Path book 1 Jane. chapter 8-1

Eugene (Mendoir, September 2360)

Grandpa

So the new school year started, but the girls and I didn't go to school. We only went to the mnemograph, the rest of the time we spent fishing or hunting. Grandfather bought us three light carbines and taught us how to hunt. The compact and lightweight 6.5 mm carbine, weighing only 1.5 kilograms, was incredibly convenient in hunting "mukliks", so named for their characteristic sounds. In the foothills, you could often hear their "kli-kli-mukli-kli-kli-mukli" and see their ears sticking out of the grass. The animals are extremely cautious, and they only let themselves within 300-400 meters. If you get closer, they hide in holes, and those are like a maze, all the hills are covered with them. So you have to shoot from four hundred meters, and from that distance you can still hit a small target.... But, as my grandfather says, "You have to teach a reasonable person to shoot, and the sooner the better." So he took the three of us into his fold, and we spent two weeks at the city shooting range, where grandfather taught us how to shoot, take care of weapons, properly load and unload, calibrate bullets, and monitor battery charge. In general, I fully taught the lessons of marksmanship. In general, he taught us the lessons of marksmanship to the fullest.

"Remember, girls! The main thing in marksmanship is not an eye or a sharp eye, although they are, of course, also important. The main thing is endurance and proper breathing. You have to feel yourself, watch your breathing, and then no goal will escape you. A real sniper is always calm when shooting — everything around him can collapse, explode and go crazy, but the shooter must be able not to be distracted by this. When hunting, you should not let the excitement capture you — the beast feels your desire to kill it, starts to get nervous, and this can cause a miss. Be calm — imagine that you are a grass, a bush, a tree. You're impassive, but you keep a sharp eye on your prey. A shot and the prize is yours!

At first, I didn't do well, but then I figured out how to use an average emotional shield. In general, the Guardians had three forms of emotional defense. Small shield — protects you from weak and medium emotional outbursts from the outside, stabilizes consciousness, allows you to concentrate better, but does not block your own emotions, it can be worn constantly without noticeable consequences. The average emotional shield completely blocks external emotions and greatly blunts one's own, cleanses consciousness, sharpens perception, facilitates memory work, but it is very tiring, and the strength to maintain it quickly runs out. Well, the last one is a full shield. This is not even a defense, but a way of controlling consciousness, when a reasonable person turns into a living machine. He feels other people's emotions, but stops reacting to them, his mind sharpens to the limits impossible under normal conditions. Perception accelerates, reaction time and decision-making decrease — you turn into a living supercomputer capable of solving complex equations and complex problems with great speed, a kind of "mentat" from Herbert's "Dune". Cold, cruel, calculating and, if necessary, absolutely ruthless. Unfortunately, this method had a flaw — a flaw that did not allow a reasonable person to use it all the time. This is a rollback!

The first time, I used a full shield to prevent a brewing fight between classes — in our school, the ninth and tenth grades decided to sort out the relationship in this way. My appearance scared not only the pretty grown-up guys, but also the teachers. As Nain said, "Your eyes have become like two laser sights— cold and scary. Like a droid. It was impossible to look into them...". At that time, I simply crushed the elders with logic and a look, then I moved away from the silent brawlers and took off the shield.... How I was overwhelmed! Mixing laughter and tears, I threw a natural tantrum in the corner and only five minutes later calmed down in the arms of Rien Vais.

The teacher carried me to class in her arms, calling the high school students "brainless varren" along the way. Then they came to apologize for their unworthy behavior, the whole crowd. After all, the Turian method of clarifying relationships was cultivated at school: there are complaints — welcome to the gym in the ring, find out there, and do not arrange an ugly mass brawl at school. And it worked great with all kinds of intelligent school students. Humans, Asari, Turians, Batarians, and Drells all found this way of resolving claims quite appropriate, if, of course, the verbal arguments ended.

So, I covered myself with the middle shield — and I did it. The lightweight and comfortable carbine, with low recoil and good 2x optics, allowed me to shoot 95 out of 100 at a 150-meter range and hit the "muks" from four hundred meters. Nain was doing well too. Our artist is not shining yet, and anyway, she has plenty of other advantages. She doesn't like hunting, she feels very sorry for the animals, even to the point of tears. Her grandfather does not force her, on the contrary, he teaches her to notice various subtleties in nature, to see nuances with her artistic perception. She sees details that we don't even notice. Gina just fell in love with her grandfather, and the old admiral reciprocated the love of the little Batarian, calling her, like us, his granddaughter and responding when she calls him grandfather. Natoli is simply shocked by the behavior of the strict admiral! And I'm glad — I feel like Arthur just got younger inside, what a cheerful fire his eyes are burning.

An avid hunter and fisherman, he received a huge patrimony on Mendoir to realize his passion. And even if you can't hunt on the plains, hunting in the foothills, for snuffles and mukliks, is quite enough to satisfy a hobby. I remember a recent conversation between him and my grandmother, where they decided to stay with us on a permanent basis.

"Archie, tell me, are you so eager to participate in local life... aren't you going home?"

"Tell me, Liv... tell me, what awaits us on Earth?"

"Well... we have a house there. Where we lived for many years and where our children grew up."

"Olivia, but it's empty! There's not even a cat in it. And here we have everything! So what have we forgotten on Earth? Longing? Loneliness? What?! Olivia, look at you! It's like you've lost twenty years, you've blossomed, you're glowing! Why should we leave here? We don't even have any friends left on Earth! What about our house? Back on Earth... What will happen to him?"

"And what about the house? It's just a pile of rocks, it's useless without tenants."

"We'll hire a company to keep an eye on you, because you don't even have flowers there, Liv!"

"So, are we staying?"

"Yes, Liv, I'm in favor of staying! Do you agree with me?"

"You old fool! Of course, I agree! But, Arthur, where are we going to live?"

"Liv, our savings are enough to buy a whole city here, not like a small house across the street."

"Arthur, there's no house there!"

"So we'll put it on!"

Since then, the house of my grandfather and grandmother has been standing in front of our house. And grandfather, with all his fervor, is engaged in its arrangement, attracting us all little by little. Gina and I draw pictures that my grandfather puts on the walls. Nain embroider small pillows, which grandfather laid out on sofas and armchairs. The boys brought live perennial flowers from the foothills, and grandma planted them in pots, placing them on the windowsills. Kaadi and mom went to Gagarin, and there, in a shop with an Azari, they bought very beautiful curtains. Grandma, in company with Ray, arranged flower beds, and now she has a flower garden no worse than our doctor's.

My soul is just singing! If there is happiness, then here it is, around me, I can touch it with my hands!

We're lying in the grass, on a slope. At a distance of about six hundred meters from us is Muklik hill, I practice long-range shooting. But now the calculator is disabled, and I'm learning to shoot on my own. My grandfather is lying on the left, holding a monocular rangefinder in his hands. Nain is on the right, holding army binoculars. Gina is sitting in the back, about three meters away, and what is in her hands? That's right, the album! The hill is clearly visible through the optics, and it is still empty — the mukliks saw us on the slope and hid. However, one appeared, stood on its hind legs, ears pricked up, looked around, and flew over the hills: "Kli-kli-mukli, Kli-kli-mukli." At the same time, the animal shuddered all over its body in a funny way.

"Eugene, calm down. Distance: half a thousand and thirty. Wind: five, headwind. Drop: twelve down,— Grandpa mumbled. I'm calm, the middle shield has suppressed emotions. I put the risks in the crosshair, here's the animal in the crosshair, and I clearly realized: I'm going to miss, 530 meters is almost the maximum distance for a carbine. Fuck, fuck, fuck! The shield slides off, and goosebumps crawl down my spine. What should I do?! What if... I put on a full shield, the emotions turned off, the picture slowed down, the chirping of pseudo-grasshoppers turned into a mournful rasp, the rustle of a pencil on a pipe, the heavy breathing of Nain and the grandfather's voice, as if from a pipe, are heard, low, low.

"W-i-i-i-n-d: th-r-e-e, s-i-i-i-d-e-e-w-a-a-y-y-s o-n-c-o-m-i-ng, o-n th-e r-i-gh-t."

I aim the scope, muklik stands, the ears turn slowly, the crosshair is slightly to the left and higher. Words cannot convey my state — my head is like a calculator, the equations are solved by themselves, it is only necessary to pay attention to a particular problem. I pull the bracket -BOOM! — the butt pushes into the shoulder, I see a bullet flying, hitting muklik in the neck, just below the head, piercing through, throwing out a reddish cloud at the exit. The animal falls, its hind legs twitch. There are zero emotions of my own, only the joy of my grandfather and sister is felt nearby. I close my eyes, take off my shield. Oh-h! Rollback started!.. I want to jump, yell and fool around! With an incredible effort, I hold myself in place. Nain, overcome with emotion, bites my neck and whispers fervently in my ear:

"Well, you're doing great!"

Grandfather's voice:

"Good girl, Eugene!" and there is love and pride in feelings.

We switch places with Nain: my sister lies down in my place and looks at the scope, and I pick up the binoculars. This army binoculars is a good thing: comfortable, in a soft plastic case, non-breakable, with a built-in rangefinder, as well as wind, humidity and temperature sensors. It's both day and night, and it also has a thermal imager.

"Nain, my girl, breathe! Breath control, inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale! Clever girl! Imagine that you are a holly bush. Standing here, rustling the leaves, you're calm and unperturbed," Grandfather says slowly. "You don't care about the mukliks, let them run."

Under the recitation of her grandfather, Nain calmed down, serenity crept into her feelings.

"Distance: five thousand forty. Wind: two, sideways, on the left. Drop: eleven down."

The sound of sight rollers is heard. Nain is calm, breathing evenly. I look through binoculars — not far from the lying one, another muklik sticks out, anxiously looks around and, shuddering, pulls: "Kli-kli-mukli, kli-kli-mukli!". Silence, the soft whistling of the wind in the grass, even Gina is sitting, not drawing. DAMM! I'm startled. Muklik is thrown back, he shudders a couple of times and falls silent.

"Ah, I got it, I got it!" Nain shouts. We jump up, hug, laugh, shout and jump at the same time.

"Ah, well done! Oh, my beauty!" Grandpa shouts, laughing. "Come here, my hunters, my grandfather's delight!" and hugs us both.

Gina looks at us, feeling a little envy and, for some reason, regret. Grandfather turns around, looks at her, smiles, lets us go and sits down next to her. Hugs her and speaks softly:

"Hunting can be taught. Yes, it's long and tedious, but you can make a hunter out of anyone! And you can't teach how to draw like you, sweetheart. So you're a hundred times more expensive than any hunter!"

Gina has snuggled up to her grandfather's side and is looking at him with love and adoration.

"And you magpies, what are you waiting for? Now snuffle will appear — you will only say goodbye to the loot! Come on, get after the shot!"

And we are skipping, shouting and hooting, rushing towards the hill, followed by the glances of grandfather and girlfriend.