– Belief! – Bugaev screamed.
– Ignat!
The bright flash of magnesium blinded Jim. He heard as snow under Ignat’s legs began to creak.
– Why you did not report about the arrival? – Vera asked.
Jim understood that the girl who was him in dazzling flash of magnesium also was “the snow queen” – the engineer Vera Kolosova.
15. Father Frost
– This the real ice city – Ignat exclaimed.
Jim with surprise looked at an unprecedented show. On the bank of the frozen sea there was the whole town of dome-shaped ice houses. Lit with bright electric light, they had an extraordinary appearance as if houses of the fantastic city of the unknown planet. Ice houses-kupoly had no windows. Several steps cut from huge bricks of ice conducted to a low and narrow door. Between houses people in fur clothes wandered and dogs ran. At the sight of strangers of a laika began a bark, but immediately waved tails.
– Where here Verkhovsky’s house? – Ignat asked the counter Eskimo.
– Father Frost? – the Eskimo smiled and pointed to the ice dome differing in nothing from others.
Jim and Ignat approached to the door. It was veiled by cervine skins from within.
– There is no electric call – Ignat told, inspecting a door. – To knock on an ice wall – will not hear. It is necessary to enter without report. – And he tried to raise a skin. But it was densely attached.
– Now I will open – Verkhovsky’s voice was heard. The edge of a skin rose. Having bent, Ignat and Jim entered the dwelling. They were met by the owner, the meteorologist Verkhovsky. Having looked at his big gray-haired beard, Ignat grinned and told:
– You here Father Frost are called. It for your gray-haired beard?
– And not only for a beard – the old scientist similar to toy fir-tree Father Frost answered. – I fight against a frost here and I operate it on a potreba of the person. You sit down, guests you will be, I will tell.
On it there was a jersey, leather trousers and pima. Guests looked round. The interior of the ice house was so original, as well as its appearance.
– As if under a dome of observatory you are – Ignat noticed.
– This modernized “needle” – the Eskimo dwelling – Father Frost told – in a most up-to-date way equipped.
The modern equipment consisted in electric lighting, an electric oven, a plate. On a wooden floor there was a dining table with three chairs. At an entrance door – “kitchen”. Along vaulted walls the table ring having a gap only at a door for pass in the room lasted. On a table – books, meteorological devices, heaps of papers, magazines. Over this infinite table there was an iron rod on which it is possible to move an electric bulb to any place.
– And electric kitchen at you what for? Unless you not in the public dining room have dinner?
– You will sometimes be earned, there is no wish to go, I prepare houses – the meteorologist answered. – Here a ventilation outlet, you see? And light-, and warmly, and air good.
And Verkhovsky told a story of the ice city.
– I arrived with the first party of builders here. It was necessary to live in tents. It was in the summer. We were brought here by the ice breaker. In the afternoon in tents was even hot, at night coldishly. But also in the summer sometimes the snowball dropped out. After us there had to arrive the steamship with food and forest construction material. But jammed it. Our ice breaker went to revenue It made the way through heavy ices very slowly. And the winter was on a nose. It was necessary to undertake something not to appear in tents to winter frosts. But what you will undertake here? The strip of the woods lies far in the south. We had several trucks, saws, axes. Counted – not to manage to cut down, take out, construct. While thought-guessed, the frost knocked. The coast froze, the rivers froze. Here the thought also came to my mind: it is necessary to build houses of ice. – Verkhovsky waved a hand on a ceiling. – As though simple piece, and it is not so simple to put such house. I set our architects – Verochka Kolosova and her assistants – for drawings and calculations. It was necessary to draw precisely a figure of each ice “brick” from which then it would be possible to put these vaulted houses.
For them it was the task like that which was resolved by the famous Italian architect Brunelleski when he projected a dome Florentine “дуомо” – a cathedral. But, however, nothing – coped our Brunelleski. To tell the truth, the first a needle left such that Eskimos, likely, would laugh. It is good that material painfully pliable. There you will chop off, there you will fill in with water, a frost will take – that your concrete. Remarkable material. And here, on our happiness, and Eskimos came. And what you think? This builders! Did of house snow on own arshin – a palm yes a mitten. One Eskimo cuts out a form of bricks on snow, other of these bricks builds the snow house. The house directly in the eyes grows. Whether you trust, for half an hour on the house did. Inside a scraper will scratch, will level – and it is ready. The stove bench snow will be built, on it skins outlined. The door is closed by an ice block. Will light three-four lamps on seal fat – heat will become so that undressed it is possible to go. In the spring when the arch begins to melt, holes thawed patches stop up with new snow bricks.
So we built the first ice settlements and this winter lived the real Eskimos. We had flour, crackers.
But there was not enough meat, fats. And here to us Eskimos and Chukchi helped to hunt an animal. We had guns. Provided with meat, fat of. Also were lit with fat, fat and отоплялись, and ate fat.
However, several people got sick with a scurvy at us without habit to such food. Reported about it on radio. To us on airplanes vitamin medicines delivered. And all patients got on feet soon.
But nevertheless this first winter was heavy.
Brought construction materials in the summer. Them to deliver hard here. Here I also thought: why don’t we use local construction material at all – ice – where it is only possible? Talked to our engineers, discussed this business and developed the real ice industry. Columns support for temporary conducting of electricity were seen? Ice. These houses – a needle – ice. Teplyaki on buildings and some works – ice… It is necessary to tell about these teplyaka separately. Now I will prepare tea.
– Too ice?
– Hot.
– To us it is not cold – Ignat told. – Here even our tropical Jim and that, apparently, does not freeze. You did not freeze, Jim?
– Did not freeze, and hot to tea I will drink – Jim answered, shrinking.
– But tell, please – Ignat asked a question – from internal heat, from your electrokitchen unless ice walls do not melt?
– Of course, melt a little, but an utter nonsense. If on centimeter two in a month melt what it means at a wall thickness in meter? And if thawed more, the trouble is not big. Pour from above water, the new ice layer will accrue. Only also put that by spring your ice izba in an internal cubic capacity will win – will become more spacious. So I wanted to tell about teplyaka.
– Forgive, I interrupt you – Jim told. – Here permafrost moved us from wooden witness marks and destroyed it. And there cannot be it?
– About permafrost there will be a special conversation? So far I will tell only one: the izba was under construction on frozen soil, and a needle is under construction on the ice base. Ice – the bad conductor of heat. It does not allow to be warmed to the soil and to be swollen out. So about teplyaka.
What here, on Far North, we had to fight most of all against? With cold and a gloom. Well, we suffered only the first winter from a gloom. Installed in the summer wind-driven generators which gave us the first energy, and with it and light. Then the station of underground gasification, and further not far off and the temperature station – our main goal earned. Now we have enough light. And it was necessary to tinker with cold. It is impossible to conduct construction on Far North only in short polar summer. So and in two hundred years of everything that we started, you will not build. It was necessary to resolve by all means a question of a year-round construction season. Business as though and not it terrible. In fur clothes warmly. But in it it is difficult to work in the open air. The main thing – hands. In fur mittens it is inconvenient. It is not work any more – bear paws. Well, our many workers, especially from alien, also removed mittens: in work supposedly hands will not freeze. Till the native winter, on the frosts measured. And here as will take, you iron – hands and are freezed. – Verkhovsky sighed. – Several people so on imprudence of hands lost. Gangrene – also cut off fingers, and even all brush. Of course, we began to build wooden teplyak at once. But there was not enough tree. Here again remembered ice. Light board or plywood тепляк water you will pour – and it is ready. Does not pass heat. And then and entirely learned to build of ice. “The plant of ice casting” was opened. From thin sheets of iron of forms made a large number. Water of a form you will pour, on a frost you will expose – it is ready. Froze. Then in the warm room you will bring them that walls a bit thawed, and take out freely. Here to you an ice column with grooves. Here to you ice board of any size and thickness. You will start an ice board in a groove of an ice column, water you will flow – and it was soldered without the slightest crack. But with water without habit too stories left. Water on a frost – that fire. To one worker naked hands poured, they in ice ingots addressed at once. It was necessary to thaw carefully. Incidentally from a hose warm water poured over another. It turned into an ice statue. It is good that the face was not filled in. Speaks, even laughs, to it it became even warmer under skins, and cannot set either a hand, or a leg. And to the earth froze. It was necessary to cut down it from an ice pedestal, in тепляк to carry and there to thaw.
Gradually seized also ice production. For teplyakam warehouses for provisions began to do. In the summer of geese, ducks we will fill; polar bears – all the year round shoot. And in ice warehouses. On ice columns ice regiments, an ice roof, ice fences… With these fences the funny thing at us left. We built them above human height and thickness in a quarter of meter. The bear should not get (our warehouses stand on the suburb). And products began to vanish. It is visible, bears managed. And lighting electric did not save, even electrograggerses did not help. We began to watch. And what you think? Bears sapped. Both breathe, and lick, and scrape claws ice and eventually will do a manhole. It was necessary to do then more thickly ice walls and with a slope. Couple of bears was hit on the crime scene. Then their marauding came to an end. After all and now alien bears still get, go around warehouses. And local we are known. Close are not shown. Like border now at us: we see them, they – us, and they do not cross the border.
After warehouses we undertook construction of ice roads for a snowmobile. Beauty! One hundred and fifty kilometers per hour you fly. Arrow.
– Snow the way does not sweep up?
– Yes in these latitudes in general rainfall is not enough. The cloth of the ice road is a little raised that wind blew off snow. No, does not stir snow.
– And bridges?
– Wow! And bridges ice. By all means sweep. Well, here. The ice sculpture came for the ice industry. Verochka Kolosova was the real sculptor. In free time it began to cut busts from ice. Made a polar bear. Beauty. And I suggested a thought to it – to make a metal form. Found clays, it molded Lenin and Stalin’s big busts, cast a compound pig-iron form that did not break off, and began to fabricate busts from ice. Now these busts in each polar settlement, in each reindeer-breeding collective farm, in each reserve.
Also the ice recreation park is remarkable.
– Park? – mistrustfully Ignat asked.
– The park – Verkhovsky confirmed. – And when only children managed to build all this?! Funny. Ice fantastic trees. Ice towers. Inside – the course upward, and on a cone surface, from top to down, the screw, a spiral – an ice path for the sledge. Ice roller coaster and what! You will move down down – and there some more kilometers from dispersal you rush. Skating rinks with catapults for skaters. Catapults are, of course, not ice. Palace of miracles. The right, the real palace, to three floors, with halls inside and intricate turrets outside! And in each hall – the fancy things made of ice. Both statues, and animals, and even woods. Furniture is ice, on walls bas-reliefs. With electricity it is lit, you will enter in the evening – beauty. Magic. The fairy tale from “Thousands and one night”. A miracle which you will not find and you will not create in the warm countries.
Think, it is only water, the frozen water. Here what does a frost!
No, whatever you may say, a frost – it is remarkable piece. How it at Pushkin?.
…mighty winter,
As the vigorous leader, conducts
On us shaggy teams
The frosts and snow…
Or at Nekrasov: “Moroz voivode a patrol bypasses the possession”. Of course – the voivode. With it do not joke. But if was able to undertake it, then and he from the voivode in our servant will turn back. Here we will build the temperature station and a frost to the public, in heat, we will turn into work.
– And all your ice city with a spring will thaw as the Snow Maiden – Ignat told.
– Will thaw – Verkhovsky as if he also really was Father Frost mourning death of the kingdom heaved a deep sigh! – Will thaw. As you will think of it is melancholy will take. Whether you trust, at me begins to suck in the pit of the stomach when the sun for the summer turns and because of the horizon is shown. No, the right, is a pity. Here this short summer to anything. It is not enough from it joy.
– Or perhaps will also not thaw! – suddenly he shouted and derisively looked at Ignat.
– Whether you read about such project: to arrange among the Atlantic Ocean the artificial island airport from ice? In warm climate, in the warm sea! Ice should be done artificial there – refrigerators, keeping it under heat insulation… And freezing of the soil at large earthwork? Here, eventually, only energy is necessary. We will be rich with it soon, and then, I think, we will keep on all the year round our many ice constructions.
– To you to move to the South Pole. There ice does not thaw also in the summer.
– Let’s reach also Youzhny, give term. There, likely, for us still such riches under an ice cover are hidden about which we also do not dare to imagine.
Here and tea is ready, here fresh bear’s flesh. Excellent piece. We killed this bear last year, and watch what fresh meat.
– But in the summer your refrigerators thaw – Ignat was surprised.
– And we, smart guy, store only such stock of provisions which is necessary to us for the winter in them. By then, as begins to grow warm, and warehouses become empty. And we store all other stocks in permafrost. There meat at least thousand years fresh will lie. Heard about the mammoth found in permafrost? Its meat so well remained that wolves and dogs of its fir-tree. They say, and some scientist tried mamontyatina. Here and permafrost on something was useful though it also causes many troubles to our Verochka.
– And there is a lot of it, this permafrost? – Jim asked.
– Whether there is a lot of? Perhaps, Florid about one hundred will get. The southern border of permafrost goes from Mezen through Berezov on Turukhansk, goes out of the USSR, appears at Blagoveshchensk again, turns on the South, small Hingan bends around, creeps to the southern parts of the Sea of Okhotsk…
– Why such broken border?
– Depends on the different reasons: from thickness of snow cover, from the soil, humidity, from height above sea level.
Skins at doors began to move.
– Brought someone else. – The old man opened a fur door. – And – and-and, Verochka. And we just spoke about your deadly enemy.
– About what enemy? – Kolosova asked. Her cheeks from a frost burned. Hoarfrost on a hat and a fur collar quickly turned into brilliant droplets.
– Well, what enemy at you? Of course, not the person. All the person love our Verochka. Permafrost – here your enemy.
– Ah and. It is right. – The girl sighed.
– What, again? – Verkhovsky asked.
– Again – the girl sadly answered.
– Well what to do. The enemy is strong, as they say, but we will win against him, Verochka. Sit down with us, drink, tell.
The girl waved a hand.
– Not to tea to me. I would like that you looked, Verkhovsky… when terminate tea to have – she added, having had a look at Ignat, with appetite who was eating greedily smoked bear’s flesh and washing down pieces with hot tea.
– We now. We already finish – Ignat told, quickly chewing a piece. – We will go too.
All quickly put on and came to a frost.
16. Fine vision
Ignat and Jim got over in hotel. In number there were two more persons – the representative Soyuzkinoradio who arrived to arrange sound telecinema, and the ethnographer “with a linguistic bias” as he introduced himself. He came to study the northern people and tried to discover root communication of their languages with languages of North America. He was convinced that the American Indians came to America from Asia through an isthmus which existed once on the place of the Bering Strait. The ethnographer arrived from Votyatsky edge where he studied votyak.
Jima it was uninteresting to listen to stories of the ethnographer about votyaka. He was interested in the film technician Kostin, cheerful, strongly sutulovaty cripple more (the left leg at it was shorter than right). From the constant movement along a crutch on big and index fingers of Kostin there were callosities.