternal love. They put me on the potty while I do my chores, mom puts on a robe and we hold hands and quietly stomp into the kitchen. There's a mega device, a chair table. It's a tall chair with a sliding table attached in the front. Mom puts me in it, pulls up a table. I look out the window, there are leaves blooming on a large, sprawling tree in the courtyard, a strange tree, the bark is peeling off, falling off in layers, and the leaves are coming out in a strange silver-green color. A hefty brown dog walks thoughtfully around the yard, he is so healthy that he looks like a bear. And when this beast yawns, it seems like my whole head can enter its mouth.

"Come on, eat," my mother says and puts a plate in front of me, it contains porridge with pieces of fruit and some berries. I take a spoon in my right hand and start eating slowly. It's not working fast yet! There's a good chance you can get a spoon past your mouth. Meanwhile, Mom takes out a soft plastic container with a volume of one and a half liters from the pantry and goes out into the yard with it. The dog rushes to her with an expression of such intense joy that it seems to me that his tail is about to fall off and spin like a boomerang into the far distance!

"Quiet Polkasha!" Mom exclaims at the dog spinning around, "If you stay hungry, I'm going to dump all your breakfast past the bowl and you're going to eat from the ground again!" But the dog doesn't seem to be intimidated by this prospect at all!

Footsteps are heard from behind, someone entered the kitchen, quietly came up to me and kissed me on the back of the head, showering me with adoration! Daddy's awake! Mom came back from the yard and I can hear her saying:

"Misha, how many times have I told you not to walk around the house in your underwear! Well, you have a bathrobe!"

"Come on, Diane, I'm only at home in the morning, and in general, I'm at home in whatever I want!"

"Oh so! Look at the example you're setting for our boys! Can you imagine if I start walking around the house in my underwear?!"

"Oh! It will be a magnificent sight! You have nothing to hide and something to be proud of!"

"Double flattery! And anyway, if you haven't forgotten, I'm seven months pregnant!"

"Ooo! Ha ha! It's hard to forget and even harder not to notice! And anyway, come here, retired Major of the medical service! I will explain to you all the subtleties of communication with a senior officer! Heh heh!"

"Get your hands off me! Mr. Retired Captain of the first rank, what are you doing?"

There's scuffling and kissing sounds behind my back!

"Ohhh! Michael Shepard, I love you, my husband! But now you go put on a bathrobe, go up to the second floor, wake up our sons, and don't you dare contradict me! Is everything clear to you!?"

"Aw, aw, ma'am! The order is clear! Allow me to perform!"

"Do it!"

And the father, humming some cheerful tune, leaves the kitchen.

Ten minutes later.

"Aaaaaaaaa! I'm the first one down!"

"No! I am! I'm The First One!"

"Nifiga ha haha!"

It came from the stairs to the second floor. My two older brothers flew down it with a bang! This is the weather of Deniska and Leshka! Elbowing and puffing, they stumble into the kitchen.

"Hi Mom!" Deniska is babbling.

"Hi Mom!" Leshka echoes him.

"So young people, how should well-mannered young chevaliers behave at breakfast?!" Their mom asked. "Come on, let's get out of the kitchen and go in properly!"

The brothers swept out the door, caught their breath, and sedately went back in.

"Hello, Mother," Denis said, bowing slightly.

"Good morning, Mom," said Leshka, repeating his brother's movement.

"Hello children, have a seat at the table." Mom replied, bowing her head.

The guys went around the table "accidentally" passing by my chair, hugged me from both sides.

"Hello, little one," whispered Deniska and kissed me on the cheek.

"Hello, little fox," Leshka whispered, kissing the other one.

After that, they both sat down at the table.


Three hours after.

I'm sitting alone in the middle of the carpet in the children's room on the second floor of our house, and I'm talking softly to the cat. Slowly and gradually, my tongue begins to obey me.

"You're a ba-ss pla-yer, I think I'm so stu-pid. I'm tra-in-ing, I'm en-jo-ying my-self with yo-u! And To-uka?"

The cat is silent, quietly purring, lying down on the carpet next to it, stretched out to its full length and rolling a wheel from some kind of machine with its front paws. The brothers have a whole box of this "scrap metal".

Ehh! I hope the torment doesn't last too long.

"So what's the cat? I'll ge-t all wor-ked up!"

The Barsik purrs, squinting affectionately.

By the way, I managed to find out my location, an hour ago, my mother, holding me in her arms, turned on a huge TV. Uhh! What a thing it is! A natural window into another world. So there was news and a pretty presenter in quite decent English was broadcasting that the current state of affairs in the colony of Mendoir was just fine, and all mining and processing complexes were operating at full capacity. This will allow us to increase the shipment of concentrate this year, and increase the number of colonists and the income of existing ones. Then there was a block of interplanetary news, about the new initiatives of the Citadel Council, about the work of the ambassador of the Alliance of Systems, hmm! It seems that in the canon, people should be on the council, but here is an ambassador, not an Counselor... Then there was the sports news block, and it all ended with the weather block. Everything is the same as always, the surroundings change, but the essence remains the same.


April 11, 2355

As usual, I was sitting at my chair-table by the window and looking out into the kitchen, at how our cat and our doggie were playing with some kind of crap that looked more like scraps of a stuffed toy. You've turned one year old, Zhenya! Suddenly, with a loud buzz, a red and green bike flew into the yard! It's like in the sixth episode of Star Wars, but without the long thing with wings in front, the flying scooter is shorter! Both of my brothers sat on it in tandem, and Denis's face was worried and guilty, and Leshka, who was sitting behind, was crying and scratched, and he was strangely holding his left hand.

I made a sound "EEEEEE" and pointed at the window. Dad went to the window, looked out, his face took on a worried expression, his emotions clearly sounded alarmed.

"Diane," he said. "The guys are in trouble."

"What's wrong Mish." Mom answered.

"Call an ambulance, Dayan."

Mom went into the living room and chirped at the terminal, and after a short chirping, a clear female voice came from there:

"Dayan! My soul, is that you! What happened?"

"Ray, I'm really glad to see you too, but I need you! My guys seem to have had a very good bike ride!"

"I'm already flying, honey, just don't worry, it's not good for you!" And slowly fading away:

"Duck, Du-uck! Get ready, let's fly to the Shepards..."

It is not known what the mysterious Duck replied. The connection was disconnected.

The front door buzzed, and my brothers appeared for all to see.

"Well!" Said the father.

"Paap. We were riding a bike here," staring at the floor, Denis said. "Anyway, Leshka flew off, and I think he broke his arm."

Leshka at this time, hesitated next to trembling lips, and eyes full of tears.

"So-o..." My father said, "and how could this happen, they were driving without a limiter again."

"Well, Pa-ap," both of them howled, "only small ones ride with a limiter."

"Well, that means you're big!" Mom exclaimed.

"Well, Mo-om!" Both of them howled again.

At the same time, the brothers looked the most dejected, and their emotions showed pity for each other and for some reason fear.

"Well, Aunt Ray is about to arrive, and it will become completely clear what to do with you." Said the father.

The brothers hunched their heads into their shoulders, and looked at their mother with some strange hope.

"What are you watching!" Mom said. "You're hoping to get off easy." The brothers shuddered and looked at their father expectantly.

"What did I tell you?" The father asked.

"That we have to be careful." Denis spoke up.

"That you should drive carefully without a limiter." Leshka whimpered.

"And what about you!?"

The brothers began to sob, both of them.

"Well, Daddy..... We didn't do it on purpose....It's like that! We didn't run into Ham on purpose!" The sobs turned into tears.

"So you also ran into Haymon, and how is he doing? Where is he, by the way?"

"Papa Ham flew home, he was taken away there!" Deniska spoke through tears.

"So he also got beaten up! Well, Dakar will give him a hard time."

"Science will drive you like crazy." Mom put her hands on her hips and said.

Then the informant's beep sounded from the door, and how did I not notice how the doctors arrived, there was some kind of long-shaped futuristic-looking thing behind the fence, but with a completely familiar outline of a blue chandelier that twinkled fervently. Mom waddled over to the door and pressed on the flickering green hologram on the right jamb. The door opened and she entered the room... My mouth was already open, all slender, in a fitted snow-white suit, with a bright red cross on her left forearm, a blue-skinned AZARI... It's just like in the "Mass Effect", and the tentacles on the head, and the pigmented spots on the face, and it's beautiful..!

"Michael!" She exclaimed, "Where are they!?"

"Admire it!" The father replied. "There's Leshka, he ejected from the bike." And he pointed at his brother with his hand.

"So!" The doc puffed up with concern. "What's the matter with you, so, so." She bustled around.

Leshka came up to her and held out his shaking left hand. An orange hologram flashed around Asari's left arm, she ran it along Leshka's arm, looked at the hologram, pressed her finger on a strange round pimple on the right side of her head and said:

"Duck! Bring a small treatment table, and a suitcase with clips! And get moving."

I turned to the window, and saw a tall TURIAN sidling through the gate! In a snow-white suit just like the doctor's, with a briefcase in his right hand and a long trunk placed vertically in his left, and our dog, twirling his tail like a fan, gets in his way and does not show any signs of aggression, rather a stormy joy as from meeting a good friend. That's right! But what about the human colony!? Where a Turian and an Asari serve in the ambulance. Nothing is clear. Well, okay, let's take a look, I decided!

The Turian entered the house, went out into the middle of the living room, put a suitcase on the floor, took hold of the trunk with both hands, and I still didn't understand how, but this trunk suddenly turned into a long table, immediately put on the floor.

"Bring three chairs, Mish." Dr. Ray said.

Folder quickly arranged the chairs under Doc's guidance, around this table, Leshka was seated on one chair. Doc took out a strange pistol, pressed its barrel against her brother's forearm, pulled the trigger, there was a "Pssst" sound, Leshka yelped.

"Well, well." Said the Turian. "You'll feel better now, and we'll take your hand off each other."

"And it doesn't hurt." Leshka mumbled.

"You can feel your hand." Ray asked.

"Uh, no."

"Well, it doesn't hurt." Duck said.

"By the way Duck!" Said the father. "Your eldest is hurt too, he's sitting at home!"

After that, a briefcase was placed on the table, which, unfortunately, blocked everything that was happening on the table from me. I fidgeted and whined, leaning to the right and left in an attempt to see what was happening on the table, but in vain. So I didn't see anything.

When it was over, Leshkin's hand was wrapped in a cool white scarf.

"That's Michael." Said the doctor. "You will arrive at the hospital in two days, we will remove the retainers there and it is better not to strain your arm for a week, you understand everything, young man." She turned to Leshka.

"Understood." My brother squeaked.

"And no bike racing. I'll rip off my otorvam piston today, too, and insert it." Dr. Duck said.

"Mish, we're going to arrange for an accident, anyway!" I called Father Azari. "Let's go" said the doc. "The victim's name?"

"Alexey Mikhailovich Shepard."

"Age?"

"7 years."

"Date of birth?"

"July 22, 2348."

"Place of birth?"

"Leonov city, Mendoir colony."

"Parents, father?"

"Mikhail Alexandrovich Shepard."

"Age?"

"65 years old."

"The mother?"

"Hannah Diana Shepard."

"Age?

"63 years old."

"Home address?"

"Leonov City, Strawberry Street 2, Whisper Ranch"

"Okay." Said the blue doctor. "I'll fill out the rest myself."

Then the Turian Duck came up to me, and I stared at him with wide-open eyes with undisguised curiosity, and there was something to see. Well, first of all, he looked like a game Turian and didn't look like one at the same time. He did not have so-called mandibles, just his cheeks with horny plates growing on them closer to the chin, curved with pointed ends below the chin itself and fused with a lower lip, under which fangs were hidden looking down four centimeters long. That makes me understand teeth. The lower canines were much smaller than two and a half centimeters. The figure was dense, proportionally built, beautiful even to a human eye, and not that the product of Biovar designers was squalid, the hands were surprisingly four-fingered, and the little finger was thicker than the index and middle fingers and only slightly shorter than the index finger. All the fingers on the hands ended in powerful, slightly curved claws. The Turian's skin was golden brown, his face had a colorful tattoo of white and blue lines woven into a complex pattern, his eyes were deep-set with dark gray whites, and the iris was incredibly glowing bright blue around a round pupil.

Curiosity radiated from him in a wave, and I stretched out my hands and clenched my fingers into fists several times.

"That's right!" The father said with a smile. "Not a drop of fear immediately begs to be picked up."

"Yes, we can easily do that." Duck replied. "Come here, little one."

And he yanked me out of my chair. I didn't see anything repulsive up close, but on the contrary, I ran my hand over the Turian's cheek, the skin was smooth and velvety to the touch, and hot, about forty degrees, he already squeezed his eyes shut with pleasure, and made a strange purring sound, which was immediately picked up by our cat standing in the hallway.

"And you're going to Aunt Ray's."

I heard it from the left. Turning, she met the gaze of the Asari. She was smiling, which made her face even more attractive. Somewhere else, though.

I reached out to her and was immediately taken away from Duck. The Turian laughed.

"That's Ray. Everyone sticks to you, even the kids."

I was looking at the Asari with interest. The blue skin is soft and silky to the touch, the appendages that slightly springy under the fingers, the pattern of pigment spots in the form of a complex pattern around the amazing color of lilac eyes. By the way, the Asari had eyelashes, although there were no other types of vegetation on the skin. Strange.

"And what's your name, young lady?" Ray cooed.

"Zhenya," I replied! Wow, it turned out to be clean to say!

Dad's jaw dropped, and Mom's already big eyes widened. Oh, to be naughty so naughty! She poked her finger under Asari's chin and I said:

"Ray."

Then Azari's eyes got big, like animeshki with his mom. Turning to Duck, she pointed at him and said:

"Duck."

The Turian's jaw dropped. And I was just overwhelmed by a wave of amazement. The adults were stunned into silence.

"Well, what's my name?" The father came up and asked.

I smiled at him with all my twelve teeth and said:

"Misha's dad."

Just look who's talking! My father said, laughing.

"I'm going to my house!Э Dr. Duck hurried over. ЭI need to examine my senior. Ray, let's go."

"Bye guys!" Azari said, and the medics picked up their stuff and left.

Chapter 2.

Eugene (Mendoir April - June 2358)

April 11, 2358

The slowly rising sun illuminated the peaks of the mountains in the east, they are clearly visible from the window of my room in clear weather. It's been four years since I've been in this universe. The world of a computer game that has come to life, so similar and at the same time completely different! A year ago, I got a desktop terminal at my disposal and started a real brainstorming session. I managed to find answers to almost all my questions. The most important thing was that they had never even heard of the Reapers here, there was a huge pile of contradictory information about the Protheans, and most importantly, everyone was absolutely convinced that they had built both the Citadel and the repeaters. Which means what?! The canonical events did not happen! But most importantly, there is no certainty that I am connected with them. After all, John Shepard, like Jane Shepard, exist in reality and the funny thing is they are members of the same family! Yes, on May 22, 2355, my younger brother was born, and my dad named his youngest son Ivan according to the old Russian tradition! He is very original! Mom laughed and told him so. Well, my parents are retired military personnel, my dad is a Captain of the First Rank or Captain in the Anglo-American rank system, and my mom is a major in the Naval medical Service. Plus, I'm a colonist from Mendoir, just like in the game, but in a crowd. And as far as I could remember, in the game, the colonist's entire family is killed, after which he (she) goes into the army. I'll get out of my skin, but I won't let them kill my family!

After Vanka was born, they pushed taking care of me onto my older brothers and our wonderful cat! The brothers were not particularly pleased, but the redhead seemed to be just happy. A mustachioed babysitter followed me around the house, played, slept, and accompanied me on trips to the center of the town. And after the brothers were allowed to take me out with them, Barsik and I became as much a part of the children's company in our village as my brothers, their Turian friends Hamon (Ham) and Tamil (Tam), the sons of the same Dr. Duck, their Azari girlfriends named Vasil, the daughters of Dr. Ray and a small-time Turian my age, Nino, the younger sister of Ham and Tama. Last September, I went to the local kindergarten equivalent, where a lot of amazing discoveries awaited me.

The alarm clock on my desk showed 6:30 a.m. even though the day on Mendoir is as long as 9 minutes longer than on Earth, but the year is shorter by 7 days. So we live by the time of the Alliance of Systems, that is, Greenwich Mean Time on earth, plus sunset-sunrise correction. The clock is periodically adjusted according to the signal of the planetary control virtin. The whole family is still asleep, but I get up earlier than everyone else and do exercises, several yoga asanas mixed with classical gymnastics and weights on my arms and legs have made me very strong for my age, improved flexibility, coordination of movements and motor skills in two years of training. I haven't forgotten the weaknesses of the first year of my life, and I don't want to be weak. It takes very little effort. Thank the extranet for a huge number of all kinds of video lessons. The main language of the colony was Russian, although English was spoken by everyone, of course, the main language of the Alliance. Plus, they spoke in "Basic" or basic galactic, also known as "galact". It was developed by the Salarians together with the Asari as much as two and a half thousand years ago. Well, all the "strangers" spoke their native languages perfectly, the natural "Babylon 5", not Mendoir!

And once, I bend my whole body forward, leaning on my hands, and twice, in the opposite direction. After all, the girly body is much more flexible than my past, like rubber, after six months of training, I sat down on the splits completely, sitting in the lotus position also did not cause any unpleasant sensations. In general, everything is very good so far, well, except for one small disadvantage, an extremely low pain threshold. But I attribute this to the child's body, I hope it will pass with age. I heard noises on the ground floor, my mom probably got up and went to make breakfast, and it's time for me to take a shower, brush my teeth, and get ready. My brothers will take me to the garden soon.


Five hours later.

A whole bunch of youngsters from all races of the citadel space go to my garden with me. And who is not in our still junior group, ten human of all colors and races, three Asari girls, three Turians, two boys and a girl, two Batarian girls!! And like the icing on the cake, the drell guy! That's a gang of nineteen bullies. Our group is led by two Azari teachers, both purple. The head of the group, Rien Vais, and her assistant, Taya T'dari. Since I'm considered a kind of child prodigy here, I've already kind of learned to read, by the way, looking at me, my whole group has learned to read, after all, children of any kind have a very developed imitative instinct. They really don't read well, but that's in less than four years. As far as I've found out, all children develop about the same way, even Azari girls. To my wide-eyed question to our educators, why is this so, because Asari have been living for so long and have been considered adults since they were a hundred years old, I received a very detailed answer. That the Asari stage of growing up has three stages:

The first stage, from birth to about fifteen years of age, is due to rapid growth and development, and intellectual abilities develop during this period of life, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, physical development slows down sharply but does not stop, and a young Azari, who looks like a human girl aged 13-14, begins to improve intellectually, they study a lot, train, harden their minds and the body, this stage lasts up to about 45-55 years. Then the third stage of growing up begins, the young Asari begins hormonal restructuring, she grows up a little more, gets rounded in all the right places, and begins to develop mental abilities, it is at this time that the Asari are taught to work with biotics, and merge consciousness, in the so-called "embrace of eternity". Well, that's all ideally, of course, in fact, the quality of development is very dependent on social status. Well, just like Humans.

The racial composition of the Mendoir colony is actually more extensive, but since Salarians or Vorks develop much faster than others, it was considered unnecessary to include their children in general groups. You'll probably ask where vork comes from. And so. As the local online encyclopedia suggested to me, the Vork is actually a fairly advanced species, maybe inferior to humans and Turians in intelligence, but with a huge adaptation resource! In the Vork citadel space, they are mostly employed in the mining industry, as it turned out, they are excellent miners. Capable of working in conditions in which most of the races will simply bend. That's why they work in the mines on Mendoir and live in large clans in mining villages. They rarely leave the villages themselves, and almost no one is allowed in, in general, they are recluses. And those thieves who hang out in all kinds of gangs are exiles from clans, complete outcasts and lumpens. With their lifespan of thirty standard years, banishment from the clan is the most terrible punishment for a vork. Because women are never expelled.

And so. Mendoir is actually a world belonging to the Asari Republic, and it is considered a human colony because the Rosenkov Materials Corporation has concluded a concession agreement with the Council of matriarchs for 20% of the total share of resource extraction. Well, since the corporation has little interest in the troubles of the Alliance of Systems Council, it hired staff for colonization without really looking at race, but more at the professional qualities of the employees.

Wow, I spread my mind over the tree, and they were going to congratulate me. So they built a round dance, put me in the center, and under the general screeching and squeaking, we made a loaf like on Eugene's name day.... Of course, I'm making a happy appearance, but I don't want to laugh. Well, I'll get over it, and I'm a recognized authority among our entire group, which I won in an unequal struggle with the Turians. Back on the first day at kindergarten, these two little ringleaders tried to build the whole group. And they built it, but they broke off on me. Well, it's not a small thing to compete with an adult in psychological pressure, even in a child's body. They recognized me as the head of the pack and calmed down (pack predators, damn it) and now with all their problems, the little ones first come to me, and then if my solution does not suit them, they go to the teachers. To be honest, it bothers me unspeakably.

By the way! I have two "girlfriends" here, although I don't have a girlfriend anymore, one is a Turian girl named Nain, the daughter of that very Dr. Duck. My dad's big friend, partner in the preference game, they've been friends since the Navy days, when my dad served as captain of the light cruiser Loki, and Duck or Dakar Tanir was the chief doctor on the Turian dreadnought Smasher, and they turned out to be jointly chasing Batarian pirates in the Skillan Reach. And they were catching up to the point that the father thundered to Dak in the infirmary because the infirmary on Loki was blown apart by a direct missile hit.

The second Girlfriend is Jean Batarian, full name Gina Natol, and I met her at our ranch. Her dad is my assistant, and my deputy chief engineer of the corporation's enrichment complex, and the chief engineer of the complex is a QUARIAN!!! By the name of Tael'Rigar and the corporation values him so much that they ordered him a special house, no less than ours, by the way, completely sealed with air filtration and disinfection systems and a huge glass bay window. It stands in our village on the second street called Strawberry, and Uncle Tael, having taken off his suit and put on a bathrobe, likes to sit in the bay window admiring the life of the village. The most amazing thing is that he differs from a human only by a slightly different knee structure with feet on which there are only four fingers on the hands of these fingers, just like humans have five, and a face more like an elf from fairy tales, with light lilac glowing eyes and pointed tips of ears. It's idiotic to make aliens three-fingered, try holding a rifle with three fingers and shooting at the same time. Igrodely fucking! And his fingers are just like a pianist's, long and nervous. And skaf's gloves also have steel claws, at first I didn't understand why, I thought it was a weapon until I saw how it worked on the omny-tool. There are two times fewer buttons than my father's, and there are twice as many buttons. I once asked my father how cool Uncle Tael's toolbox was, and my father just rolled his eyes.

They sang a round dance and pulled me to the table to eat a cake, my mother brought it, I saw it through the window and put it on the veranda of the group. A hefty cake by the way, well, for twenty-one people in one bite. A hefty pot of compote was brought here from the dining room. And as it turned out here, neither Turians nor Quarians have any dextroamines. And the blood of all races, without exception, is red, differing only in shades and composition, of course. And of course, all races have dietary restrictions. So my cake is universal, suitable for all races, which, alas, does not add to its taste qualities.

That reminds me! When Uncle Duck came to visit us with his family, his wife and three children, his eldest sons are the same age as my older brothers, and since we are also neighbors, they are bosom friends, and all the mischief in the village is the work of my brothers and their Turian friends plus Dr. Ray's daughters. As it turned out, she's also our neighbor. Her name is Rayan T'rann. Uncle Duck's wife is named Kaadi and she is a former soldier of the Black Guard, an incredibly cool aunt. So when they all came to us for the first time, my younger brother turned exactly one year old. The first thing that caught my eye was that the Turians have FIVE fingers on their hands, not four. When I was stunned to see this miracle and, out of excitement, confused in words, I asked Duck about it, the answer amazed me. In fact, male Turians have five fingers on their hands, just the ring finger and the little finger fused together. It happened in some very ancient times. When the Turians on Palaven still lived in trees, Men mostly hunted and usually on the surface, when the mutation occurred it is impossible to establish, but the four fingers gained an advantage in hunting due to a stronger grip, well, this is according to theory. No one really knows what happened. The women did not come down from the trees, but were mainly engaged in gathering. Therefore, women still have five fingers on their hands and toes, the fingers are much longer and more mobile than men's, although the foot itself is smaller. The foot of the Turians looks amazing, as far as I have seen Nain in the pool and in pictures on the Web. Four fingers look forward, and the index and little fingers are almost the same size, thick with powerful sharp claws, the middle and ring fingers are much shorter and with flat thick nails!! The thumb is turned back and for men, by and large, it has completely atrophied into a heel, but for women, although in a greatly reduced version, it has been preserved, and Turians can firmly grasp a pliable surface like a tree with their foot, and even hang upside down without any harm and consequences for themselves. Which Nain has shown me more than once.


Wow, we ate the cake and drank the compote. Now let's go to the pool, there's just a great pool in the garden, and I love swimming. The Turians really don't like this business very much, but they're much deeper and don't pull, let them be broke. In general, the Azari love the pool the most, they are like fish in it. Then people come here as everyone wants, who loves, who doesn't. Batarians are indifferent. Turians rather do not like, although they swim with pleasure on the shoals. But our Drell doesn't wear it. They built a dry room for him in the pantry, where the humidity is about five percent and there are some salts in the air that are useful for drells. It's probably from Kapral's syndrome. And his name is Feron!


Two months later.

The Whisper Ranch

It's vacation time, so I'm sitting on the porch of our house with an album on my lap, pretending to draw. In fact, I shamelessly warm my ears listening to the conversation between my father and his Batarian assistant, Koel Natol, sitting on wicker chairs in the middle of the lawn. Gina is sitting next to him, with the same album on her lap and her tongue sticking out from diligence, drawing something with colored pencils. In general, she has a real gift for drawing, and what I do with effort, she somehow comes out by herself. After introducing her to the album and showing her the basics, I was just amazed at how fast she was progressing. To be her artist. And now, looking into her album, I saw our cat, lying on the grass with a lazy expression on his face, and all this in small strokes and so accurately conveys the mood, alas, I will never be able to do that.

"Listen to the Call." Says the father. "What's wrong with you, you haven't been yourself for the second week, what happened?"

"I haven't heard from my brother for a long time, neither from myself nor from his family. Saer is worried!"

"So, I thought you said that his contract was ending, I got him engaged to us, agreed with Tael, he punched the management. Everyone agrees to accept him and his family."

"That seems to be the problem, someone must have betrayed his brother, that he lathered up to us, and in the Hegemony they look askance at this."

"This way, normal conditions would be created for the reasonable, and they would not have to catch their own population trying to run away wherever they want, just to get away from their native state."

"This is what you have here at RM, the order is like in the legends. At first, we all couldn't believe that this was happening. I kept waiting for a trick, when they would start to squeeze. It was only a year later that I believed that everything that was written in the contract was being fulfilled."

"So Kol. The main resource of any state, corporation, or even family is people. These are not factories, steamships, ships and junk. These are the ones who create, produce, mine, build, transport, and raise the next generation. Invest in the sensible ones and you'll get a hundredfold return. RM has been pursuing such a policy for two hundred years, so the corporation is in third place in the list of the strongest companies in the Alliance of Systems, and it is included in the hundred of Citadel space. And what about the Hegemony!?"

"So I'm not arguing, Michael. I'm not arguing... I'm just worried about my brother."

"Can we have a drink? Would you like some cognac?!"

"What?! The real one! Terran?!"

"Yeah! Moldavian. Maybe not the best, but still. A friend gave it to me, my friends on Earth bought it, and they sent the box to me."

"Ah! .... Pour it out. I'll try again."

My father came into the house, and Coel stared at the sky with a kind of detached look. His emotions were filled with longing and fear, but there was a faint glimmer of hope. That's right, Uncle Coel is a normal guy. He's a good hard worker, a great specialist, and his arms are straight. Dad is very pleased with him. And Hegemony is just such a dump, with slavery, with bonded contracts, and wolfish capitalism in all its glory. I asked him once, Uncle Coel, why your people put up with all this, instead of taking up arms and restoring order in the country. He replied that only overseers, police, army and family members of corporate heads can have weapons in the Hegemony. The rest of them, if they get caught with a gun, are immediately dead. Well, except for the pirate squads, they are actually supported and under the roof of the same corporations. In general, hopelessness. That leaves the Batarians to run anywhere, mostly to Omega.

"Da-ad! Da-ad! Look at how I drew the Barsik." Gina skipped over to him.

"Well, let me see." Coel took the album and stared at the drawing with admiration.

"Do you like it?!" Gina asked, looking lovingly at her father.

"Very!" Coel answered and hugged his daughter tightly to him. He loved his daughter. His loved her so much. That I felt it from afar, mine also loves me very much, of course, but here it was just painful. Gina feels it and twists the ropes out of her father just like that. Even now, he's clutching her so tightly, as if he's afraid she'll disappear.

"Dad! You'll strangle me!" Gina wheezed.

Then my father came out of the house, holding a bottle and two glasses in his left hand, and a saucer with sliced lemon in his right. He put everything on the table, sat down in an armchair, opened a bottle that made a "pou" sound, and poured the golden liquid into glasses.

"Well, Kol. For luck! Your brother will need it!"

"Good luck, Michael."

They clinked glasses. And Gean is already back next to me on the porch and is drawing something on a new sheet again, glancing at me from time to time. Her emotions are filled with fun and some kind of adoration, that's why she treats me like this, I just don't understand.


I myself am red-haired and green-eyed, and my hair is such a bright color that among the kindergarten kids, I stand out like a fly agaric in moss. Seen from afar. And my eye color is malachite green, bright and saturated, the doctors were perplexed at first, they said that people do not have such an eye color. Dad also kept wondering who I was like, there had never been any redheads in the family, either on my father's side or on my mother's. My father himself is light-haired and light-blue-eyed, a true Aryan, my mother is dark-haired with almost steel-gray eyes. And all my brothers, who are like my father, who are like my mother, I'm the only redhead. Anyway, we decided to check it out. They took my blood, went to the hospital in the city, and did an analysis with the construction of a model for decoding the gene code. And they got a light blue-eyed blonde. Fucked up. rechecked, the result has not changed. Then Uncle Duck and Aunt Ray got caught up in professional curiosity about how this could be. They picked up the mother's medical record, checked all the events during pregnancy and found out that at the 6th month, an accident occurred at the enrichment complex, a pipeline with some kind of terrible chemical reaction broke to extract useful substances from the rock. By the way, they extract the Zero element there! A lot of people got killed, thank God they didn't get killed. Well, then my mother worked in a factory emergency room, and helping the victims, she also got poisoned. That's what the reagent did to me. We had a lot of arguments about this in the kitchen. The advantage was that there was exposure to the "zero element", but so far no consequences are noticeable. I'm pretty good with red hair.

"Hey! Eugene! Je-an! Let's go for a walk!" There was a loud shout from the gate, and Nain was swinging on it like on a swing.

"And where will we go?" Jean asked.

"It doesn't matter. Let's go to Uncle Tael and let him tell us a story about the navy."

"Come on!" I say and throw the album on the porch. Gina puts hers carefully, before closing and putting the pencils in the box.

"Keep an eye on them." I hear my father's voice, and when I turn around, I see a Barsik trotting after us.

Chapter 3.

Eugene (Mendoir October-November 2358)

Picnic.

The city of Leonov on October 10, 2358

I'm sitting high and looking far away! I'm over a meter and a half tall, and I have the back of my head with blond curly hair between my legs, and skinny boyish shoulders under my ass. I hold my brother's forehead with my hands and prevent him from turning his head, which he periodically resents. Little fox! Take your hands off, I can't see anything under my feet! Come on! There are roots all around! Eugene! Let's crash now! And you squint your eyes! That's how it will be seen! I'll tell you what! Crab-crab! My eyes are not on stalks!

"Then I'll hold on to your hair. They're long and soft, just for my hands!"

"Oh no! Not by the hair! Little fox! You're going to rip them all out for me!"

"I won't rip anything out! They're sitting tight!"

Nearby, Vasil listens to our bickering, blazing with merriment. For my brothers, Vaska, and for me, for some time, Vasenka. That's what I called her in the summer when I asked my brothers to go fishing, but they didn't want to take her. So I plugged it in. I cried into her lap, she felt sorry for me, and she attacked my brothers, but they can't refuse Vasil. This is myalsnon markhta. I've been calling her Vasenka ever since.

"A fox cub... What are you going to do there?!"

"I'll give you a head massage now, Deniska!" I say and start gently massaging my brother's head with my fingers.

"Then I'm definitely going to fall!"

"I'll fall for you! Okay, you drop me, so you can still spill two buckets of barbecue, and it's not just me! No one will forgive you for that!"

"Ha haha! We definitely won't forgive that! Vasya laughs loudly!"

"Oh, yes! They turned on poor me! Wow! A woman's conspiracy! I won't carry you back in the evening, you'll know, you red-haired arrogant!"

"Well, Dishya!" I hug my brother's head and speak softly in his ear. "I'm sorry, asshole, I won't do this anymore!"

"I won't give it to you! Do the massage next, and I'll keep a better eye on my feet. Heh heh!"

"Ah ha haha! Clowns! No circus is needed! Vasya is bursting!"

I'm looking at her with a smile! Gently massaging his brother's head. He grunts with pleasure and slowly turns his head, putting different places under my fingers.

We're all going on a picnic together, everyone, this is my family, the Tanir family in full, Tael'Rigar, Aunt Ray with her daughter Vasil and Gina with her mother Saer plus Polkasha and Bars. Today is October 10, colony Day, on this truly historic day for Mendoir, the first colonist set foot on its surface 13 years ago, and even though there were sixty thousand of them. Gina's father is the senior shift engineer on duty today, and his brother Bael is his assistant. Yes, my brother was found, he flew in at the end of June. At that time, my father was urgently taken to the port of Gagarin along with Koel, right from Deniska's birthday. When they returned, a couple of hours later, a tall, thin Batarian, who looked exactly like Coel, only ten years younger, and his brother's young, thin Batarian wife got out of our flyer with them. And they don't have any children yet.

Polkan is running around the park like a gray shaggy torpedo, pestering other groups of walkers, no one is afraid of him, on the contrary, everyone is squeezing and trying to shove delicious things, which this shameless gobbler uses, especially since he knows most of the inhabitants of the town by sight because he often walks with his older brothers in the park.

Polkan is a unique dog, the only dog in the entire Mendoire from the "GUARDIAN" program. These dogs were jointly developed by Terran and Salarian geneticists, according to a common program for the protection of hazardous industries and special facilities.

"My maternal uncle gave it to me as a gift from the command in connection with my retirement." How he got him is beyond comprehension, these dogs are still microscopically few. Well, there's probably a lot available to the Rear Admiral, Deputy Commander of the Fifth Fleet of the Alliance of Systems. My mother's maiden name was Hackett, guess who my uncle is. It's not surprising that he pushed all the hemorrhoids of the alliance onto the hero in the game, so it's probably like a family thing. Barsik was pacing sedately behind Deniska and me, while not taking his attentive green eyes off me. He's not a simple cat either, but as it turned out from the CADIZ Alliance program.

These are specially bred genetically modified cats, with improved skeletons, intelligence, life expectancy, and a total list of improvements on three A4 sheets. Moreover, there are two models, civilian and military, differing only in color. Military cats are gray, while civilian cats are red.

It would be quite easy to get such a cat, there would be money, they cost from 300 thousand credits, like a branded flyer from Illum manufacturers. And the Azari are wildly popular. His parents were given a folding carriage by his father and his mother's colleagues from the hospital.

// The cats from Oleg Divov's novel K-10 are taken as a sample.

I have a backpack full of disposable paper dishes on my back, and there's an album there, by the way, the album is not made of paper it's a plastic sheet, very flexible and durable, used everywhere instead of paper. And repeatedly. All offices on the planet are required to maintain document management on it and hand over the used ones for recycling and reuse, for violation they are punished. And disposable items are made from easily degradable materials such as paper or rapidly oxidizing metals. It is enough to throw an empty tin can into a campfire, and there is no can. Although bonfires are not allowed in the city park, everyone uses electric fireplaces. Deniska carries two buckets of pickled meat besides me, while Vasil walks next to us, still giggling periodically, followed by Ham with Nino on his shoulders, and carries two folding chairs. Ivan sits proudly on Leshka, twirls, fidgets and periodically screams:

"No-No the horse," at the same time covering Leshka's eyes with his palms, noticed that his older brother was hissing

"Little guy, take your hands off, you can't see anything!" At the same time, his hands are occupied with a folding table. There's a girl walking behind them with Gina on her shoulders, she periodically bends over to one of Tam's ears and then the other and whispers intently about something with him, she probably wants to order someone's portrait from Gina, I can even guess whose! So the holography of the instrumentation went into use. What will they pay with? Wow, a box of Azarian colored pencils in 200 colors, with a set of spare pencils. Yes, and Tamil knows how to interest our little artist! Everyone shook hands.

Dad and Uncle Tael are carrying a portable barbecue and a power unit to it, Vasya has skewers and a huge bucket with all sorts of greens, Uncle Duck has been loaded like a camel with a backpack and even bags with all sorts of goodies. Women carry all sorts of small things.

And here is our place, according to the folder, families have been coming here for 11 years, I really only remember twenty times. In front of me, the city lake with the poetic name "Blue Mirror" stretches in all its glory. This lake, which has an almost regular oval shape, is surrounded on three sides by trees in a park area and the narrow side rests against urban development. This part of the lake is clad in a granite embankment, the pride of the head of the municipality. There is also a hefty summer stage from where fervent rhythms are now pouring and an urban ensemble is playing. All the urban youth between the ages of 14 and 25 hang out there now.

I quickly take off the "uniq", it's such a combination of durable, beautiful fabric, almost everyone wears comfortable clothes in them, and in my swimming trunks I run to the lake, followed by all the other offspring of all families, hooting, screaming and screaming. Despite October and the air temperature around plus 20 Celsius, the water in the lake is 37 degrees because it is fed by hot springs. We fly into the lake, and it's just a fairy tale. Imagine a bathroom the size of the Luzhniki stadium, with crystal clear and warm water, in which colorful fish of different sizes flash at depth, algae sway, amazing-looking arthropods crawl, and the beauty is breathtaking. And yes, I taught Nain to swim!

When we returned to our BG in September, on our next visit to the pool, I had an argument with her about the fact that Turians can't swim, but only drown! So I told her that the body of any organic is lighter than water, and it simply cannot drown, and since the lung volume of Turians is larger than that of humans and the bones are tubular, drowning them is generally an almost impossible event. She made it up quite CONVINCINGLY! And then I offered to help her learn to swim. But take Nain and agree! Oh, how!

In general, I used the technique of my swimming coach from my first life, first holding Nain by the back of her head, taught her to lie on the water breathing calmly, with relaxed legs and arms, then to hold her breath properly, and most importantly to overcome fear. That's where my empathic gift came in handy! In general, after a month of tinkering, my clever Turian began to swim quite tolerably, and since Turians have a small membrane on their feet and hands between their fingers, like cats in appearance, and their toes are also much more mobile than human ones, it's harder and harder for me to catch up with her in the swims. It looks like even our Azari won't be able to compete with her in this soon. When Nain began to swim well, she told her father everything, which made Uncle Duck extremely perplexed, and came to the kindergarten to make sure. He Was Convinced! He muttered to himself, something about malicious racial stereotypes that all sorts of little red-haired men just don't notice out of ignorance! Ha ha well, he's right, actually!

While the fathers are celebrating with a barbecue and tasting vodka extracted from a portable refrigerator, Uncle Tael, by the way, drinks it through a tube (brr.. I shuddered), and the mothers, hooked on tongues, discuss all the latest news from urban to galactic, my brothers and I dive into the depths, everyone has masks, including Nain, made in 'made in Tael's garage' and are well made, made of transparent fiberglass and molded industrial sealant. We all have enough. Wes is swimming next to Nain, just in case, I think it was her Kaadi and Ray who most likely suggested it, the reinsurers. Ham and There, together with Ivan and Polkan, are chasing a big red ball through the shallow water. And from time to time they cast pleading glances at me, how silly the little sister is, how she can do the unthinkable! Swim! And they're two cool older brothers, NO! Oh, the horror and the shock of the basics! I pretend not to notice these glances, and the general despondency with a hint of desperation is getting stronger from the Turians.

That's all, it's already becoming unbearable, and I go up to my brothers and declare that I'm ready to try to teach them how to swim in the school pool. And we will study early in the morning while there is no one there, so that no one interferes with us!

"The savior!!!" Ham shouted and hugged me.

"The Deliverer!!!" She echoes him there and presses me on the other side.

"Crush it!" I'm wheezing, trapped between two Turians.

"Ha hahaha!" Vasil's sonorous laughter echoes over the water. "So Eugene, squeeze them out more!" The comedian damn, but she came up with the right idea, what would you squeeze out of them?!

Four hours have passed.

It's twilight, Me, Nino and Gina are sitting on an inflatable mattress lying on the shore, huddled close to each other wrapped in a big fluffy blanket. Inside, everyone is digesting a substantial portion of shish kebab, and a large mug of compote. Pyrotechnics are busy on a cargo platform in the middle of the lake, they're going to make fireworks, and we're in the front row, beauties! My father comes up from behind and hugs the three of us, asking softly:

How are the little ones not freezing? It's okay, Uncle Mish. This is Nino speaking.

"We're warm!" And she snuggles even closer to me. I'm not talking. And Gina is silent.

And it's really good and warm, the emotions of my friends are joy and anticipation of the spectacle, and my father has love with notes of care, and for all of us about equally. That's how he was a captain, and he's still there! The main thing is the crew!

Бух, фррррррррршшшш - БАБАХ! Бух-бух, фррррршшшш - ТАДАДАХ! Rockets are flying and exploding, AAAAAAAAAA, UUUUUUUUU! The crowd of young people on the other side of the stage is screaming.

And we sit huddled together and look up at the sky, and only multicolored flashes illuminate our faces, there is a Badger sitting under a blanket, he came and climbed, and just like us he looks up at the sky, purring loudly. I feel so good! I wish I could just sit there!

Chapter 5. Something about fear!

November 9th, 2358

The Whisper Ranch

So the real autumn has come, it's already very cold at night, leaves are falling off the trees, and their color is incredible. Silver-green, lighter on top and darker on the bottom in summer, now they have acquired a bright golden color. Sunny on the one hand and red gold on the other, the forest looks amazing. A sparkling sea of gold. I am sitting on the fence facing the yard, in my hands I have a carbon fishing rod requisitioned from Leshka, to the end of which is tied a long piece of nylon twine with a fluffed piece of synthetic insulation at the end, similar to a white pompom. I swing the fishing rod to the right, left, up and down, the pompom at the end flies after my movements, and behind it, a Барсик rushes around with childish delight, pirouetting, bending, bouncing, in general, like an ordinary cat behind a piece of paper on a string. At the same time, he periodically stealthily casts a glance in my direction, but isn't his little two-legged friend tired of this occupation?! At the same time, he periodically stealthily casts a glance in my direction, but isn't his little two-legged friend tired of this occupation?! No, I'm not tired! Умряя!! And my supercat rushes on.

Gina is sitting next to me with her usual sketchbook on her lap, drawing. By the way, they moved their whole family from the city to our village, Uncle Coel's brother bought the apartment, and the older Natols bought the land next to us, where there is now a modular house like ours. As soon as the house was installed, Uncle Coel kept walking around it, touching his hands first to the wall, then to the carved metal porch railing, then to the window drains, and there was a wave of such strong conflicting feelings from him, as if he couldn't believe that this house was his now, and this was HIS HOME! How lousy it must be in the Hegemony for such a common thing for the colonies as a modular house to cause such a storm in the soul of a reasonable person! At the housewarming party, Aunt Saer got so emotional that all the women in the village could barely calm her down, Aunt Ray even had to run for a sedative. That's how we live.


Suddenly, there was a rustle behind him, the cat made a stand on the fence and his gaze became fiercely tense, the fur on his spine stood on end, and his tail fluffed out and became as thick as his mother's leg. A wave of such primal horror came from Gina that I turned sharply in my friend's direction and saw bulging eyes and a mouth distorted in a grimace, staring somewhere behind me. Turning to the other side and looking down, I saw a nightmare come to life! From a distance of about five meters, a hefty rat looked at me, about a meter tall, covered with dense black fur, a body two meters long, and an equally long furry tail with a tassel at the end! A typical rat face with glowing red eyes was decorated with a mouth studded with a palisade of long needle-shaped teeth. The creature opened its mouth, stuck out a long purple tongue and made a SNUFFLE sound...?! She trotted towards us. A wave of anticipation came from her, and I clearly realized that they wanted to DEVOUR me! My memory went on in spurts, and now I see Gina jumping off the fence and screeching on the verge of ultrasound as she runs away to her house. Here is our courtyard tree in front of me, I jump up, grab the lower branch, pull myself up and quickly climb up to the top, while there is some kind of ringing in my ears. Once again, Gina jumps onto the porch with an incredible leap, hits the door opening sensor and, without stopping screeching, disappears into the house, slipping through the crack of the barely opened door. There is silence. Only rustling and sounds can be heard from the road -snuffle, snuffle, snuffle.My throat is scratchy, my arms and legs are shaking, and a Bars is sitting on a branch next to me with its fur on end, making a low throaty hum interspersed with a powerful hiss.

A few seconds later, the door of the neighbor's house opens and Uncle Coel falls out in sweatpants, an elongated T-shirt and slippers on bare feet, but with a hunting carbine in his hands.

"Zhenya", he says softly, "Where are you, Zhenya!"

"I'm here," I hiss back, On the Uncle Kol tree.

"What's wrong with your voice?"

"I don't know!"

"What scared you?!"

"It's over there, behind Uncle Kol's fence!"

"Who is IT!?"

"Well, this one! Well, snuffle(2)!"

(Magnaflesheter (Snufl) is a medium-sized scavenger predator on Mendoir, except for its creepy appearance for adults, it is almost not dangerous, due to its slowness and stupidity. It has good dense short dark-colored fur, and is an object of the autumn-winter hunting season. Snufkin is nicknamed for the characteristic sounds he makes.)

"SNFL in our village?! How did he get through the fence?"

"I don't know!" I hiss. "We've already seen him on the street. Over there!"

Meanwhile, snuffle had almost reached the intersection in the center of the village and Nino jumped out to meet him! When Nino saw the creature, she somehow crouched down, screamed, and with incredible speed, gnashing her claws on the smooth bark, climbed up a tree growing in the middle of the intersection, only the leaves fell down. Snufl froze in indecision, Uncle Coel came close to the fence, put his elbow on it, aimed and fired. The creature took a few steps towards the tree and buried its nose in the ground, but its hind legs continued to move forward, its spine arched, and the animal fell to one side while continuing to twitch convulsively.

"Ready!" Uncle Coel said.

"Come on, get down, Zhenya."

"Now, I wheezed." And she began to unclench her clenched fingers. I was still shaking a little.

When I passed by the neighbor's house, the door opened and Gina looked out from behind the jamb.

"Zhen", she asked in a whisper, "Where IS THAT SCARY GUY?"

"Your dad shot you", I whispered. "It's lying at the intersection. Let's go take a look!"

"I'm really scared! Jean whispers."

"Don't worry, he's dead, and your daddy's with us, and he's got a carbine."

"All right, let's go", Gina whispers, comes out of the house and clings to my arm like a tick.

We slowly approach the snuffle, a heavy smell of an animal and some kind of rotten meat comes from the creature, the Badger presses his ears in a half-bent circle around the container, Uncle Coel slowly walks next to him, holding it at gunpoint. The animal does not move, the mouth is slightly open, the tongue has fallen out and a puddle of blood has flowed onto the grass.

"He's dead!" Uncle Coel states the fact.

He walks up to the tree, raises his head and says:

"Why are you there? Nain get off, I killed him. Do you hear me?"

In response, only rustles are heard, no response, no greetings.

"Zhen," he says, "Get down after her, she looks too scared."

He lifts me up, and I begin to climb the tree, closer to the top I see Nain, she clings to the trunk, squeezed her eyes shut and trembles slightly.

"Ning", I whisper, "No matter what", I touch her hand. "She shudders and opens her eyes, horror reigns in her emotions."

"Jeanne," she says in a vibrant voice, "And where is THIS ONE?!" She closes her eyes again., "THIS Terrible, Scary, Huge...!?"

"He's lying dead down there, and Uncle Kol shot him with a carbine."

"IS-S he REALLY dead?!"

"That's right, that's right, I saw it myself. Let's get off."

"But you can! I'll stay here for a while, eh?!"

"It's not impossible, you'll freeze autumn already."

"Come on, coward." I whisper.

"She's a coward herself!" Nain whispers back, "But I'm scared!"

But he starts to slowly descend from the tree, Uncle Coel picks us up at the bottom, Nain hides behind my back and stares at the dead snufl with all his eyes.

"He's even dead, scary!" Nain whispers loudly.

"That's right, baby," Uncle Coel replies "I'm going to get dressed, otherwise I'm still wearing sneakers! He-he, that must be a sight." And he goes into the house.

In the evening, my father told me how the snuffle entered the village, the door closer flew on the gate in the fence and it did not close with a magnetic lock, but the creature, stomping along the fence, noticed a gap and got through. As if out of spite, the brothers took Polkan with them to the city, and in general, the only adults in the village were Uncle Coel and Aunt Kaadi, but she was asleep, because she was pregnant again. Uncle Coel laughingly told how he dozed off with a book, but was maliciously woken up by a wild two-voiced childish squeal from the street!

So that's why my ears were ringing and my voice was dead! So that's why my ears were ringing and my voice was dead! Then his daughter ran past him and hid under the kitchen table! Grabbing a carbine from a closet, he ran out into the street in his clothes, and shot Snufla, who had entered the village. They find it funny, but I've never been so scared in both my lives! And the girls were terrified. I said that I want hats to be sewn from his skin, that should be enough!

The elders agreed, laughing.

"Good compensation for fright!" Uncle Coel said.

Chapter 6. Eugene (Mendoir, December 2358)

Surprises for Christmas.

December 24, 6:00 a.m.

I'm doing gymnastics by the window, and behind it it's snowing, soft and fluffy from large snowflakes. In my previous life, I didn't like winter, but now I adore it. Maybe it's because it's mild on Mendoir, the temperature hardly drops below minus five degrees Celsius, there's a lot of snow, and since there's no wheeled transport, there's no problem with travel. Of course, my father cleans the snow at the garage and in the yard, but that's all. Our village is illuminated by lanterns, they walk along the fences in three-meter increments, so everything is beautifully illuminated, since the lighting is automatic, it turned on after dark, turned off after dawn. Today is Christmas, what a holiday! People have been in space for centuries, they have mastered other worlds, we are neighbors with alien races, and they still celebrate Christmas! And that's it! That's a twist of consciousness, and the other races don't mind. They celebrate with people. Well, at least here on Mendoir.

They say they celebrate at the Citadel too, well, they celebrate everything there! All the holidays of all the races of space, a never-ending holiday! I'll probably see you sometime... At the intersection, my parents, with our common children's help, built an ice town, a spiral slide around a tree, and ice statues (Tael handmade).

He has a talent for this, although Santa Claus looks like a Quarian, only bearded! Here's a joke, Tael himself doesn't grow a beard. An artificial Christmas tree was put up, toys were hung, half of them were homemade. The garlands are also homemade, half of the village is considered engineers. As my father said:

"I'll spend money on it if I make it better myself!

And he did. Standing at the intersection, the light is clearly visible from the window.

The Turian brothers will come by in an hour and we'll go to the school pool, learning to swim! I promised damn, now I'm taking it easy! Things are going badly, the brothers still can't cope with fear, it's hard for them to overcome their nature. Nain seems to be small, and she trusted me very much, so things went quickly with her, but with her brothers everything is hard. Uncle Duck looks at this case, travels with us and keeps a magazine. In general, normal scientific work, as he says, whether or not I can overcome my Turian nature. If I can, he'll send the job to Palaven, let the others have a headache. Nain also travels with us, trains and works as a living example. Since it's the holidays, we'll return home after the pool, we need to read the vacation assignment, and practice with the girls in the "Base".

By the way, we started learning languages in mid-November, I thought that as we would, the teacher says we repeat, but we don't! They brought him to a room with comfortable upholstered chairs, sat him down, put on soft hats with a thick harness connected to them, and opaque glasses over his eyes. We're all sitting there waiting for a carousel of colored spots, symbols and other incomprehensible nonsense with glasses, and there's a strange itch in my head, so we sat for ten minutes and admired the pictures and it was over. We returned to the group, and our teachers started talking to us, and I suddenly realized that they weren't speaking Russian, but everything was fine.

I asked Rien how it turned out, and she replied that what they did to us was called mentoring, and that chair with a cap and glasses was a mnemograph, a device for recording information directly into the brain. And we'll have to be friends with him until graduation. And many after that. Russian and basic Galactic have already been taught for two sessions, so we're all writing and reading fluently now, although I knew Russian well enough, it's true that it's much better now. They offered me a choice of other languages, I'm leaning towards an English course to consolidate, and I'm deciding between Turian and Asari. I haven't decided yet. In our day, such a device would be a fairy tale, not a study, but you need to consolidate what you have received so that you don't forget it, well, it's not for others.

More dreams have come! Strange, sometimes amazing, sometimes scary, in which I see places where I've definitely never been. In these dreams, I am often haunted by a strong sense of loss, fear, and anger.

I especially often have a dream in which I walk through our city park, I'm wearing a hunting jumpsuit like my father's with thick inserts on the knees and elbows and with lots of pockets. My father's carbine is in my hands. His hands were scratched, his knuckles were bloody, one nail was broken, and his combat jacket was stained with brown spots, dirt, and grass. I wander between the trees and look for my own, but there is no one, I call, I scream, but I only hear rustling, there is fog in the park, the trees appear like ghosts! All of a sudden I find myself in our village, strangely quiet and deserted, walking past the Tanir house, the parked Dakar flyer is covered with leaves, Ham's bike is covered with mud and covered with dust, despite the fact that Ham is a terrible cleaner in life and his bike always sparkles. I see Nino's hefty, once snow-white teddy bear, given to her by my father, now lying gray from dirt in the dust by the path, staring with his blue glass eyes at the misty sky. It's amazing, she never takes him out of her room! Ray's house is opposite, it's locked, the shutters are closed and the red hologram of the castle is burning, the flowers in the flower beds around the house are wilted and blackened, the rose bushes are like dark skeletons with no flowers or leaves on them. The swing is broken, hanging on one chain, the second is coiled like a silver snake in the brown grass, and the seat is slowly rotating around its axis in the wind, making a soft, barely audible creak. Rigard's house stands with the airlock open, and fallen leaves are blowing across the hallway floor. I slowly walk around it, I see that the bay window is broken and small glass crumbs have covered everything around. Tael's favorite armchair is lying on its side with the upholstery torn. The Natols have darkness and silence, the windows are black and look like holes in the darkness, the holograms of the castles are not lit, the wind is blowing sheets of paper around the front garden, there are drawings on them, I try to collect them, but each time the sheets are blown away before I can grab them. Here is our house, but there is no one in the courtyard, it is empty inside and it seems that everyone has just left, the holovision is working, a cup of tea is floating on the coffee table, the guys in the room have a guitar on the bed and the turned-on datapads are lying around. My father has a cooler turned on in his office and the sensor pads are on the edge of the table. There is a cold, growing, aching, acute feeling of loss in my chest!

The first time I had a dream, I woke up screaming and couldn't sleep anymore. After that, I looked at my family all morning and couldn't get enough of it, the thought was beating in my head - Really! Am I really going to lose them, for what?! No! Please, not again!

Standing in the shower under the hot, taut jets of water, I remember the conversation between my mother and Ray that I overheard that day. It was Sunday and the whole family was at home, my father, as always, was sitting in the study at a stewpan, the older brothers had gone somewhere, Ivan was sitting in his room and enthusiastically assembling something from Lego bricks. I got tired of reading, and my throat was dry. When I went downstairs, I decided to go into the kitchen for compote and found the beginning of a conversation at the locked door.

"Dayan, what are you worried about! You have the most ordinary daughter. An absolutely healthy child, smart, active. The most important thing is obedient! What are you unhappy about?! I don't understand?!"

"Ray! She scares me! Sometimes it seems to me that she is not a child, someone else is looking at me from her eyes, an adult! You know, a four-year-old girl can't have that look!"

Oh! It looks like I've burned down to the fullest! We have to get out somehow! But how? Okay, let's hear it further...

"Don't talk nonsense! What are you imagining! You didn't like the look! You do remember that she has an absolute memory, right?!"

"Well, I remember. What does that have to do with it?"

"And yet! She doesn't forget anything. She just remembers everything! Every day, every hour, every minute of your life! Just imagine yourself in her shoes. Remember EVERYTHING!"

"Oh my God Ray! This is terrible!"

"Plus, you know she's an empath! She feels us all, all our feelings, every emotion, and with her memory!"

"Ray! It's just a nightmare! How did she not lose her mind?!"

"She's been like this since she was born! He doesn't know any other life. It's normal for her."

EH. If only that were so! That's the thing, I know! And that makes it even more bitter. The fact that I'm an empath has been known to my family since six months ago. Then my parents quarreled, I don't know for what reason. Only I, who was sitting in my room, suddenly felt such a wave of emotions, anger, resentment, even hatred. It hurt me! I rushed downstairs, my parents were standing in the living room and silently looked at each other, pouring this emotional cocktail all around! Standing between them, I began to ask them in a low voice to stop, I said that I could feel everything and it was hurting me. As a result, she sat down on the carpet and just burst into tears. They rushed to me, hugged me, and questioned me. Sobbing, I buried my face in my father's chest and told him everything about memory and empathy! Confusion and anxiety mixed in the feelings of the parents, the father whispered softly:

"I need to tell Ray, maybe she can help." But Ray couldn't help, she was stunned by the news.

"No Ray, it's not okay! This is really, really not okay Ray! My poor daughter! Today at breakfast, she sat and looked at us as if she couldn't see enough, as if we were going to disappear, and there was such longing in her eyes..."

"Maybe something happened to Dayan?! Did you even ask her?! Maybe I had a dream about some kind of trash!"

That's the moment. I'll tell you about the dream now, at least some of the questions will be removed. She pressed the sensor, the door slid open, went into the kitchen, greeted Ray. I took a decanter of compote from the table and poured it into a glass. I stood there, drinking and looking at the women.

"My daughter?! Tell me, why did you look at us so strangely this morning!?"

"I had a terrible dream, Mom!"

"Tell us about it." Ray said.

So I told my dream, and I ended it almost in a whisper, saying that I was sure it would be like that. I look at my mother with her hands over her mouth, tears in her eyes, fear for me and pity in her emotions. Ray, he's sitting there, frowning, looking at me with sadness.

"You're a Seer, Zhenya." Ray speaks softly.

"The Seer!?" Mom jumped up.

"Among our people, those who can see the future are occasionally born, their visions are vague and often contradictory, but as they age, they can somehow extract useful things from their dreams. They warn others about the dangers that threaten them, and they also have extremely developed intuition, that's what they are called Seers." Ray told us.

Mom came up to me, hugged me, and said in a low, broken voice.

"It's not enough for you, my little one, your memory and empathy, but also this trash, who doesn't love you so much in heaven that he put it all on you."

I know who it is! But I won't tell you, Mommy, I'll never tell you, this burden is not for your shoulders. I'll carry this cross myself. What gifts the VOICE has, either gifts or curses! I hear the terminal chirping, and I come out of my memories. 6:45 a.m. In 15 minutes, the Tanirs will arrive and go to the pool to teach Ham and Tam to swim.


Well, things finally got going, and I swam there, cautiously so far, not swimming into the depths, but already quite confidently. Ham, looking at such a case, seemed to redouble his efforts, clenched his teeth, and periodically I heard him whisper lying on his back - I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid... Uncle Duck was scribbling in his datapad, taking pictures with a omny-tool, talking into it. Puffing around with concern mixed with surprise and delight.

I swam up to Ham, put my hand under his head and began to calm the guy down in a quiet, calm voice.

"Ham, calm down, relax, you're tense, so you can't just lie on the water. Listen to my voice, I'll try to help you. (Oh, for the umpteenth time). Do you remember when we went fishing in the summer?"

"Is that when you set Vas'ka on the brothers?! How can you forget something like that!" Ham burst out laughing.

"Here. Do you remember how we used to lie on the shore in the grass and look at the clouds and figure out what they looked like?"

"Yeah, I remember! You also named the Earth's animals, everyone was wondering how you knew so many of them!"

"Here. Now close your eyes! Closed it?"

"Yes, I did."

"Remember that day. Imagine that you are lying on the grass and looking at the blue blue sky, clouds are floating across it..."

The guy relaxed, his feelings became calm, his arms and legs floated and swayed on the surface.

"I imagined one that looked like what's-his-name, but I remembered an elephant!"

"Well done! How do you feel now?" I asked, but I knew perfectly well that there was serenity and peace in Ham's feelings. I held his head with my fingertips and he quietly swam after me in the shallow water of the pool.

"Eugene." Ham whispered, "Little fox! It's like I'm flying, it's so cool!"

"You're not flying Ham, you're floating."

"Am I swimming?!"

"Swim Ham, swim!"

Then I was overwhelmed by such a strong feeling of delight, and it was as if a string had been stretched and snapped with a thin tinkle, and I felt a wave of answering feeling of wild, uncontrollable joy rising from inside me. I laughed out loud, and Nain was laughing and shouting next to me, and he was whistling and hooting.

"The fox cub swam to the depths." Ham said softly.

"Won't you be scared!?"

"I'm not afraid anymore, I'm not afraid at all, Eugene!"

Ham turned over in the water and not quite skillfully, snorting and splashing water, swam to the deep part of the pool. I rushed to catch up with him, because if he gets scared again, it will be difficult for me to get him out. Damn, he's crazy!

I caught up with him only at the very depth, he lowered his face into the water and lay on the water like that. Diving under it, I saw a look of blue eyes full of delight, looking down into the depths of the water. Ham looked at me, smiling. I swam close, basking in the feeling of delight and gratitude of the young Turian. She surfaced next to him, and Ham looked up, snorted, and smiled.

"It's so beautiful, Little Fox, it's... It's so cool to swim, almost like flying!"

"We swam to the exit of the Ham. You've had enough for today."

"Whatever you say, Zhen."

After getting out of the pool, I came across Dakar's thoughtful gaze, and the doctor's emotions were calm and seemingly doomed. She walked up to him and looking into his bright blue eyes asked:

"Uncle Duck, I did it! Do you see?!"

"Yes, I see Eugene! And I also see that your experience cannot be shared."

"Why?"

"Because I do not know any other empaths, not among humans, not among Asari, and even more so among Turians, I have not even heard of their existence, and you alone cannot teach an entire race."

"But! The guys overcame their fear by themselves, by themselves! I only helped them!"

"No, Eugene, not by yourself! It was you who defeated their fear, you and no one else. The device showed it clearly."

"And what should I do next? I thought this experience might be useful to all Turians? But it turns out that he is useless... I can't teach you all!"

"No, you can't. And don't! It's enough that you taught my boys and Nain. And everyone else... Well, our race has never been able to swim, and I think it will continue to live without this skill. I will not send the report. It will only draw unnecessary attention to you. Let's go home, Eugene.


When they returned, the whole company went into the Tanir's house, and Nain, barely taking off her shoes, rushed to Kaadi with the words.

"Mom, Mommy! She did it, she did it! They swam, both Here and There, it's so cool! Isn't that right, Mommy?!"

"Really, honey." Kaadi came out into the hallway and looked at us curiously. "Well, children, can I congratulate you on your success?"

At the same time, the Tamil assumed the proud pose of a Roman senator, folded his arms on his chest and looked into space.

"Yes, Mother, I've learned to swim!"

Ham, on the other hand, just walked up to his mother and, looking at her with completely happy eyes, said in a low voice.

"Mommy, that's just great! It's like flying, I just don't know how to tell you how I feel! You spread your arms and fly, and there's a blue distance below, and it's so easy."

Kaadi hugged her eldest son, pressed her cheek to his head and said.

"Clever son."

"It's not me Mom, it's all her! Our Eugene."

We are sitting at the kitchen table drinking erg, such a Turian fruit tea, with buns, Kaadi looks lovingly at us all eating buns with both cheeks, at the gloomy, thoughtful Dakar. A frozen statue with a bun in one hand and a cup of ergo in the other, staring into space with a frozen gaze of blue eyes.

"Did you make the Dakar report?" Kaadi asks.

Dakar shuddered, focused his gaze on his wife, and answered in a low voice.

"Yes, it is, but it is pointless to send it."

"Why?"

"Because we don't have another Eugenia Shepard. Not with us, not with anyone else. And without her, the whole idea is a waste of time. And I decided that I would draw the attention of the hierarchs, and even the Asari matriarchs, to it if the information came out, and it would! This is not at all what she needs now or in the future either."

"And she won't leave here?!"

"I don't think so. But just in case, I'll talk to Reyan and Mikhail. Well, it's worth connecting Tael, he's a great master at hiding various information out of the blue."

"You know best, Duck. Do as you see fit." Kaadi looked at me with an unusual warm feeling. "Thank you baby, you're a smart girl."

I was so embarrassed, I even blushed.

"Oh, nonsense! You're friends, and we can do everything we can for friends. As my dad's says."

"A good life credo. Stick with him!" Duck says and runs his hand through my hair.

The doorbell rings from the hallway, Ham and Tam get up from the table and run into the hallway, the doors hiss and Deniska's loud voice is heard.

"Well! Is there a movement?"

"Otherwise! We've learned, both of us!" A Tamil voice is heard.

"Honestly!" It's already Leshka voice. "Well, the beauties! Ahh! Well done! Take five, bro!"

Clapping of hands and loud friendly laughter of four guys can be heard. Slender arms wrap around his neck, and Nain's hard, hot cheek is pressed against his cheek.

- Let's go to my room at the Base and chat, I need to practice, that's what Rien says.Are you coming?

- Let's go.

Chapter 7.

January 01, 2359

1:15

I look out the window, it's snowing again, large soft snowflakes slowly swirling around covering everything with a fluffy white blanket. So we celebrated the beginning of the new Fifty-ninth year, shouting and laughing, we ran around our Christmas tree, set off fireworks and burned torches. They sang songs. It was easy and I was possessed by a kind of soft serenity, it's been a week since I stopped having my terrible dream. And I thought that maybe everything would still work out, well, there can't just be bad things in life. Haymon gave me a great gift for the new year, said that he had shaken up his piggy bank, asked his father for money, persuaded his mother and bought me a hunting knife at a gun shop in Gagarin! I picked up the handle, though it grew, but it was quite in my hand, probably Kaadi helped. Along the slightly curved black metal blade, 12-13 centimeters long, there was an intricate pattern of thin silver lines that curled closer to the guard into the inscription in Turian "claw". The handle is made of reddish polished wood, comfortable grip. On the butt of the handle is the head of a mythological grinning beast. The sheath is made of brown leather with straps attached to the arm or leg. I always go with him now. This doesn't surprise anyone, Mendoir is a young colony, and everyone here, both children and adults, is armed. After 5 kilometers from the city, a natural wild territory begins, and wild animals in the city limits will not surprise anyone. The brothers have been carrying light pistols since they were seven years old, this is a battery-powered railgun with ten charges in a clip, the bullets are conical with notches of 10 mm. The initial velocity of the bullet is only 300 m/ s, which does not give a strong recoil, but the stopping effect is enormous. When a bullet hits, it crushes into a pancake with a diameter of 20-22 mm, and I personally saw how such a bullet broke a fifty-piece board. It is not necessary to explain what will happen to the same snuffl from the impact of 2 or 3 such bullets. By the way, in all the thirteen years of the colony's existence, the colonists never shot at each other with weapons, neither adults, nor even children. I wonder what the advocates of the ban on gun ownership of the population in that Russia, from a previous life, would say to this... Time is passing and in three months I will be five years old, four of which I remember completely, and we'll see what the new year brings me. As they say, we'll chew and see...

Illustration https://disk.yandex.ru/d/cJ6EbqhKlsQpjw

https://samlib.ru/img/j/jager_j_s/putxnagolgofu/index.shtml - Illustration from Yager

Eugene (Mendoir June 2360)

A hectic year. (Part one)

June 10, 6:00 a.m.

I do gymnastics by the window in my room, Deniska does the same thing in the courtyard, only his complex is much more complicated. Weights, a metal pole, and heavy dumbbells are used. For the past six months, the elder brother has been torturing himself in the mornings, this is called preparation for admission to the cadet corps of the Alliance Air Force. Boys and girls aged 14 and up to twenty are accepted there, and they are chased in the tail and in the mane. Those who do not fly out become toothy wolves in the service of humanity. Four Naval cadet corps train the elite of the Terran Air Force. Next year, the older brother will go to gnaw naval science in his father's footsteps. Slow movements of my arms and legs, flexibility exercises, weights on my arms and legs have long been familiar to me, sweat is running down my back in a cold trickle, a voice with a pleasant double harmonica is heard from the street, Ham is here! Now the guys will run away for a cross-country run, five kilometers along forest paths in the morning. Best friends, rivals, ringleaders of all the pranks in the town, my own and sworn brothers. They are laughing, flashing white smiles in the morning sun. The gate slammed, they ran away.

I sit cross-legged in the middle of the room and put a box of colored glass balls in front of me, a small emotional shield drives away the morning languor and makes my mind clear and clean. Reaching out with my consciousness to the stream of power spread around, the dark stream penetrates my consciousness, fills my body with a hum, makes my nerves ring like strings, and a barely visible blue-green halo flashes around my body. I look at the balls, making them fly up one by one, and spin in a circle around the room, now all the balls are spinning around me, coiling into a spiral, the main thing is not to lose concentration. I carefully monitor each flying ball with my senses, a moment of loss of concentration can cost all the balls falling to the floor. And yes, I am a biotic... It's also on my long-suffering mind.

It came out a month ago, that day my father decided to replace the seal on the window in my room, the old one cracked and started leaking. He dragged a folding ladder from work, put it up to the house, just enough to reach the roof, took a bag of tools and climbed. The girls and I were sitting in the courtyard, Gina and I with albums on folding chairs, and Nain was hugging a Bars and a Polkan right on the grass. We had an open-air performance, and our artist and I painted Nain from life. Although the difference between my work and Gina's works is like between propaganda posters and Raphael's works. I just have a Turian girl hugging a cat and a dog, and Gina's looks like they're alive, just frozen for a moment, a Barsik squinting with pleasure, lifting his head and opening his mouth. Polkan spread his paws, exposing his light belly, his eyes rolled back, and his tongue hung out of his mouth like a pink snake. Suddenly I felt a growing sense of fear, glancing at the house, I saw how the folder, along with the glass, began to slowly but surely fall. Apparently, he removed the fasteners from the glass and the huge panoramic double-glazed window was simply squeezed out into the street by the pressure drop, and his father couldn't hold it. I clearly realized that if my father fell, a double-glazed window would crash on top of him, and it would be scary to even think about how it would end! For the past six months, somewhere on the edge of my perception, I noticed something incomprehensible, strange, some kind of hazy dark haze, which clearly smelled of something incredibly powerful and ancient. It all went through my head in a split second. Horrified, I jumped out of my chair, knocking it over, and reached for that haze, which in response reached out to me, touched me. Pain shot through my nerves, it seemed as if a mighty, rumbling stream rushed inside me, my whole body was filled with strength, it seemed to me that I could lift the whole house! I held out my arms, and they were dim but distinct, even in the light of day, glowing with a blue-green light. She pushed this force from herself to her father, who was pressed back together with the glass. The father did not lose his head, snapped the locks back on and took a deep breath. I could clearly feel his relief. The force continued to seethe in me, demanding an exit, and I pushed it into the sky, not knowing what to do. A roaring stream of power hit the clouds from me, and a clearly visible circular gap began to form in them. The flow went on and on, and with it the pain grew, when it became unbearable, the flow somehow thinned and dried up. I screamed in pain and fell to my knees. My father turned around on the stairs, looked at me and understood everything. After sliding down the stairs, he ran towards me.

"My daughter! Hold on, my little one!" I heard it through the growing buzzing in my ears. Black flies flew into my eyes, turning into black spots as I walked, and everything was covered with darkness and silence.

I didn't seem to be unconscious for long, when I woke up, I felt myself being carried in my arms, my father's cheek with clearly visible stubble hairs loomed in front of my eyes, my father was filled with fear and despair. He was coming up the stairs to my room, and I could hear my mother's sobbing voice from the kitchen, and Ray, looking worried. He's probably calling an ambulance, a thought moved sluggishly in my head. I felt terribly weak all over my body, there was no pain, but even to breathe in it took some effort. My father turned his face to me, and there were tears in his eyes.

"Daddy, don't cry." I whispered. "I'm fine."

He pressed his lips to my cheek and whispered.

"Thank you, little sun." He carried me into the room and laid me on the bed, and Gina and Nain immediately appeared next to me. They're both crying.

"We were so scared for you! You fell down and you're lying like dead, Uncle Misha is shaking you down, but you don't care." Gina said, sobbing.

"And she was glowing all over, just like Vasya in biotics training!" This is Nino.

"And she dispersed the clouds!" Gina again. "You're probably a biotic too, but I haven't heard that they can disperse clouds!"

"Quiet, you babblers," my father hissed at my friends. "Just sit here quietly for a while, okay?"

"Yes, Uncle Mish." They answered in unison.

My father nodded and looked at me with sad, reddened eyes.

"How you scared us, my daughter, he said in a hoarse voice."

"I'm sorry, Daddy, I didn't mean to!" I whispered back.

He smiled sadly.

"Of course you didn't want to! You saved me, I would have broken down if it hadn't been for you, or even at all..."

The door opened, Mom ran in, saw me on the bed, made eye contact with me, came over and somehow folded herself against my legs. Her shoulders shook, and she burst into tears. Through the crying, I heard the words.

"Also this! And that's not enough for you... Few people are there... Oh my God, oh my God! My daughter, my little daughter..."

I touched my mother's head with my hand, which weighed like a couple of pounds, and whispered.

"Don't cry, Mommy, please! Everything will be fine."

Next to her, hugging each other, her friends were crying in six eyes. Well, that's what it's all about for them! It's like an ass, the further it gets, the darker it gets! I felt sleepy and passed out.

In my sleep, I heard a quiet conversation between Ray and mom, our blue doctor was explaining to mom that nothing irreparable had happened to me.

"Dayan's severe nervous overload, I'm surprised that it all showed up at that age! But surprisingly, everything worked out! She'll be fully recovered in four days."

"But Ray is a biotic, she's about to get an implant! And they're so imperfect, they have side effects all the time. Mom spoke softly."

"Why does she need an implant?!" Doc was surprised.

"What for? They put them on all biotics!"

"Not at all! Implants are needed to improve memory and concentration, so that the biotic can better control his strength. But Zhenya doesn't need either for nothing, she has her own best."

"But that's right. But what about next?"

"And what's next. He will go to secondary school, study with our girls, and by the age of 17-18 he will become one of the strongest biotics of people."

"Really! How she clouds that! I still can't believe it, what kind of force did she create?!"

"I've only read about it, that only Ardat Yakshas were capable of impulses of such power."

"What kind of horror? Is she by any chance...?"

"Calm down, Dayan! She's a human being! There are no Ardat yakshas among people."

"That's how it is! But it's still kind of scary."

"Calm down, my girlfriend, let's go have some tea rather than sit here! Peace is her best medicine right now."

"But!"

"No buts! Don't forget, she's an empath!"

"Oh, that's right! Let's go." Mom came up to me and kissed me on the forehead. She whispered it. Sleep my little one, get well soon."

***

I woke up suddenly, and my body felt increasingly uncomfortable. I looked up at the bedside table, and it was 5:00 on the small alarm clock. "Wow, I thought it was a good day, already twelve hours in a row." However, the discomfort increased, I pushed back the blanket, hmm, my hands seemed to obey, I noticed that I was not wearing anything, I sat down. My head started spinning, black dots flashed in my eyes, and I fell back down. The discomfort got worse, and I started to panic. Then I noticed a chair standing by the window. "Странно?!" I thought, I don't have any chairs in my room. They must have brought it, but why? Then me realized that someone was sleeping in the chair. In the uncertain, twilight, morning light, I saw blonde hair. Only my father and Deniska have them. But even if he wanted to, he couldn't sleep in the chair, and the sleeper got into it with his feet.

"Disya!" I called softly. "Disya, wake up!"

"Ah! What! Who's here...?" My brother jumped up. "Is that you, little fox?"

"No! It's an old thief, a shaman! Disya, help me. Hurry up, I can't take it anymore! Disya!"

"Yes, I'm coming."

My brother came up to the bed, took a look at me, and most importantly at my suit, stopped as if he had run into a wall, turned away, his ears and neck darkened, his emotions were filled with embarrassment and for some reason shame.

"Disya what are you doing? Is this the first time you've seen me?"

"Eugene! I'm going to get my mom now!"

"Stop, you idiot! She probably hasn't slept for half the night, and you're going to wake her up! Don't you dare! Bring it yourself. Moreover, while you're running, I'll flood the bed! Well! Hurry up!"

My brother, red as a boiled рако-краб with strong embarrassment in his feelings, quietly picked me up and carried me to my private bathroom. He brought me in, sat me down, I immediately began to fall over, my brother immediately stopped being embarrassed, anxiety and fear flared up in my feelings, knelt in front of me, took my shoulders with his hands and straightened my roll.

"Is it okay, Little Fox? Just don't fall down okay."

"Here you go." I whispered.

I did my job and told my brother to take it back. He took it. He laid her down and covered her with a blanket. No longer embarrassed at all. He sat on the edge of the bed and began running his fingers through my hair.

"How are you, Little Fox? We were all so scared for you! Ham, as soon as he heard, he even fell off his bike, he was in such a hurry to get to you." I smiled.

"Daddy Ham."

"He hehe! It's Like A Fox Cub." My brother laughed. "I'll tell everyone tomorrow!"

"Don't Disya. After all, Vaska will torture him. And Nino and Gina won't stay away!"

"Whatever you say, little sister!" My brother leaned over and kissed me on the temple. "Go back to sleep! Ray tells you sleep is the first medicine. I'll sit in the chair and look after you."

The door banged.

"Oh, the head nurse has come!" My brother said with a smile.

A red muzzle floated into view, and a long tail loomed in the background.

"Mrru?" And anxiety in the feelings. How are you a wayward human cub? "Mrrr?!"

"Come here, my cat!" I slap the bed with my palm. The cat jumps on the bed and immediately lies down next to it. I hug him, bury my face in his soft fur, and with a loud rumble, I fall asleep again.

The second time I was woken up by the sun shining through my window. A Bars is sleeping next to him, stretched out at full length, with a bright head visible in the armchair. He'll look after it, of course! He sleeps like a groundhog. It's 10:30. The door hisses, I feel someone crawling on the bed, I turn my head and meet the gaze of attentive gray eyes.

In a moment, I'm being doused with intense joy!

"Hello, Vanya!" I whisper.

"Eugene!" And children's arms wrap around my neck. "Are you awake yet?" The younger one whispers. "I made you some tea and made you some sandwiches. By myself!"

I slowly sit up in bed, my head is spinning, but it's bearable.

"Vanya, help me get dressed." My brother rushes to my locker, takes out swimming trunks and a light sundress with my tips. With the help of the younger one, I'm getting dressed somehow. I hug my brother and slowly go downstairs to drink tea. Deniska did not wake up, the elder was dying.

We are sitting in the kitchen with Vanka drinking tea, his sandwiches are mighty chunks, with a mountain of piled ingredients. Obviously, the younger one tried, even if not very skillfully, but with all his heart! Tea and sandwiches seem to give me strength. My head is not spinning at all, my mood is climbing up. Vanka, seeing my smile and pleased look, just blossoms.

"Did you like it, Eugene?!"

"Yes, Vanechka, you're just great!" My brother was already blooming, a blush flushed on his cheeks.

"I tried so hard! Did you really, really like it?" No, what a charm my youngest is, because he's only five years old, and there's enough care for everyone.

"I really liked Vanya!"

My brother's vivid feelings blow out the remnants of my melancholy, we sit and silently smile at each other.

The door hisses and the kitchen is flooded with surprise, which is very quickly replaced by a feeling of intense relief. I turn my head and see my mom. She's leaning on the doorjamb with her right hand, her left hand is pressed to her chest, and there are tears in her eyes again.

"Mommy, I made breakfast!" Vanka shouts "And he fed Zhenya!"

"Hi Mom." I'm talking quietly.

She doesn't say anything, just comes over to me, squats down and hugs me, and I snuggle up to her. We are silent, words are superfluous, everything is already clear. Vanka ran up to us and hugged both of us, and spoke softly.

"You're the best, my mom and my Zhenya!"

We look at him, his gray eyes are serious. Suddenly he smiles, and from his smile, the whole burden of worries falls off mom like a husk. She laughs and kisses her brother.

"You are our darling, Vanya! What would we do without you!" She says.

"We were hungry!" My brother answers with a serious expression.

Loud laughter fills the kitchen, Mom laughs, I laugh, Vanka laughs loudly. And with laughter, the fear and tension of the last 24 hours go away.

My father comes into the kitchen, his joy at the sight of my laughing face, I can probably touch it with my hands. He comes up to me, picks me up, and hugs me tightly, I hug his neck and forcefully press against his unshaven cheek. I whisper.

"How did I get scared for you, how did you do that?! After all, you're an engineer! I told you so myself."

"Oh, and don't tell me, Sweetheart! And for an old woman, there is проруха, as they say! I owe you my life now, daughter!"

"You don't owe me anything, Daddy!"

"Why is that?"

"Because! Because you're my daddy! And that's enough."

"I agree."

The sun is shining brightly outside, flooding the world with warmth. I feel like I want to go out in the sun, sit in an armchair and bask. I tell my father about it. He takes me out into the courtyard, sits me down in a chair. I'm sitting and basking in the greenish rays of our star. There is peace all around, our tree is quietly rustling its leaves, свирки are squeaking in the branches. Insects are flying with a loud buzz. There is a clanging sound from the neighboring plot, it's Uncle Coel who pulled out the lawn mower and was about to take care of the lawn. He saw me, his eyes flew open, and his emotions were one of surprise, joy, and relief.

"Eugene! I see you're feeling better."

"Yes, Uncle Kol! I'm basking in the sun. Call Gina, please."

"It's a good thing." He goes to the door of the house, opens it and shouts inside. "Jina! Jinaa! Come here, Eugene is in the yard."

Jina flies out of the house like a disheveled sparrow, peering at me, joy in her emotions. He runs up to the chair and throws his arms around my neck.

"Eugene! Zhenya! I was so worried, I didn't sleep half the night, I kept thinking about you! Are you okay?!"

"Well, almost! If you don't get off me, I'll fall, and it's still hard for me to get up."

Jina recoiled and blushed deeply.

"I'm sorry, Eugene! I was very happy about it, that's it! You sit there for a while, and I'll bring you some berry juice. Won't you have some juice?!"

"Of course I will! Bring it on!" I say with a smile.

"I'll be right there, I'll be quick!" A friend shouted out very quickly on the run, and disappeared into the house. Coel strapped a plastic grass tank to the lawn mower, checked the battery charge, flipped the switch, and the lawn mower rattled its knives softly. And slowly pushing her in front of him, whistling and dancing, he walked across the lawn in front of the house. Walking along the decorative fence separating our plots, he stopped, turned off the mower and asked me.

"What do you think, Eugene? Will I be able to make what's his name, but an English lawn?"

"Uncle Kol, but if you believe the British, then any lawn becomes English if it is regularly mowed for two hundred years. Well, that's what the British themselves say."

"Hmm. We Batarians have been living for quite a long time, so I have every chance to verify this statement!"

I tilted my head to my right shoulder and nodded slightly. Uncle Coel smiled, returned my bow, turned on the mower, and whistled as he continued his interrupted occupation. Jina slowly came out of the Natol house, carrying a round tray on which stood a pot-bellied decanter with a blood-red liquid and two tall thick-walled glass glasses. My girlfriend slowly walked towards me. "It must be a heavy tray," I thought. Jina carefully looked at her feet and often stopped. Deniska appeared on my doorstep, stretched himself sweetly until he crunched, looked around, saw me and smiled. What a beautiful smile my brother has, shining, Gagarin! My brother looked at Jina hobbling along, chuckled, shook his head, went over to her and took the tray away.

"Tell me, little one, why are you carrying such a heavy load? Just a little more and she would have fallen or dropped the tray."

"This is a juice for Eugene! I said I'd bring it, and I was carrying it, but for some reason it turned out to be so heavy. Ugh."

"Well done, Jinny! You are a true friend!" My brother said loudly.

He put the tray on the grass, poured the juice into glasses and handed it to us, drinking the rest himself directly from the decanter.

I sat and savored the berry juice. Sweet and sour, it reminds me of a mixture of raspberry and redcurrant, slightly astringent, leaving a pleasant light aftertaste. It is made from a "dugout", a large berry growing in the foothills on creeping bushes that seem to spread on the ground. It is collected every year with the help of collection robots. Juice is made from most of it, and wine is made from the rest. As our blue dock says, this is not juice, but a straight vitamin and trace element cocktail, the local Azari called it the "Gift of the Goddess".

I hear heavy breathing on my right, I see our bear, a shaggy monster, sitting looking at me, breathing fast, tongue hanging sideways. He must have been hunting again, and there's a happy face. For some reason, I feel bad about the dog, the cat feels good, but the dog feels bad. He lay down on the grass, put his paws under the chair, put his head on my feet, and took a deep breath. He just lies there with his eyebrows moving when he looks at me, I began to stroke his forehead, scratch behind his ears, he squeezed his eyes shut, faintly, faintly, but I feel his joy and pleasure. Another shaggy head has poked under his left arm, there is a slight feeling of jealousy, and the expectation of affection, a quiet "mrrow" sound. "You haven't forgotten me, little girlfriend." "I haven't forgotten my beloved cat!"

Gina squeaked.

"I'm ready!" And she flew into the house, flew back a minute later, carrying an album and pencils, sat down in the second chair, putting it opposite. His gaze became thoughtful and detached, his emotions calm and focused. Her brother stood behind her, leaned on the back of the chair, and began to watch the process. The further he went, the more his delight was felt, because it's so great to see how a truly talented reasonable person works, and it doesn't matter what he does. It's like beauty comes out of nothing or from the most ordinary things. I'm sitting with my eyes closed, basking in their emotions.

The gate creaked and I was covered with some kind of wild, unbridled joy, thin arms wrapped around my shoulders, the cold tip of my nose was buried in my neck, I felt a slight bite on my shoulder and a hot, slightly rough tongue went through the same place. Resentment flashed through his feelings. And in a low girlish voice, in Turian, they said. Promise me! What! You! Never! You won't do it again. You will never scare me like that! And yet! Promise me you won't die! You are close to me, in my heart!

I turn my head and meet Nain's blue-blue eyes, like Dakar's. It flashed through my mind that Turians have bites and such licking, this is a manifestation of very tender feelings! Only between relatives! And close. And the last phrase, addressing only a brother or sister. I look into her eyes and answer in the same low voice, in the same Turian. Zhenya promised Nainerr Taanir that she would do everything so that her eyes would not see Zhenya's death.

"You are cherished, in my heart."

Nain beamed, snuggled up to me, bit me softly again, and sat down next to the chair on the grass, leaning against the hot side of a Polkan. He's here! He wrapped me in his feelings like a warm terry blanket, the only sensible one in the village. A four-fingered hand touches my shoulder, the other one strokes the redhead, the cat calmly puts his head under the caress. He's squatting on his haunches, anxiously looking at me with his sky-blue eyes.

"I heard what you said to Nain." A soft voice in Turian.

"Do you want me to say the same words to you, Hame?"

"Yes, I want to! Will you tell me?"

"You are close to me, in my heart." And I look straight into Ham's blue eyes. I lean into his face and whisper. "Daddy Ham!"

In response, the fun is in the emotions.

"I heard you. Cherished by my heart! My sworn sister." He sits down on the grass next to the armchair. He looks in front of him, continuing to stroke the Bars.

We sit in silence for a while. The meaning of what happened slowly dawns on me. Turians make such decisions with the whole family.

"When will the parents and Tam come? And when did you decide?"

"At night. Yesterday, we all suddenly realized that you mean much more to us than just neighbors and friends. The rest is empty, everyone agreed. And they're coming any minute now."

"It's unexpected, but very pleasant! So now I have two more brothers and two sisters! And a couple of caring parents to boot. I'm rich!"

"Just like me!" He takes my hand in his.

How warm his hand is. Kaadi and Dakar enter the gate, with Saleen waddling next to them. The youngest of the Tanirs, was born on January 20 last year. The little one sees Polkan and runs to him with a squeak, sits astride, hugs him. Everything will be sitting on our dog for at least an hour now.

Mom stands on the porch and looks at Kaadi coming up to her, holding a glass of juice in her hands, a smile on her lips. She goes down the stairs and puts an unfinished glass on the top one. She turns around. Kaadi comes over, takes her mother's right hand in her left hand, covers it with her right hand, leans close and says something. Mom's amazement is visible to the naked eye, her left hand is pressed to her chest, and her emotions are a real storm. It's not every day that Turians make such an offer to people, I don't think I've ever heard of it. Although it is clear that this is not shouted at all corners. Mom tilted her head to the left, tears glistened in her eyes, she hugged Kaadi and whispered something in response, there's no doubt that!

"Did I miss something?!" Deniska's voice rang out from the left. He was sitting on the grass next to Ham.

Nain got up, walked around the chair and hugged her brother, whispered a phrase in his ear, Ham bent down and repeated it after his sister. Denis sat in silence for a few seconds, just clapped his eyes wide open.

"Are you serious?!" Emotions are in turmoil. He just can't believe it.

Turians look serious.

"This is not a joke, brother!" I'm talking. "What do you say?"

He hugs Nain tighter, bends down and hugs Ham with his other arm.

"I hear You! Those close to me! With my heart, cherished ones!" The brother whispers a ritual phrase in Turian.

I watch as Dakar approaches my mother, the ritual repeats, but my mother continues to stand pressed against the Turian's chest. He raises his head and looks intently into each other's eyes. I'm lip-reading.

"Thank you brother!" Mom speaks Russian.

His father, Leshka, and Vanka come out from behind the house. His father has a folding table in his hands, Leshka has two folding chairs, and Ivan is puffing and dragging another one. Seeing the gathering on the lawn, Father smiled broadly. Feeling slightly surprised, Kaadi came up to him, ran her hand over his cheek, bent down... The table that fell out of his father's hands clattered loudly, he took Kaadi by the shoulders, glared at her face. He looked at me for a few seconds, smiled broadly, hugged me, and replied. He pulled away, approached Dakar, the men took hold of each other's forearms, looked into each other's eyes, said a ritual phrase in a low voice, and then hugged tightly. Nino broke away from Deniska and skipped over to Leshka, who put down the chairs and bent down. Nain hugged his neck, his brother straightened up and picked up the girl, she bent over to his ear, from what she heard Leshka's eyes became just like those of an anime character. He hugged the Turian tightly and replied. And for another minute he just stood there hugging Nain tightly.

"They didn't forget about me!" A clear voice from the right. I turn around and meet Tam's shining green eyes.

Behind all this, Coel watched with a smile, barely hiding his delight. And Jina, who manages to sketch something in an album with incredible speed.

Then Ray and Vaska came, and Azari gave me a box of glass balls, saying that this was the best simulator for a beginner biotic.

***

In the evening, I heard my parents talking in the kitchen.

"Mishka! Is everything going to work out for us! Is this whole multi-species colony thing going to work?"

"Yes, Dayan! Now I'm absolutely sure of it!"

"You were right! You're right! It's a pity that my father doesn't see it. All his arguments would have been shattered!"

"Contact Steve, let him bring the old people to visit, and he hasn't come for a long time! My best friend completely forgot about me."

"So my dad is at the origin of the colony. So it's not easy! I'll have to ask him and the other seniors about it."

Chapter 8.

I emerge from the depths of memory, forcing the balls one by one to dive into the box. The gate slams, loud laughter is heard from the lawn, interspersed with heavy breathing. I go to the window, and the brothers are lying on the grass with their arms outstretched. Deniska's skin glistens with sweat.

"13:50 Hame! We have improved our time."

"Oh, yes! I thought at the end that I would just fall and die!"

"Oh! Eugene is looking at us."

"We see you, Little Fox!"

I look at the vacationing brothers, and an amazing meeting that took place last June comes back to my mind. The meeting finally set the record straight, gave me amazing knowledge, and taught me how to control my empathy. It allowed me to feel this world much more deeply. I realized fatally that I would have to face a living nightmare. The Reapers!

Eugene (Mendoir June 2360)

The Hectic Year (part two)

June 10, 2360 6:45 AM

The training is over, I go down to the kitchen, there is peace and quiet at home, the whole family except Deniska and me is still asleep. My father is not here, he is on duty at the plant. I go into the kitchen and take a one-and-a-half-liter plastic canister of juice in the refrigerator, pour half of it into a glass carafe and dilute it with water. Pure juice is too sweet, and after a workout it's not exactly what you need. But it's worth diluting, that's it! I take plastic cups from the locker and go to the brothers.

They're just lying on the grass, a quick glance in my direction, joy and malice in their feelings.

"I told you that she would come, and not only that, she would also bring juice!" This is Ham speaking.

"That surprised me! Yes, at the Fox Cub chuika, you and I have never dreamed of being poor. I wish I had one. Ehhh!"

"Don't be jealous, it's not good!"

"That's who's talking! He's the one!"

"I can!"

"That's why?!"

"I have white envy!"

"Does it mean black for me?!"

"And you're just jealous."

"I don't understand... What does simple mean?"

"Where are you going! This is not for average minds..."

"Does that mean I have an average mind?! That's it, then! Sir Haymon! I am offended in my best feelings, and I demand immediate satisfaction!"

"Ha ha! Sir Denis! I accept your challenge! Where are the trainees?!"

"It's in the shoe box."

The guys pulled out training knives, they are made of soft, flexible plastic, but they leave bright luminescent marks after blows. It is extremely difficult to injure them, but the result is clearly visible.

They kicked off their shoes and socks, and pulled off their T-shirts, leaving only light sweatpants. They stood opposite each other and bowed slightly.

The beauties! Deniska is slightly shorter, but much stronger and slightly heavier than Ham, with already well-defined muscles. Ham is faster and more flexible, with amazing predatory grace, the collar has already formed, has not yet hardened, and is still soft, as are the protective plates on his head and body. Tight rolls of muscles curl around the body and arms. In a couple of years, he will become a thunderstorm of women's hearts. Beware, young Turians!

They moved slowly in a circle without taking their eyes off each other, slightly crouched, deceptively relaxed, the right hand with the knife slightly in front, the left slightly closer to the body and lower, the palm turned down. I feel excitement and anticipation of a fight.

I miss the moment of the beginning of the movement, the moment, the flashing of hands, the pile of deceptive movements, the brothers entwined into a ball and fell apart panting. In Deniska, a bright blue stripe runs diagonally across the peritoneum, in Ham, a bright green stripe runs from the right shoulder through the collarbone and down the throat, disappearing at the ear opening.

"Ha! I got you! In real life, I wouldn't blow your head off." Denis said, panting.

"Look at yourself!" Ham is panting.

"Oh!" Denis looks down at his stomach and says. "My giblets went for a walk! My poor guts! I'm smitten." The brother falls on the grass, spreading his arms.

"It's a draw again!"

"I don't like sparring with you Ham! It doesn't do any good!"

"I agree! I know you like crazy! All your feints and tricks."

"Tell me, when was the last time our sparring ended with a victory?"

"Er... Well, it seems like it happened last week... You kind of won!"

"Sort of... You were in the clouds then! Master Tanris scolded you back then. And by the way, who is she?!"

"What are you talking about!?" Ham flashed with embarrassment.

"Come on!" Denis broke into a smile. "Who were you thinking about!? Come on, come on!"

"You imagined it." Ham replied, even more embarrassed.

"Oh brother! You're definitely in love!"

"Don't be ridiculous! I'm telling you, you imagined it!"

"Oh ha haha! Oh, I can't! Haam! You don't know how to lie at all!" Deniska reaches into the box and takes out bags of wet wipes, throws one to Ham. "Catch a lover! Otherwise, you'll be shining a green stripe on your neck!"

Ham opens the bag, takes out a napkin and begins to wipe off the paint, his gaze becomes blurred and he just smears it on his skin in vain. Deniska lies on her stomach, supports her head with her hands and, smiling, begins to follow the manipulations of her brother-in-law. I set the decanter on the grass, drop the glasses, take the napkin from Ham, and carefully begin to clean up the stains. Ham looks at me, and blinks in surprise at Deniska, who is smiling.

"Well, that's why you intervened, Little Fox!? This lover would have smeared a marker all over his neck right now and wouldn't have noticed. And then it would be green!"

Ham looks at me with his clear light blue eyes. He's embarrassed, and he takes my hand with the napkin in his.

"Let me finish it myself... Little fox!"

"There's not much left." I answer, wiping off the last traces, lean into Ham's ear and whisper. "What's her name?"

"Noverry Rinaris." My brother answers softly.

"That bully!" Deniska's voice is heard in my ear. "Ohhh!" He gets my elbow in his side. "Foxi, don't push!"

"And she's not a pushover at all!" I'm talking. "She's just very shy and hides behind it. "And Ham she likes you very much, too, and even, in my opinion, more than very much."

"Really?!" My brother is surprised and delighted.

"Wow! Yes, it's mutual!" There is surprise and a little envy in Deniska's emotions.

We sit on the grass for a while in silence.

"So!" Deniska smelled of efficiency. "I have a plan!"

"What's the plan?!" Ham asked suspiciously.

"How to arrange your date! Otherwise, you'll be beating around the bush and you won't decide on anything! And she's even more so! Little fox will need your help. How are you doing?!"

"Of course! Don't even doubt it!" I answer.

"And my opinion, as it were, is not taken into account!" Ham is surprised.

"As if not! You're too indecisive!" Deniska answers. "And your salvation is now in our hands!"

"That's what scares me!" Ham mutters. But he's actually very pleased.

"In general, listen here!" Deniska begins. "As far as I know, she goes to the city's preference club every morning to play the piano!"

I must say that a real piano is a very scarce thing, it is clear that electronic analogues are mostly used in the 24th century, but in order to learn how to play correctly, you need to play a normal instrument. And there was only one like that in our town. And he was standing in a local club. It was organized on a shared basis by three reasonable people: a human, an asari and a krogan! On the ground floor, it was quite an ordinary entertainment venue with a restaurant, a disco, a bar and a cabaret. And on the second floor there was the only preference club in the entire colony. There was a piano in it. In the evenings, various distinguished people gathered there, including the colony's management, my fathers and their friends, to paint a different bullet! During the day, everyone was taught to play the piano there, for a fee, albeit a small one.

"We're waiting for her on the way home, then you!" Deniska points her finger at me. "You invite her to the mirror, under some normal pretext, with us. Then we take her to the lake, and then it's a matter of technique."

"I might not be able to do it very well, but if we take Vaska, then the two of us won't give her a chance."

My brother scratched his head. He ruffled his hair and answered.

"So we take the blue one, she definitely won't refuse to participate in such a case."

"Is there a place for me in your plans?!" Ham asks in surprise.

"And you! So as not to scare you off, you will prepare a place with Tam! In general, a table, juice, a cauldron and a heater for cooking рако-крабов will be yours. As soon as we fly out, I'll beep on your communicator and you'll run off to the foothills, pick flowers. We're going to catch Рако-крабов, all together."

"What kind of flowers?!"

"Yes, any kind, there are many different ones growing in the glades, you can choose a more beautiful one! We'll settle down for now, you'll be fine. Come back and give her this bouquet! She's not stupid, and she'll understand. Do you understand everything?!"

"Got it! It's kind of simple."

Deniska takes the decanter, we sort the glasses, her brother pours the juice, raises his own.

"I have a toast! To the success of our event!"

"For success!" Ham and I talk in unison, clink glasses together, and drink juice.

Two hours later, having mobilized all the young people in our village, including Nino, Jina and Ivan, we clarified and supplemented our plan and began to implement it.


I fly to the town behind Deniska's back, and a memory of a year ago wakes up in my memory, on the same day, but only a year ago, I also flew to Leonov, but only behind Ham's back. Clinging tightly to my sworn brother's hot back, I cursed my gift of empathy. Being in large crowds of people became more and more painful for me. It was especially hard at school, well, our kindergarten was actually called a junior school. So, being among classmates was akin to sophisticated torture, because children absolutely do not know how to restrain their emotions! And when there are eighteen of them! I told Ray and Mom about the problem. Mom burst into tears again, Ray said that going to school would have to wait. And I spent the whole of last May sitting at home alone, Kaadi was looking after me, of course, but with only half an eye because of her newly born baby. Although, for obvious reasons, I didn't cause any problems. They only took me to the mnemograph so that I would not lag behind the other children. That's when I decided I wanted to know both Turian and Asari. We flew to our Galamarkt supermarket to buy summer clothes, underwear and other necessary junk. My thoughts were full of the darkest forebodings. Yes! If I had known what kind of meeting was waiting for me at the store, I would have run on foot!