Джора Байрамов
I am Earthman

CHAPTER 4

Returning

So an earthling after three hundred years of sleep, if the preservation of human flesh without change for a long time in a special bio-chamber, and then the restoration of the full work of all organs and all other physiological functions of the body can be called a dream, found himself again in near-Earth orbit. Seeing his native Land in such a state, he was so upset, so grieved and cried incessantly. Bitter tears flowed in sparkling drops and flowed down his pale cheeks, which had not yet been completely restored in colors. At the same time, he recalled the laughter of children, the singing of birds, the sounds of nature, animals, and in general, all his former Earthly life. The thought kept spinning in his head all the time: "God, have we, the people themselves, the owners of high intelligence, destroyed all this heavenly beauty ourselves. Was it really impossible to live just like that, enjoying earthly life, without enmity, amicably. Earth, dear forgive us, forgive us!". And the tears kept flowing and flowing down his still pale cheeks. The humanoids, who were alien to human feelings, did not understand all this and thought: "why is a person crying, because he himself remained alive"

The commander of the ship;

– Life on Earth is just beginning to emerge, it still takes the same amount of time for the planet Earth to recover and be suitable for biological life, while you were in the bio-chamber, we have visited other galaxies where there are planets in which there is biological life. But, having thoroughly investigated and studied them, at least somehow close to the Earth's conditions and, accordingly, for the existence of a person there, the planet was not found. Therefore, you will have to stay in a special bio-chamber for at least another three or four hundred years and wait for the restoration of certain conditions on Earth for the existence of biological life in it. Do you agree?

The man listened in silence at first. He didn't want to fly anywhere anymore. After so many years of separation and loneliness, the feeling of the proximity of his native planet gave him determination and strength, and he, being in Earth orbit, no longer felt lonely. Therefore, he confidently and resolutely answered firmly;

– Let me down to Earth, I can't and don't want to wait any longer, I just want to die on my home planet. If there are no conditions for life on Earth, I will die there. The earth gave birth to me and let it also kill me. I don't need to be persuaded. This is my last request to you and my final decision.

"So be it. This is your decision. We will leave you on Earth, just know that with your death, the human race may end. We can clone and create outwardly similar living beings to you, with artificially grafted minds that can be controlled and stopped at any time, forced to obey and obey us, so that they do not make such mistakes that you, the owners of the Earth, that is, earthlings, have made. And we will definitely populate the Earth with these clones, because we can't leave such a beautiful, blue, beautiful planet, in fact, we can say, perhaps, the only paradise for biologically living beings in the entire Universe that is not inhabited by living biological beings. But these artificially created biological beings, although they will look very similar to a person, will never be able to become them and fully replace a person who has a high, continuously and infinitely developing mind and with its incomprehensible, wonderful and alien feelings. Because no matter how hard our scientists will try, however, we will not be able to clone or recreate a very complicated, most mysterious human organ, that is, the human brain, until we can. So, it's not too late to reverse your decision. And during this time, we will study you comprehensively and in detail, without harm to your body, and our scientists will probably discover the secrets of your brain and mind, and on their basis will make new scientific developments for the restoration of a full-fledged human race. You will again become the masters of your own planet. We will help you.

The man did not answer, because after he decided to stay on Earth, it seems to him that there was no point in answering anymore. And it also seemed to him that the aliens were hiding something mysterious from him, but what they were hiding, he could not even guess or guess. However, he was no longer interested in what they were hiding from him and whatever it all meant, they could not stop him anymore. He firmly decided that if the human race ends with his death, then let it be so, you can't return the past, because humanity itself, endowed with high intelligence, having destroyed itself and the entire Earthly civilization, deserved it.

After that, the commander of the ship gave the command to study the Earth, scan and examine it in order to find at least some corner on Earth where there are at least minimal conditions for biological life and so that it would be possible to land it on the planet without much risk to human health. Scans and surveys have shown that many of the volcanoes that woke up during the thermonuclear war have died out. Some were still smoking and sometimes their fiery-hot breath still threw volcanic magma and ash to the surface of the Earth. Over the oceans and close to the ocean of the earth, there were still, at times, radiation acid rains, radiation at the sites of explosions of nuclear warheads and nuclear power plants was still several thousand times higher than the permissible norm. Due to the melting of glaciers, ocean waters filled all the lowlands of the continental parts of the planet and because of this, and mainly due to the forced and rapid displacement and subsidence of tectonic plates, all continents lost their former shape outlines. In all parts of the planet, many small and large islands have formed from continents. Antarctica, due to the melting of glaciers, was no longer half a glacial continent and also repeatedly decreased in size. The ozone layer around the Earth was preserved, the Sun's rays reached the Earth in many places, this meant the complete end of the nuclear winter on Earth. However, after the catastrophe, the Earth rotated around its axis a little faster than before, and the poles of the planet tilted slightly to the side, but the planet maintained its orbit around the Sun. A natural satellite of the Earth, the Moon was at the same distance and circled the Earth as before. These reports of the crew members and the conclusions made on the basis of these data were simultaneously telepathically transmitted to the human brain. And finally, they reported that they had found a place on the surface of the Earth where active biological life began to arise, where there was air, water and vegetation. The radiation was slightly higher than normal, but not harmful to human health, the average air temperature is about 18 degrees Celsius. But only the atmospheric pressure on earth is slightly below normal, that is, it was about 570 mm of mercury column and this point was indicated on the Earth's map. A person who knew the map of the earth well, although it changed beyond recognition after the thermonuclear catastrophe, easily identified this area. This point was located on the Altai Mountains. A day later, after the restoration of all the functions of the human body, a small, descending landing ship of aliens with a person on board separated from a large intergalactic research ship and delivered it to the specified point on Earth. This area was a large mountain plateau, surrounded on all sides by very high mountain ranges. The aliens wanted to leave him provisions, a spacesuit for emergencies, weapons and other necessary equipment. But he refused all this, he no longer needed anything, because he did not want to live alone anymore and preferred to die on his native, but for biological life, in fact, already unfit, in a dead planet. After so many years of separation, he, with tears in his eyes and with a double feeling, that is, on the one hand, indescribable with words of inner joy for returning home, and on the other, with a sense of guilt before the planet, for the destruction of his relatives of the earth's civilization, set foot on his native planet. The alien ship flew away, the Sun was shining as in the old days, and the sky was clear and clear, blue, blue, even without a single cloud. He looked around. Under my feet I saw small shoots of green grasses and large, by earthly standards, ants, who, like in the old days, did not even pay any attention to the appearance of a person, as always, all worked collectively. In order not to accidentally crush and frighten the ants, he tiptoed away from their ant-like path with a light step. He did not think and even in his thoughts did not allow that he would see shoots of green grasses and ants on the Earth, so he was so happy with what he saw that he even cried out: "hello, my native planet Earth, you are alive and I, your son, have returned home to you." Then he deeply and greedily, with all his lungs, breathed in the pure mountain air, kissed the earth. Then, as if by doing this he wanted to forget everything that had happened to him, he took off all the alien clothes and even shoes that had irritated his body and psyche for all these years, and rolled all these things into a ball, threw them in the direction of the stones sticking out next to him. Then he was barefoot, completely naked, and from the boundless joy that he had returned back to his native planet, he bounced around in circles on the grass, rejoiced, sang and danced. Still, a long stay outside the earth's atmosphere of the body made itself felt and from this a little exhausted and tired, he sat down on the ground, then lay down and lay on the shoots of green grasses. In a word, after a long separation, lying completely naked on the grass, with his whole body and soul, truly feeling all the mother's love, warmth, tenderness, and irreplaceability of his native planet on another and from the joy that he returned back, he closed his eyes for the first time, after many years of extraterrestrial life, mentally and physically so much relaxed, closed his eyes. A little later, lying under the sun's rays on the grass, despite the slightly cool, variable breeze, which, a little unpleasantly penetrated his naked body, as if, like a traveler who was very tired from a distant road, unnoticed by himself, he fell asleep in a real earthly, strong, human sleep. He did not know how long he had been asleep, but he woke up already a cheerful and truly happy person from the fact that after how many years of involuntary stay in a foreign land, he found himself back on his native Land and life was born everywhere, everywhere, and now, having seen all this, he no longer wanted to die. The sun was going down and he, in search of a place to sleep, and tomorrow, in order to calmly decide on the beginning of a new life, began to walk towards the mountain. All around it was visible how life on the planet was being born. Clean air, a small breeze, pleasant, gentle and warm weather, small shrubs, various herbs, but he did not meet any living creatures except ants on the way. Perhaps, in addition to ants, they survived a nuclear catastrophe, and then other species of living beings survived. But, as befits the initial instinctive behavior of the inhabitants of the entire living, wild world, they, perhaps from the moment when he landed on Earth, having smelled his smell, that is, having smelled the smell of their eternal enemy-man, instinctively fearfully hid somewhere near him or immediately left the local places. But even so, let it be so, as long as there are many living beings around. And then, when he finds a shelter in these places for himself to establish a new life, he will definitely see them and try in every possible way to protect them from trouble and even help them. So now he tried not to think about other surviving animals at all. He was so happy that after a forced and long extraterrestrial life, he again returned back to his origins, so now he just wanted to sing, shout, rejoice that life is being born again on his native Land, but suddenly, he stopped, froze, as if it was a dream, could not believe his eyes. Next to a large, high and smooth oval mountain stone, suddenly, eight meters away from him, right in front of him, as if a figure resembling him, a man, appeared out of the ground. He saw before him a tall, by earth standards, half-naked, apparently about twenty, twenty-five years old, a light-skinned, but black-haired girl who was holding a spear with a sharp stone tip ready in her hands, either ready to defend herself or attack him. From fear and surprise, he stopped and froze in place as if rooted to the spot. An incomprehensible, cold shiver of primitive instinctive fear ran through his entire body and he was even speechless for a short time. For some reason, at this time, only one thought was spinning in his head, the thought of the first woman on Earth, and he, unable to move from his place, without taking his eyes off her, even for himself unexpectedly, involuntarily and quietly, but quite audibly, muttering, said;

– Eva?

The girl looked at him in surprise and spoke in his own native language, quite clearly and clearly;

– How do you know me, you are not from our tribe and we have never met before. Who are you?

When he heard his native language, he came to himself a little, but still stuttering and very loudly;

"I… I … am from your tribe, I came in peace, I just left you a long time ago. I am infinitely happy that I have returned to my native places.

Then he, directing his eyes upwards and raising his hands, as if addressing the almighty, joyfully began to utter words of gratitude to God; Oh God, forgive us, your children, I will never, never leave my native Land created by you, because there is no other such planet in the entire Universe. Forgive all my fallen relatives.

The girl did not understand why, raising her hands up, this naked stranger was happy and shouting at the top of her voice, and she thought: "maybe this man is crazy, but, in any case, he does not pose a danger to her with his behavior." So thinking, she turned around and started to leave, because she needed to get at least some food for food by the evening. When he saw that the girl was leaving, he immediately fell silent, lowered his hands, following her with a confused look, at first he stood as if rooted to the spot, but after realizing that she was moving away from him, he stumbled after her, and on the run he turned to her;

– Please, girl, don't leave me here, I don't want to be alone anymore, please take me with you.

The girl stopped, and at first he approached her a little timidly, but at the same time a little shyly. She turned away and said;

–At least with something to cover up.

Only then did he realize that he was completely naked and blushed shamefacedly. She took out a battered, terribly smelling flap of skin cloth from a bag for collecting food and gave it to him. He somehow covered himself with this skin flap. After that, they went on together in silence, and came to a mountain spring, around which there were stunted trees and many different herbs. There, the girl, taking a stone knife in her hands, with the usual movement of her hands, excavated the earth around the spring, extracted earthworms and collected them in a small bag. He hung around her awkwardly, wanted to help her, but didn't know where to start. After that, she gathered fragrant green herbs around the spring. After collecting earthworms and green herbs, she sat down by the water, washed her hands, face and, looking at her reflection in the water, put her long hair in order. It was felt that the girl already feels awkward with a man. Then she filled another leather bag with water from the spring and gave the bag into his hands. When it was dark, they came to the cave where Eve lived. The entrance to the cave was small, the entrance opening was like a corridor, about three meters long, one and a half meters wide and two meters high. As we entered inside, it was felt that the cave itself is quite wide and the ceiling is high. In the middle of the cave, around a small black stone, a light smoldered. Eva put dry twigs on the fire, quickly built a fire. And then, by the light of the fire, he saw that in the middle of the black stone on top there was a natural, smooth, oiled dimple that served as a cauldron for cooking hot food. When the stone was warmed up, Eve cooked hot food from worms and greens in its dimple and put the food into a stone cup with a wooden spoon. Eva, putting the wooden spoon to the side, began to eat food with her hands and at the same time made a tin in his direction, "eat". Only after that, he also began to eat with his hands, like Eve. They ate in silence. It seemed to him that he had never eaten such delicious food. He could hardly believe that he was seeing all this in reality, and not in a dream. He shed tears of joy and almost cried.

After finishing the meal, Eva asked;

– What is your name, stranger?

– Call me Adam.

– Why "call me Adam". Isn't that your real name?

He blushed because he was lying. His name wasn't Adam, but no matter how hard he tried to remember his real name, he couldn't do it. At times, and then for very short moments, he remembered only the good-natured face of his mother. Every time he remembered his mother's face, the same picture appeared before his eyes, as his mother addressed him and began his name with the letter " A " a, then only the movement of her lips without a sound. Even when he was with the aliens, he thought that this amnesia of his memory would never pass, that he would never again remember his name, his loved ones, and always, and then for a very short time, only the tender and kind face of his mother would appear before his eyes. When the aliens brought him to Earth, he could not even imagine that he would meet a living person here, especially a woman named Eva. Now, having met her, that is, the earthly Eve, he also wanted to become Adam, that is, the first man-man after the thermonuclear catastrophe. Therefore, he quickly regained control of himself and replied;

"That's my real name. I don't have another name.

The girl looked at him suspiciously and continued to ask questions;

–When we met, you said that you are from our tribe and speak our language, but why have I never seen you, and you are small in height, not like us, and your name sounds somehow not like ours. Where do you live, how did you get to these places?

At first, he did not know how to answer this question of the girl, because more than three hundred years have passed since he, after a nuclear disaster, involuntarily left the Earth. During this time, everything has changed on Earth. He is an ordinary person, like other former earthlings, of average height. And it can be, most likely, it has become high, perhaps due to a decrease in atmospheric pressure on Earth after a nuclear disaster, or because of the long-term influence of an increased dose of radiation on the body of its ancestors, which then echoed on their descendants. According to the definition of the eye, her height was about two and a half meters and compared to his own height, at one meter eighty, she looked like a giant. But, for obvious reasons, he could not say all this now and would explain it to her. All that he thinks about this, leaving for later, he replied;

–It's just that since I left you, I was in very distant places and I didn't feed as important as here, so I probably became small in stature.

–After all, why don't I remember you, you look only a little older than me, or did you leave very young when I was very young, who were your parents, where are they now?

–Yes, yes, I was very young, I almost don't remember my parents and relatives, they are no more. And I don't have a place to live. I am lonely, I lived far from these places, I got lost in search of food and accidentally ended up here. I ask you, if you can, to shelter me for a while. I'll leave later, I won't be a burden to you.

The girl looked at him again and thought that this man did not pose any danger to her from the look and conversation. Moreover, when she saw his pale, pitiful state, she thought, "poor guy, probably really fed is not important" and replied;

– Stay, you're not bothering me. But, you will get your own food yourself.

"I'll do anything if you don't send me away."

She didn't press him any further. After these conversations, he began to explore the cave with curiosity. It was a large karst cave. He could only see the part where the light from the fire fell. It was felt that the cave was very large in size, deep and long in length. The shelter of Eve reminded the shelter of the life of primitive people.

Eve, noticing this;

–I still don't know where the end of this cave is. My ancestors have lived here since time immemorial. When I was still a little girl, I learned from the conversations of my elders and remembered that somewhere far down there is a large underground lake and one end of the lake opens into an open area surrounded by a high mountain with steep, smooth rocks, and that it is impossible to go up and out of the cave from inside the cave. They said that there, the mountain, with the inside, supposedly resembles an open dome a little bit and only the blue sky is visible from the open part of the dome, and at night the stars are visible. And, in that lake there are all kinds of animals that smell terribly, and our distant ancestors, that is, cavemen, once lived there. I've never been down there myself.

– And, where are your parents and the rest of the people?

–They are no longer alive, they are all dead.

After being silent for a while, she continued with a sad tone;

–My mother's name was Elena, my father's name was uncle Kolya. I got the name Eva in honor of my grandmother, who died shortly before I was born. Our tribe was small, I never counted the number of people. Everyone knew everyone by sight and by name. This is not the main thing, the main thing is that people were close, lived together, got food together, children were friends, played together, rejoiced, had fun. It seemed to me that this would go on forever, because my parents were there, many children and their parents, other people. But there was a disaster. It was a long time ago. Once, when I was still a little girl, that is, I just learned how to collect worms and herbs, I got sick. My mother said that it was a cold and would pass quickly, I just needed to lie down. That's why they left me alone in the cave that day. The others all went to get food. It was everyone's daily work. The children also went to help the elders, collect worms and herbs. The mothers took the infants with them. The male hunters also did not go hunting that day, but left together with everyone. As usual, when everyone left to get food, in the evening, and sometimes even earlier, but they always returned to the cave. But none of them came back that day. I was terribly scared and that night I did not close my eyes, waiting for the return of my mother, father and other people. Three more days and three nights passed, but they did not return. I was very hungry, because I had already eaten the food that my mother left me the day they left. Then, although I was very ashamed of my actions at that time, I fed on the leftovers and food supplies of others, drank water, no longer fresh, but unpleasant-smelling, from the water supply, stored in special leather bags just in case. All this time, although I was afraid to stay alone in the cave, I was also very afraid to leave the cave. I was afraid I wouldn't find them and would get lost like them. And I was also very afraid of losing the fire, my only protection from the dark forces, and I supported it in every possible way day and night. In those distant times, when I was left alone, there were still enough coal reserves collected by our fathers, and therefore I did not present any special difficulties for me as now. Although I was still a little girl, I remember well the day when all our people left and never came back. The day was sunny, bright and warm, but after a while after they left, a strong hurricane wind suddenly blew, dark clouds suddenly appeared in the sky, it quickly darkened around, and then a heavy downpour poured. I went to the exit of the cave and saw how the earth boiled during a downpour. The old people said that earlier, too, sometimes, once every two years, there were such rains, after which the worms and herbs died out, and then after a while they reappeared. Such times, and not only such times, and sometimes as needed, as our grandfathers, old men and our grandmothers told us, that is, children, male hunters went down into the depths of the cave and extracted terribly smelling animals from the lake and we fed on them. Our mothers made bags for collecting food and clothes from the skin of these creatures. And the fat of these animals, for cooking in winter and for a torch, was stored in a stone pit covered with a blanket made from their own skin. I will show you this pit later, there is still a lot of fat stored there and the fat has not yet deteriorated. So, since then I have been living alone. As I have already said, at first, that is, the first time when I was left alone, I was very afraid to leave the cave, and then, gradually, the fear was replaced by the need to find food, feed and survive, and I began, at first fearfully, and then more and more boldly, coming to the spring. This is the spring you saw where we collected food. The spring comes out directly from the belly of the mountain, slightly deepened inside, and perhaps that is why, even in winter, despite the fierce frosts, it does not freeze. The water was clean then, as clean as it is now. I drank only water from the spring every day and chewed skin flaps with an unpleasant smell, there was no other food. Sitting by the spring for a long time, I cried every day and waited for my parents, my friends and other people, but they were not there, as if they all fell through the ground at once. Coming to the spring in the morning and spending days at the spring, I returned to the cave every day in the evening, and then putting pieces of coal in the fire so that it would not go out, I hid between the stones and fell asleep there. I was so scared and lonely, but none of them ever came back. Especially at night, I was afraid of the dark part of the cave, as if dark forces from my mother's fairy tales were about to come out of there and take me deep into the cave, then to take over my soul. But this did not happen, and the fear gradually also passed. The worms appeared quickly. Maybe not all the worms died out, and I started feeding on them. After a while, herbs appeared around the spring. So the days passed, and I gradually, although it was very difficult for me to accept the fate that fell to my lot, but I got used to being alone and to surviving in these difficult conditions. When I became an adult, I went around everything and then I found out that when that bad day began a strong bitter downpour, all the people of my tribe were hiding in a small cave located just below, not far from the spring. But there they were all covered by a dirty mudflow formed after that bitter rain and they all died there. None of them escaped. When I went into this cave, I saw their bones there. That's how I've been living alone ever since. To this day, as if it were yesterday, I remember the last, tender look of my mother before leaving and as if I hear her, soothing my soul, tender words. I also remember my friend Sissy. She wanted to stay with me so much that day, but her mother took her with her, telling her "you will play with Eva in the evening when we return". Here, the Sissy would have stayed with me that day, even if she had also been alive.

Here Eva paused, then continued;

– Fortunately, there were no more such bitter rains, only sometimes there are good rains, after which there are more worms and herbs. But, still, when it starts to rain, I am very afraid and quickly hide.

From her stories about bitter rains, he realized that it was about acid rain. It was obvious that remembering all this, Eva was very sad, but she held firm and did not cry. And he was also very surprised inwardly how, after so many years, the girl preserved her language and culture of communication at a very high level, because she lived and lives in the conditions of primitive man's life, for a long time, that is, from an early age, she did not communicate with anyone, lived and survived alone. Interrupting his thoughts, he asked;

–Who were your ancestors, how did they get here? Are there other people, tribes still nearby?

– The old men of our tribe told us that there is a mountain gorge behind these mountain ranges. A small river flows through the gorge. There, on the bank of the river, once lived a large tribe of people who once separated from our tribe and formed a separate settlement. It was said that they built houses out of trees on the river bank, hunted and lived there. But according to the stories of our hunters, they were often attacked and eaten by huge predatory animals, two or even three times taller than a person. They called them brown bears and said that they were so strong that it was useless to fight with them or even defend against them somehow, that it was impossible to kill them with a spear or an axe. According to the stories of the elders, these bears cannot cross the ridges of the mountains and therefore, when we are and live here in a cave, we are worried that they will come here, do not. That's why I've never seen these bears myself. I remember that the older ones still said that there was only one narrow path in the mountains, sometimes our hunters used it to go down and make their way into the gorge to hunt fish, and from there they also brought sticks for our axes and spears. According to their own stories, there are big trees growing there, there is always live food in the river, and for the same reason our tribe once divided. Whether any of those people remained alive, if even they remained, then whether they remained there, or moved somewhere later, where they now live, I do not know. At first, when I met you, I thought that you were one of those people. And who our ancestors were, I do not know, I have not heard stories about it, only once I was told that they lived for a long time in the depths of this cave and said that this is why they called themselves cave people. And I also know that there is a walled-up place in the cave, where, according to our people, the things of our distant ancestors who lived in the cave at that time are stored. The elders said that these things would someday tell us about our origin, and while we do not know how to handle these things, all of us were forbidden to go there. When I was left alone, I didn't even think about it and almost forgot about it.