Uncle Duck was scribbling on his datapad, taking pictures with his camera, 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, even voice.

"Ham, calm down, relax. You're stressed, 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 Vaska on the brothers? Of course, you can't forget that!" Ham burst out laughing.

"Yes. 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 animals of the earth, and everyone wondered how you knew so many of them."

"Here. And now — close your eyes! Closed it?"

"Yes, I did."

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

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

"I imagined, here's one that looks like... what's his name... and 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?!"

"You're sailing, Ham, you're sailing."

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

"Little fox, let's go deep," Ham said softly.

"Won't you be scared?"

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

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 just above 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 great to swim! Almost like flying!"

"Let's swim to the exit, Ham. You've had enough for today."

"Whatever you say, Zhen."

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

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

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

"Why?"

"Because I know of no other empaths, neither among humans, nor Asari, nor, especially, among Turians. I haven't even heard of their existence, and you alone can't teach an entire race."

"But the guys overcame their fear on their own! I only helped them!"

"No, Zhenya, 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 could 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 all the others... 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. He'll only draw unnecessary attention to you. Let's go home, Zhenya."

When they returned, the whole group went to the Tanir's house. Nain rushed to Kaadi from the doorway, barely taking off her shoes.

"Mom, Mommy! She did it, she did it! They swam both Hame and There, it's so cool! Really, Mommy?!"

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

At the same time, the Tamil assumed a proud pose, like a Roman senator, folded his arms on his chest and, looking into space, declared:

"Yes, Mother, I have learned to swim!"

Ham just went up to his mother and, looking at her with completely happy eyes, said in a low voice:

"Mommy, this is 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,

"Good boy, son."

"It's not me, Mom, it's all her, our Zhenya!"

We are sitting at the kitchen table, drinking erg (a kind of Turian fruit tea) with buns. Kaadi looks lovingly at us all, devouring rolls with both cheeks, and at the gloomy, thoughtful Dakar, frozen like a statue with a bun in one hand and a cup of erg in the other, staring into space with unseeing blue eyes.

"Have you made a report, Dakar?"

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

"Yes, Kaadi, but it's pointless to send it."

"Why?"

"Because we don't have another Eugenia Shepard. Neither with us, nor with anyone else. And without her, the whole idea is a waste of time. I decided not to draw the attention of our hierarchs, or even the Asari matriarchs, to her. If the information comes out (and it will!)... this is not at all what Zhenya needs now, or in the future either."

"Won't she 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 think I even blushed....

"Come on, nonsense! You're friends, and we do everything we can for friends. That's what my daddy says."

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

The doorbell rings from the hallway, and Ham and Tam get up from the table and run into the hallway. There is a hissing of doors and Deniska's loud voice.

"Well? Is there a movement?"

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

"Honestly?" It's already Leshkin's voice. "Well, the beauties! Ah-ah-ah! Well done! Take five, bro!"

clapping of hands and loud friendly laughter of four guys can be heard. Thin arms wrap around her neck, and Nain's hard, hot cheek is pressed against her cheek:

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

"Yes, let's go."

January 01, 2359, 1:15 a.m.

I look out the window, it's snowing again. Large, soft snowflakes, slowly swirling, cover everything around with a fluffy white blanket. So we celebrated the beginning of the new fifty-ninth year. Shouting and laughing, they ran around our Christmas tree, set off fireworks, lit torches and sang songs. It was easy, and I was possessed by a kind of gentle serenity. It's been a week since I stopped having my scary dream. 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! He picked up the handle, though it grew, but it was quite in my hand. Kaadi must have helped. The slightly curved, black metal blade, 12-13 centimeters long, had an intricate pattern of thin silver lines that curled closer to the guard into an inscription in Turian: "claw". The handle has a comfortable grip, made of reddish polished wood. At the end 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. We are used to this, Mendoir is a young colony, and everyone is armed here: both children and adults. Five 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, it's a battery-powered railgun with ten charges in a clip, 10 mm bullets, conical, with notches.

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 hit, the bullet crumples into a pancake with a diameter of 20-22 mm, and I personally saw how such a bullet broke a fifty-board. There is no need to explain what will happen to the same snuff from the impact of two or three 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 children. I wonder what the advocates of the ban on the possession of weapons of the population in that Russia from a previous life would have responded to this.... Time is passing, and in three months I will be five years old, four of which I remember completely. What will the new year bring me? We'll see. As they say, we'll chew and see.

Chapter 5. So different and so close.

Eugene (Mendoir, June 2360)

The 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, my older brother has been torturing himself in the morning. This is called preparation for admission to the cadet corps of the Alliance Air Force. Boys and girls between the ages of fourteen and twenty are accepted there, and they are chased in the tail and in the mane. Those who have gone through to the end 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 follow in his father's footsteps, gnawing on naval science.

Slow movements of the arms and legs, flexibility exercises, weights on the arms and legs have long been familiar to me, sweat is running down my back in a cold stream. A voice with a pleasant double sub-harmony is heard from the street — Ham has come! Now the boys will run away for the morning cross-country, five kilometers along the forest paths. My best friends, rivals, and ringleaders of all the pranks in the town are my siblings and sworn brothers. They are standing, laughing, flashing white smiles in the morning sun. The gate slammed, they ran away.

I sit cross-legged in the middle of the room, placing a box of colored glass balls in front of me. A small emotional shield banishes morning languor, makes the mind clear and clean. Reaching out with consciousness to the stream of power spread around, the dark stream penetrates into consciousness, fills the body with a hum, makes the nerves ring like strings, a barely visible blue-green halo flashes around the body. I look at the balloons, making them fly up one by one and circle around the room. Now all the balls are spinning around me, coiling into a spiral. The main thing is to stay focused. I carefully monitor my feelings for each of them, a moment of loss of concentration can result in all the balls falling to the floor. And yes, I am a biotic after all... and this is on my long-suffering head.

It came out a month ago. That day, my father decided to replace the seal on the window in my room: the old one had cracked and started leaking. He brought a folding ladder from work, put it against the house — it was 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, hugging a Bars and a Polkan, right on the grass. We had a plein air — our artist and I painted Nain from life. Although the difference between my work and Gina's is like the difference between propaganda posters and Raphael's work. I just got a Turian girl hugging a cat and a dog, and Gina's looks like they're alive, just frozen for a moment: the Barsik squinting with pleasure, Polkan raising his head and opening his mouth, spreading his paws, exposing his light belly, his eyes rolled back, and a pink snake came out of his mouth. His tongue lolled out.

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 by the pressure drop, and his father could not hold it. I clearly realized that if my father fell, a double-glazed window would crash on top of him, and it was scary to even think about how it might 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 ancient and powerful. 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 shone faintly but clearly, even in the light of day, 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 outlet, and I, not knowing what to do next, pushed it into the sky. 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.