Chapter 4.
Aliens.
Every time I went to swim in the river in the summer, I noticed the most curious badger right next to the meadows.
He was already quite old. He had something like a small workshop, where he dug around all day long, with some very old wagon.
Moving away from the main business, from work, grandfather badger could finally take up his favorite hobby.
Yes, the workshop became a second home for him. Next to the workshop there was an old house, the same old, but very energetic marten.
They were friendly since their youth, and it was very interesting and reverent to watch, how they took care of each other.
Every day, Badger, despite the lack of money, tried to make some improvement in the mechanisms of the cart.
It looks like he succeeded. Despite her venerable age, she looked great.
He needed it not even as a means of transportation, but as an object itself.
One evening, passing by his most interesting workshop, he greeted.
We were not familiar with him, and it surprised me a little. Although there was nothing unusual about this.
In our area, the inhabitants, as a rule, look rather harsh, but at heart they are very friendly.
I approached and we got to talking. I immediately told that I had noticed for a long time with what enthusiasm he relates to various techniques and design.
Then, in order to somehow keep the conversation going, I started talking about some sheer nonsense.
The fact is that when I am in some beautiful place at night, I always gaze into the blackness. Watching the stars, if I'm lucky enough to see a burning meteorite sparkling like an arrow.
But most of all, peering into the sky, I try to notice them - aliens ..
During our conversation, I noticed that he somehow intently looking somewhere through narrowed shining eyes. As if during the conversation, his thoughts were not here.
Finally, he seemed to wake up and said:
- Perhaps I agree, that there is no other such exciting and at the same time romantic question as the question of another life on other planets.
Every time, everyone, young and old, peering into the sky, asked themselves this question.
- And how many books and films have been written about them! How many different glass and various other tubes are directed into the sky in order to catch even the slightest signal, even the slightest hint! How many young badgers dream of flying into deep space! How many discussions are going on among scientific Wizards!
- And all is in vain. The boundless blackness of the starry sky keeps an ominous silence.
- The famous paradox arises.
The more we peer and search, the more ominous the silence.
- The thing is, that secret is not accidental.
- Since you started this conversation. Seeing your despair, I will tell you what I know myself.
- I sincerely feel sorry for those, who live with hope all their lives, but never learn anything.
- I really understand such creatures and they are very close to me in spirit.
- The problem, as always, they are all looking in the wrong place.
- Not there??? And where, if not among the blackness and the stars to look for them ??
- Most ingenious riddles have equally ingenious answers.
- So, I said, more and more not understanding, what the old badger was driving at.
- The genius of any riddle is the answer has nothing to do with it.
- I do not understand anything, but can you say more precisely? burning with impatience and with some supplication, I asked.
- The answer to this question is like everyone else ... in us.
- In us ??? I sat down on the bench by the cart.
- Yes, in us ... We are the key. Let's assume that extraterrestrial life exists. Therefore, we are also aliens for it. Right?
- Of course ... I answered
- So we have all the qualities and properties of aliens, the same basic laws and problems.
- So. All the kingdoms of our planet are inhabited by inhabitants. The inhabitants perform a very important function, work for their native star, without even knowing it.
- It is something like a living, fairly homogeneous organism. A bond without which no party can exist.
- This law is the same everywhere - take a closer look at the sky, all that you see is one interconnected organism in which nothing happens spontaneously.
- It means ..., something squeezed in my chest and somehow awkward and inappropriate moment, tears came through my eyes.
- This means, that with absolutely every star that you see, there is life.
- This life can be expressed in absolutely different forms. It may not be biological life either.
- The stars are all different, the conditions of existence are different, the tasks of the creatures that are attached to them are also different.
- The law is the same - they all perform some kind of work, function for their native stars.
- Nothing in this world that you see happens just like that, by accident.
- So, for sure among them there are some super beings who also know about us !!
- Of course! exclaimed the old constructor.
- So why don't they come to visit us, why don't they make themselves felt ???
- The old badger patted me on the shoulder in a fatherly way.
- The answer is also here ..
- Here???
Yes ... You see this blackness, this absolutely lifeless vacuum around our planet. You see all the impossibility of any meaningful movement in space. Do you see the incredible challenges the Wizards face even as they put their wagons into orbit ???
- All in vain ...
- If the rulers understood some things related to space, it would be possible to save huge amounts of money, and not bother the inhabitants with nonsense.
- You ask Why don't aliens come to visit.
- This is the wrong question. Learn to ask the correct ones. The correct question is:
- Why should they actually come to us? Is this part of their function, work?
- Why should they come to us? - Become acquainted? Make friends with families? For interest? That was not boring? Maybe for some business ???
Here we burst out laughing at the very absurdity of the question.
- They do not have such a function, to fly to visit each other.
- That is why this infinity of irresistible space was created, like an antiseptic, like an immune system, like a buffer that protects the body from the spread of infection.
- And what, we will never see each other ? I asked longingly.
He was silent for a long time, as if pondering something.
“You know,” he replied. I know, that there are always exceptions ..
- In some incredible situations, with the most urgent need, interstellar contact of some individuals is possible, but this is too complex topic and not for us.
For a long time I could not recover from the conversation with the old badger.
The very fact of the existence of endless life in the Universe overshadowed everything. But the impossibility of contact, of course, upset.
Without understanding the road, I wandered home.