Rodium Garth
I drank a decoction of the night and found myself on the planet Rodium Garth for the sixth night. There is always a risk that you will not return. There is always a risk that you will not want to. Mushroom trees grow into the sky, and you, as soon as you appear in the area of the fungus, must immediately climb up, otherwise you risk being eaten by something that may not necessarily be bigger than you. I climbed up with growing relief that no one would bite my ass today. My fingers had already trained, so that the depressions on the bark of the mushroom tree were expertly caught. I was happy with myself. A flying dragonfly occasionally walked overhead in the purple sky, buzzing like a small private helicopter as it measured about two meters. Dragonflies are not dangerous. Dangerous are the stars, their luster, the smell of mushrooms, infinitely sweet and intoxicating, and most importantly, the feeling that this world is exactly what you need. As I said - there is always a risk that you will not want to go back.
I had already climbed quite high, and despite my new confidence that I could hardly reach next door and fall down, my head spun slightly from that height. One red-and-blue dragonfly was flying around, and as I swayed, it turned a slight twist in one of her eyes to tell me that she had noticed. With a slightly sweaty palm, I clung to the bark more firmly and caught my fingers more strongly in the hollow of the bark of the fungal tree. I looked into the distance. Firstly, because looking down didn't do me any good from now on, and secondly, because for the first time today I dared to go so high and look into the distance provided the necessary orientation. During past visits to the planet, I tried to travel on earth. When you walk through two meters of grass and the shrubs have roots like cables swaying in slow motion for a while below the surface, for a while above it, you don't know where you're going. You don't know who's after you. You don't know if he wants to tap your shoulder in a friendly way or make dinner out of you. And any injury from the planet Rodium Garth will be reflected at home on Earth. And you don't want that.
I should mention since the decoction of the night. It sounds like a name for a magic potion and, in fact, something like that in terms of consequences. It used to travel to another planet in a can of jets, it took a long time, you got old during it, here and there the can burned under your ass and so on. Then it turned out that you just need to find the exact coordinates (very accurate) and create your fingerprint in that place. You are lying at home in a box (for a nice meal), you drink a potion (also for a meal), it will help you to print and you are already there. Of course, you have your body there, but it's only the second variant. Like when you copy a file with the same name. Same file, same data, same name, just a small one at the end of the name indicating the number of variants.
I stood on top of one of the mushroom trees. I held on to the branch and looked into the distance. Why should humans climb alien planets, you ask? You ask well. Firstly, there is often a desire for adventure, you are bored at home, you want a slightly different safari than just kangaroos and hippos, or there may be a profit behind it. On a planet like this, you get something that is bought with us for a lot of money. And because trips outside cost too much money, you have to be a big rich man on such a trip, and your chances of being even richer increase considerably. Or save for a few trips and hope that you will be lucky and you will secure yourself for a few miserable years ahead on our miserable planet with miserable neighbors in a miserable suburb. This second option is my case. I look into the distance looking for mountains. There are lakes in the mountains and in some ponds you can find a decoction of the night. He, as you already know, works on journeys between planets, not just here. If you manage to survive and take one home, you're a happy guy. So, now you know the main thing. Despite considerable clouds, the mountains appeared in the northeast. With a little luck, I'll get to them by moving in the crowns of mushroom trees and I won't have to go down a short distance. It will definitely be the last attempt for today, the potion supplies are getting thinner for me and also the box I am climbing into today has become too popular due to the fact that we have achieved several decent successes in it. When I get back today, I'll disappear and find another place. You have to do this once in a while so you don't wake up dead once, hehe, so to speak.
Mushroom trees stand on their own, forming an interconnected united organism, holding their shoulders and leaning slightly when the wind pushes into one of them, balancing the imbalance of any of them. Underground, they form root communities, networks, not unlike the structure and complexity of the composition of the human brain. It is said that they communicate with each other through their fungi, and when one is in danger, the others warn him with a system of excitement, and then you stand on a branch of one of them, you want to cut a branch that seriously interferes with you and suddenly another branch marries you like an adult's arm. man, he hits you in the face with the hook of a seasoned sailor and you rush to the ground like a 90-pound corpse, at least in the future.
After looking around which way to the mountains, I had walked for a good twenty minutes at a height of about forty meters above the ground, hoping to achieve the desired wealth today. I've already talked about the danger of injuries that will happen to you here on Garth and their connection to your real body on Earth. Do you know what a serious trouble is? We don't have some animals, plants and other monsters on Earth, so if something like that bites you in your hand, for example, you can hope that the poison is similar in its venom to one of our snakes, or you can hope that it will help you if you get your hand over the wound. and the poison will not spread. So then you rush home, scream for help and hope. What struck me, however, is a familiar thing. Familiar, but not pleasant. The tongues look like a tongue without a body, so they have a meter long, stick to the stem of the fungal tree, change color according to their temporary host and wait. They are waiting for someone named Jimmy Ryder, for example, and when that person walks by, like a strained leech, they slap on the bare part of their body, they immediately attach themselves to your skin, they immediately burn the place and start sucking the slightest electrical impulses from your body. On the one hand, it burns like a pig, and on the other hand, you immediately start to miss your electrical impulses. Here your foot does not listen, that hand, that eye looks where it has looked before and does not move. In addition, our human battery is not infinite, and we certainly cannot afford to power a space bastard at our own expense. Fortunately, by the time the space travel by imprinting took place, enough people with tongues on Garth had had the honor, so it was discovered that his willingness to receive electrical impulses was limited to much smaller doses than such an electric baton, for example. So if you don't faint in pain during his attack, you pull out your electric weapon, swing one behind his ears, well, somewhere, and he'll go. You will have a red spot on your skin for a few more days, which burns like hell, but it will pass. That's exactly what happened to me, in the college of an eight-story barracks, he swung me in my right hand, which I usually pull out all my weapons with, my hand stopped listening in an instant, the bastard fed on me, and fainting tried me. With my left hand in the half-seat, I rummaged in my right trouser pocket and drew my weapon. Saliva dropped from my mouth, I've never heard it happen before, and it wasn't very pleasant. Flashes like a pilgrimage, I felt sick if I fell down, I'll be porridge, I'm in trouble, I think I have a truncheon and I'm shooting at a monster, but I wasn't sure, I'm losing consciousness, I don't know for how many seconds or minutes, I'm sure that when I open my eyes, it was already dark outside. I don't have a bastard on my hand, I have a stain. The baton was nowhere, probably falling into the green abyss below me. But it's not good. So either rush home to Earth, or go down and look. Well, what do you think I did ?!
Before I tell you how I climbed down, let's talk about what it looks like on Earth, if you don't happen to know it. Earth is a planet in the solar system, here and there the mainland, around the sea, inhabited by idiots. Ever since we came down from the trees, we've been doing everything we can to get back there. We all want something. Those who have nothing want to have something. Those who have a little want a little more. Those who have a lot do not know that they have a lot, so they are automatically placed in category 2 and want to have more. A modest profit can be achieved through cooperation. A good profit can be made by violence. At least that's how humanity thinks. And so the history of mankind is a history of thrashing through the fingers, through the mouth and stabbing in the eyes. By the last historical reversal of these wonderful inhabitants of the planet, two thirds have been lost and the planet has rested a little. And because the planet, nature, or providence is infinitely clever, she gave someone with glasses the idea of getting people to another planet. She probably thought for good, not just for trips, but it will come one day.
I climbed down the trunk of a mushroom tree to find my lost electric baton in combat. I could have returned home. No baton, no potion, no mood, hehe. But I don't like doing activities that don't pay off at all. The new baton costs a fortune, we've already talked about the decoction of the night, and everyone doesn't like to lose their temper. It is a fact that climbing down to the ground can also bring some losses, including the highest one. But that's how you go about it. Fortunately, I found the baton only two stories below me on a wide branch. He did not sink to the bottom. Yay. However, the delay flew two floors below, which brought me an overrated benefit. Due to the unexpected movement downwards, I saw movement between the floors of the plant awnings, roofs and roofs. The sizes of a man who, however, are not on Garth, except for visitors. And there can be only a limited number of people on a planet at a time, due to the overall energy transfer between the planets. However, other adventurers may travel elsewhere than at Rodium Garth that. Well, the providence made it up.
So I could see a man downstairs, but few people would walk down the ground. Or they could be pogonni. We only recently discovered Pogonny. We send a scientific review from Earth once a month. This means that we will send a team of inspectors to find out what happened to the people who did not return from the planet. Nice work, yes. Sometimes it's boring, they find broken idiots fallen from a mushroom tree or other high-rise plants, other times they find idiots with whom the tongue drank all the electrical impulses lying somewhere behind a tree, with the expression of a switched-off machine. Or they will find creatures roaming aimlessly, moving on all fours or bellies, with the blank gaze of a village jeliman. Pogonni probably doesn't think badly at first. They imitate their victim in size, shape, movement. It's a kind of cluster of cell clusters, I'd like to write unorganized, but it's not true. Pogonni are driven by a strong, hungry desire. Such a strong desire to be you when they take you away from you. After they gather into your shape, they travel behind you in your movement, along your path in your direction, and when you are not careful, they approach you and try to merge with you. In doing so, they will take away your personality, your soul, your intelligence, leaving you with a wandering box with no content. Isn't it death or is it?