"I am the Keeper of the memory of my people. You humans and others call us shamans. But we do not conjure spirits, we do not knock on tambourines — we preserve the memory of our people for all the time of its existence."

"And for how long? How old is your story?" I asked quietly.

"More than one hundred and ten thousand of your years."

"How much?"

"Are you surprised?" Vorka rasped softly.

"But you're considered savages. Aggressive, uncontrollable, violent. Your gangs are scaring children. Your homeworld is a radioactive dump. Some people even consider you to be animals, not intelligent!"

"Let them count. We did it on purpose to hide. Look away from us."

"Whose look is it?"

Vorka looked at me carefully, tilting his head first to one side and then to the other.

"You KNOW THAT!"

"THE REAPERS!" I whispered, and a cold and heavy lump formed in my stomach.

"That's what the Protheans called them. We just call them the ENEMY."

"How will you show me and how will you explain?"

Old man Vorka, for some reason I clearly realized that he was old, sat down next to me, on the bike seat, and asked:

"What do you know about Asari's "embrace of eternity"?"

"They unite the consciousness. The thoughts, feelings, and memories of the intelligent become temporarily shared."

"That's not quite true," he squeaked. "In the case of unification with other races, contact is one-sided, the Asari see you, but you don't see them. Unless they want to show something of their own."

"And you?"

"We call it "togetherness" and we are open. All Guardians of all Vork clans can use the common memory of the people and the memory of each other, combined into one whole. By connecting others, we don't hide anything, so we try not to associate with strangers."

"Like computer networks."

"The comparison is correct. We can connect you to our memory for a while and give you the necessary knowledge."

"Will my memory be available to you?"

"Yes, it will. Do you have something special you want to hide?"

"No! There is nothing like that — you already know my most important secret. It's just not clear how you recognized her!.."

"There used to be people like you. The knowledge of at least three people like you is stored in the common memory, and one of them was among our people. He was the one who taught us how to create a shared memory-he was the first Keeper. He was the one who taught us how to create a shared memory-he was the first Keeper. He taught us how to identify people like you. He led us to the stars and found out about the ENEMY! That was a hundred and ten thousand years ago. He lived a very long life, and the memory of him still lives in the people. Do you agree?"

"Yes, I agree! Such gifts are not refused. What do I need to do?"

"Just look into my eyes."

I looked and fell into a living, intelligent abyss shining with myriads of stars. He showed me and told me a lot.: how to cope with the sensitivity of an empath, regulate it, how to work with his memory, showed the history of his people. And at the very end, I asked him,

"Can you show THEM to me?"

"Do you want to see the ENEMY?"

"Yes, I do! I want to know what awaits us!"

"Look."

I found myself among the ruins, the sun was not visible, dense gray clouds flew and swirled across the dark sky. Strange creatures in equally strange armor stood and sat around, hiding behind the rubble. In their six-fingered hands, they clutched something that looked like a weapon — most likely, it was. Anxiety and fear were mixed in their feelings. Everyone was looking at the sky. And from there, some kind of huge shadow was descending on us. The clouds swirled, reddish lightning bolts appeared, and a huge black bulk fell out of the low clouds.

Six thick paws extended from the outstretched body in front. The carcass sank lower and lower — I realized with horror the monstrous size of this car. The REAPER, and it could only be him, spread his paws and landed at incredible speed. The ground jumped under my feet, and I saw many people collapse around me. The REAPER straightened up, and a low, vibrating roar filled the area. He seemed to penetrate into every corner of my body, every cell seemed to vibrate in sync with him. I was flooded with wild animal HORROR! The reaper moved forward, slowly shifting its paws, it approached us with cold relentlessness. The sentient beings around them jumped up and began shooting, thin ruby rays hissing out of the outlandish weapon and disappearing on the surface of the mechanical creature. The reaper stopped, turned its body slightly, and a thick crimson beam shot out from the base. He moved along the rubble, and the hefty blocks of stone simply spread out in bubbling puddles at his touch. The sensible ones just disappeared with pops. The beam came up to the wreckage I was hiding behind, and everything was flooded with red light.

I woke up, there was a square of our town around, next to it stood Listening to the Stars and looking at me sadly.

"Now you know what awaits us!"

"This is the third time your people will see this! How do you live with it? After all, you are empaths, you feel everything that happens!"

All the air seemed to have been drained from the old man, he hunched over, lowered his gaze and whispered:

"We don't see a way out yet! We don't see how we can defeat the ENEMY!"

He turned and shuffled off towards the ore truck.

"The Guardian!" I shouted. "If events turn out the way you saw in my memory, if I need help, can I ask your people for it?"

Vorka shuddered and stood for a while. Then he straightened up, squared his shoulders, and looked around.

"If that's the case, and you call us..." His eyes seemed to glow. "We will come to you and stand by your side!"

Looking at his back, I thought. Would people have been able to deliberately drop their entire race from the heights of civilization into complete and utter barbarism with their own hands? Turn the race into astronauts and explorers, — diggers and bandits? And all in order to win someday?

What remains in my memory is how the Reaper platforms, when they came to the Hashtog, saw only the destroyed and abandoned orbital infrastructure and rabid hordes of savages hacking at the surface for everything. The monsters left without touching Vork. But smart machines have not been able to sense how closely they are being watched from the surface by a similar, but only organic mind. I have seen how for thousands of years Vork has been searching for the mysterious Center — the heart of the machine mind. They're looking for him and they can't find him, and there aren't even any clues as to where he is. But the Keepers showed me exactly what it is. And it wasn't a Citadel. Through the eyes of the Guardians, I saw the full power of the station's mind, but at the same time, its absolute subordination to someone else. And the Reapers themselves are just platforms controlled from the outside, completely devoid of independence, scary, powerful... and yet pitiful slaves. The old man was leaving, and it became crystal clear to me: the Harvest was waiting for me, and there was no way to escape or hide. My new childhood is over, now I have to evaluate my every action from the outside. To calculate how he will help me in the future, whether he will strengthen me or weaken me. I wanted to hide somewhere and just howl with longing and fear! She climbed onto the seat with her legs, wrapped her arms around her knees, put her head on them and just sat there, not noticing the tears flowing down her cheeks.

Our people came out of the store in a noisy crowd, came up, looked at me. There was anxiety in their feelings.

"What's wrong, Little Fox?" Deniska asked, sitting down next to him.

"Did someone hurt you?" that's Ham.

"I offended myself," I replied, smiling through my tears.

"Everything is a damn empathy, a damn gift!" My father muttered.

"It's not about her, Daddy! I just wanted to cry. And there won't be any more problems with empathy. They helped me solve the problem."

"Who?!" The whole company stared at me in surprise.

"I was asked not to tell, and I promised to keep quiet!"

"That's right... you can't leave alone for half an hour, you've already met someone, you've made promises to someone," Leshka rattled.

"You must keep your word!" raising his finger sententiously, he said.

"You're just like a Tanris master. Put your hand behind your back, too," and everyone laughed.

Chapter 6-2. Date

June 10, 2360

Deniska's voice pulled me out of my memories.

"Little fox, let's fly up. We're doing everything as agreed. Are you okay?"

"The best of all!" I get up on the seat and kiss my brother on the cheek. "Don't do anything stupid yourself!"

"No way!"

We sit down behind the store, Vaska and I take seats against its wall and wait. About ten minutes later, we hear footsteps and some kind of rattling. I look around the corner and see a young Turian woman dressed in a short jumpsuit skirt and a white T-shirt with a picture of the face of some creepy critter. She walks thoughtfully down the path, wearing sandals, but that doesn't stop her from kicking an empty plastic beer can in front of her. Her gaze is fixed into the distance, detached and thoughtful. Vaska and I hide around the corner and start giggling with our hands over our mouths.

"Shhh!" Deniska hisses at us. "Be quiet, you'll scare me off!" He comes over and also looks around the corner. A second later, he hides, looks at us, a malicious smile on his lips. "You're as accurate as ever, Foxi! Another lover. She's coming out now, and your party begins. Vasenka, make a serious face! Foxi, I'm counting on you! That's it, let's go."

The first part of the plan went like clockwork. Under Vasya's and my double pressure, Noverry gave up after two minutes. Our blue one put her on her bike, we all flew together to the Rinaris for a swimsuit for the turianka, and we warned her parents that she would be with us in the Mirror.

We arrived at the lake. There was already a table, blankets, and a steaming cauldron on the heater. All our noisy crowd of small fry were shouting and chasing a ball through the shallow water. There was no sign of Ham.

Tamil stood on the shore and looked after the younger ones. Tamil stood on the shore and looked after the younger ones. He turned around, saw us, green eyes flashed, raised his hand. He turned around, saw us, green eyes flashed, raised his hand.

"Hello everyone again! Hey, Noverry!"

"Hello, Tam," the Turian replied. There was confusion mixed with curiosity in her feelings. She looked around, looking for someone.

"Noverry, Noverry! Look at the mud crabs we caught!" The younger ones ran up in a noisy group.

"Come on, we'll show you," Gina says and takes Noverry's hand.

"Yes, yes! We'll show you!" Naina takes her other hand.

"Let's go quickly!" Vanka shouts, jumping up.

"They're so big, and they have claws — vo!" the younger one shows a fishing gesture.

Noverry laughs, changes her clothes and goes to watch the catch. He's in shallow water, in a netted dish.

The bike is humming, Hem is back, a hefty bouquet strapped to the seat behind him. He gets off the bike, unfastens the bouquet and goes to the water. The feelings are confusion, determination, and a little bit of fear.

Noverry turns around, sees Hem and smiles, he smiles back at her, but inside there is real panic. The girl approaches, without taking her eyes off her brother. He hesitates, standing at the water's edge.

"Hello, Haymon."

"Hello, Neverry. I flew to the foothills here.... Well, anyway... you are... here."

"What's that? Ham?"

"This is for you!" says the brother and hands her a bouquet.

"Thank you," the girl replies softly.

It's getting late. I'm sitting cross-legged on the bedspread, and Vasya is sitting next to me. We look at Hem and Noveri walking along the shore, they are holding hands and talking quietly about something. The Turian has a fluffy wreath on her head, which we wove for her from her own bouquet. Their feelings are like the sea — I'm rocking on them, I'm sitting and enjoying myself with my eyes closed. Deniska sits down between us, hugs Vaska and me, and says softly:

"We did well! Yes, girls?"

"Yeah! Well done!" I answer.

Vasya is silent, she rests her head on her brother's shoulder and is quietly sad.

"Let's get ready! It's going to get dark soon, and we haven't even cleaned up the trash yet." This is Deniska speaking. In about fifteen minutes, having collected everything and fixed it on the bikes, we are going home. Noverry gets on the bike to Hem, he will take her himself. Saying goodbye, we fly away.

It's completely dark, and I'm sitting on the fence outside my house, looking up at the sky. It's bright and starry here. There are two moons, but they are both much smaller than the earth's. One is bluish, the other is bright yellow. A shadow flickers and a growing buzz is heard. Hem has arrived, ahead of him flies a feeling of happiness, joy and some kind of ... inspiration. A real storm! He puts the bike next to me, and I jump off the fence and sit next to him. He turns around.

"Saw her off?"

"Yes!"

"How did everything go?"

"You know, I told her everything...."

"Have you confessed?"

"Yes! And she said that too!.."

My brother scoops me up in his arms and hugs me to him. I hug him back.

"Thank you, Little Fox! You're the best I've got!"

"You're welcome, Hame."

"I feel like it's going to be an unforgettable summer!" he says and starts laughing.

Chapter 7.1 The grandfather.

Eugene (Mendoir, August 2360)

Admirals of the Fleet

August 4, 6:00 a.m.

Morning workout is our everything. It's been raining outside for a week now, everything is wet and damp, my father put away his bike, and flies to work on the family flyer. Such weather is rare on Mendoir in summer. It usually rains at night, although it is heavy, but it is short, and by morning it is almost dry. But sometimes a cyclone creeps over a rocky ridge, and then it pours until it all pours out, sometimes for two weeks. This is exactly the case now, and we are all sitting at home together, it's good that we have a big company, we don't get bored. It's quite stuffy at home from the dampness, I opened both vents and the front door, and I'm still sweating mercilessly from the stuffiness. Deniska is panting in the foyer of the second floor, studying in the front garden now is like torture, he almost slurps from the water, like a swamp.